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August 31, 2005

Storage Deficiency

So, very cool that the stores now show up on the maps, especially since you can now click on them and home in via the Nav bar.

But ...

Why the heck do they just show a generic "store" icon? I mean, it makes a lot of difference what kind of store you go to, cost-wise. Not all stores are the same. So why not, like Vidiots, show the store type?

As I noted in another thread, why would folks *not* know where certain stores are? Are there no Yellow Pages? No Google Maps? Nothing that ties into the comm system? Heck, no 411 to call to get directory assistance?

I have to see if Vidiots has updated maps (they have) and download them. Hopefully the new icons won't overlay the useful symbols.

Posted by Dave at 8:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

The Night of a Million Zillion Archers

And a Million Zillion Sonics, too. All of whom are named things that include the word "Sonic," "Shriek," "Noise," "Scream," etc. Or for the former, things that include the word "Bow," "Arrow," "Shaft," etc. Or, of course, misspelled/cleverly-spelled versions thereof.

Or there's always my own contribution (on Triumph), Big Lungs. Guess what type of blaster she is ...

Posted by Dave at 7:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design

Only Heroic

According to Statesman's Issue 5 Address, one thing I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere ...

We are automatically reducing every character's Reputation to "Heroic" – the base setting. This change will allow players whose powers have been altered to become used to their abilities before tackling tougher foes.

Makes a lot of sense to me (and, for the unaware, may make the nerf bat seem less ... nerfable).

Also note that ...

In addition, we've gone through the mission maps and redone spawn placements to prevent situations where a hero would be overwhelmed.

That makes a whole load of sense, too. Actually, I wish there were more randomization of spawn locations -- too many maps, I'm all, "Oh, there will be guys ... right ... there!"

Posted by Dave at 5:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Tanker-Doo!

To go with the Scrapper defense numbers, here are the Tanker defense numbers.

There are various ways -- 6-slotting a slew of things -- to hit the 90% DmgRes cap with Invuln, but only for smash/lethal. En/El can only get up to 40% or so.

I still find it ... ironic that Fighting/Tough resists physical damage twice as well as Invuln/Resist Physical Damage.

I know where my respec with Velvet is going ...

Posted by Dave at 1:59 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

YOUR DOOM IS UPON YOU!

Per CuppaJo this morning:

Heroes -

Issue 5 is here! Tomorrow morning (Sept 1) we will be distributing one free respec and one free costume change to all characters. This gives you time to use any current free respec you have since tomorrow's respec will overwrite any unused free respec.

Again, that is tomorrow - Sept 1 that these will be distributed.

It's unclear if that means that I5 is live right this second, or will be as of tomorrow.

(It appears to be the former.)

Hmmm. Bad night to have to clean for guests arriving tomorrow. :-)

On the other hand -- given the "free costume" token, I'd steer clear of Icon in Steel any time through the weekend. And the one in IP may be pretty swamped, too.

Posted by Dave at 10:10 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

Remember, man, that dust thou art ...

Got on with Psi-clone and Amorpha last night.

1. Did the Level 30 costume mish. PC spent an absurd amount of money to simply take off his jacket and roll up his sleeves. I'd really love to come up with something "heroic" for him to wear, but he's just not the Spandex type, and I'm not thrilled with the non-Spandex uniforms on him. So he's stuck in various forms of mufti.

   Margie did some stuff with Amorpha I'll let her describe.

2. Amorpha dinged 35.

   Psi-clone might have as well, except for getting freaking killed by a Crey attack after we got the costume mish. This despite (a) warnings by Margie not to exit Icon until after she was outside and (b) having Empathy and green chicklets out the wazoo. As I've said, it's a game of mistakes. Dagnabbit. First death for him in some time.

   One Crey Juggernaut we missed tracked us all the way back to the Talos train station where we were having a nice chat with Shock Therapy. We disposed of him there with no more debt.

3. More ambushy goodness from the CoT as we pursued some magic gewgaw or another in Brickstown. Didn't die that time.

Posted by Dave at 8:00 AM | Comments (13) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

August 30, 2005

Badges? We don't need no steenkin' badges!

I enjoy bitching about the devs as much as the -- well, no, some folks like bitching about them way more than I do. They even seem to make a hobby of it.

I do get a lot of amusement when you contrast a thread like this (wherein you learn that Badges are the only thing worthwhile and that not retroactively giving new badges to the folks who have accomplished TFs/trials/kills that will give badges as of I5 is tantamount to being screwed by the devs with an broken bottle) to a thread like this (wherein you learn that Badges are worthless and that the devs having nerfed Phase Shift to prevent folks from stealthing missions with it and getting "unearned" Badges is also like being screwed with a broken bottle because Badges are worthless).

UPDATE: Important enough, evidently, for Positron to open a new thread on it and respond a couple of times already. The good news: the Shard TF is likely going to get redesigned to be a bit less of a grind (so described by some).

Posted by Dave at 1:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Scrapper-Doo!

Preliminary/draft analysis of numbers for I5 and Scrapper defenses.

Yikes! Glad I already dropped (not for this reason) OFFICER, since Super Reflexes truly looks to be the suck for I5 (and it wasn't any great shakes before then). With Focussed Fighting, Dodge, and Weave fully 6-slotted with even SOs, the Defense is 46%; while that's fine against an even-level minion, who has 50% TH, it looks like a great way to get really dead against anything higher (since, with Defense, if it hits, it does full damage).

Over on the Invinvicibility front (calling Mr. Azure and Kazima ...) we're looking at being unable to hit the Resistance Cap of 75%, even fully slotting all our Lethal/Smash Defenses (Unyielding, Resist Physical, Temp Invuln, totals only 70%). But you can hit the cap with ... Tough. Which, of course, is in the Fighting pool. Which means you can't be Invulnerable without using a generic power from outside the Invuln power set. Right.

I don't know the Regen stuff well enough to comment (that's Amorpha's bailiwick, though Lynn is beginning to get up there in levels), let alone Dark Armor (Araware). Good article, though; looking forward to the final version (read from the bottom, as there are several revisions in-stream).

(via Doyce)

Posted by Dave at 12:51 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

August 29, 2005

Lynntime

Margie was busy with building a new character (Hildegard, a replacement for Ebon Maze) as well as testing some respec changes on Amorpha in anticipation of I5, so I spent the afternoon and evening play sessions with Lynn Calodo.

Despite being only an Ally, I had little trouble finding folks who were interested in my help by, well, asking if anyone was. That included getting SKed way over my level (from 13 to 25 or so), which was fun except for the whole Lack of Travel Powers to Get Across IP thing.

Still, had fun, and managed to ding Lynn all the way from just into 13 to 6 pips into 14 (and now I can actually Travel via Super Jump, so I'm a happy camper).

Let me think: afternoon was teaming with Caledonian and Darkest-Nite. Evening was teaming with Steel Giant, briefly with Callypsa, then later with Chaos Girl and Tejavo (?).

Endless slog against Devouring Earth, though, the last mission running at least 2 hours of non-stop punching against orange, red, and purple DEs. At that, I think I was still useful.

Avoided the copious open chat on Noelle being kidnapped (I'll leave the irony of that event's timing for the conspiracy-minded out there). Preferred the light RP of our own sessions. And the XP, of course.

Lynn's doing great in her role as my "unpartnered alt" for when Margie's otherwise busy. Only died once yesterday, and that whilst soloing -- as with most scrappers, she can be unexpectedly fragile sometimes. But still fun to play and team with, even though I've now seen Lesser Devoured a lot closer than I ever have with Psi-clone.

Posted by Dave at 6:13 AM | Comments (25) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

August 28, 2005

Knockdown

I was just thinking about suggesting to the devs a enhancement type: Knockdown.

It already exists as an attribute to attacks, so the reprogramming would be minimal. It would do different things, though, depending on what it was slotted to:

1. For a power that already has knockdown, it would increase the chance moderately (per damage and acc).

2. For a power that does damage but doesn't do knockdown, it would add a moderate percent chance (per the above case) to do so (if it's a non-kinetic attack, assume that it causes muscle spasms, or a weakness of the knees and brief dizziness)

3. For a power that does knockback, it does a large percentage transfer of KB chance to KD chance (e.g., you figure out how to take folks legs out from under them, etc.). Suddenly, energy blasters can (if they choose to invest) remove a major weakness of their power, etc.

Overall, this provide another way for folks to differentiate their powers and tactics without introducing new powers.

Thoughts? Like to make this coherent before I offer up the suggestion.

Posted by Dave at 2:56 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

City of RL Endurance Drop

So I've been planning for Honeygun's return for a while now. A while longer than I'd planned, if that made sense. But recently I started doing stuff with her new self, Taste of Honey, and Margie's "companion" charcacter, Ebon Maze, on a casual basis.

Then the suggestion came up of doing the Transcendence Trial this weekend (before I5 hits). And it was suddenly, horribly, blindingly clear that Honey must do that. It was the obsession that had driven her to extremes, that had gotten her into trouble, turned her into a Dark/Dark Defender, and now (it was obvious) she needed to do this to reach personal completion -- and maybe even get her a bit out of the trouble she was in.

So this past week became Get Taste of Honey Up in Levels Week. She was at 9. Over the course of the week, we managed to get her up to 12 -- barely enough for the trial, but ...

Friday night would be the big push. Then Margie suggested that we should do Positron. We could duo it, get Big Prizes, and get Honey up into comfortable level range for the Trial, which schedules had pieced together for Saturday.

Well, it was a great plan, and would have been still better if we'd managed to get started before 8:30p. At that, it was great fun. Margie brought along Kazima, who would be doing the Trial, so as to get back used to her. Positron takes three to begin, so Margie was recommended to Lady Photon as a starter, which was fine, since she's always fun. We just got started kind of late.

Lady P ended up rejoining us on the second mish, and ran through to the very end. It all went great, aside from wrapping around 4 a.m., and at the end of it, Honey was at 15, the top level for the Trail. W007! Perfect!

Too perfect, as it ended up.

I made a few intentional design decisions with Honey as we proceeded. I'd decided a while back on Recall Friend, but as I played with Stealth, and thought of the Trial, I realized that Invis was a must for the tunnels. So that's what I took for 14, rather than a travel power. Hated life, but I knew ...

Margie did all the leg work and organization for the Trial, since I was (a) the Mystery Guest, and (b) not in the CoJ, and thus not in SG or Coalition Chat.

It was a faboo group -- Honey and Kazima, Hyperthermian, Synoptic, Kinetica, Dubh Bas, Mal Bot 2300, Shock Therapy. And the Trial went flawlessly (once we shuffled players to actually have someone along who *had* the mission, which is why we ended up with a Malbot). Honey's powers were perfect. I scouted the Troll Caverns (since I didn't have the map any more) on Invis beforehand, and went straight to the Trial entrance to bring the group to her (as soon as she remembered to drop Invis). BD's Dubh Bas -- another Dark/Dark -- also had RF, so he was able to help with gathers.

We went in, we cleared out the main floor by the numbers -- Hyperthermian at the center, everyone else blasting/punching/slicing away. Then Honey started Invising into each tunnel, RFing folks to obelisks, etc. In the two cases where there were CoT right at the Obelisk, I brought Hype in to clear them out.

Two tries to click the Obs simultaneously, and we were on our way.

Prepped outside of Koaga's door, then charged in in and knocked him on his ass in under 30 seconds. Piece o' cake.

Only two regrets from the whole shindig:

1. No time for RP with Honey. Folks were mostly concerned with the mechanics of the mission (understandable) and Honey was key to the mechanics thereof and doing a lot of running around. And I hadn't had as much time to do the player/campaign prep as would have been ideal, either, so most of the players on the team weren't in tune to what was going on (and I'd inadvertently spoiled the surprise for BD earlier in the week). So the RP for her was perforce limited. Still got a bit in -- tearful eyes, and the like -- but a lot less than I'd been hoping for.

2. Stupid auto-exemp bug! Stupid, stupid, stupid. Level 15? Sorry, no XP for you! Good thing both doing the trial and getting the badge were important for Honey, because she got jack-all for it (which, to be fair, was true for most of the player). Still, felt somehow ... cheated, since it was a bug. Rrg.

Still, again, it was perfect. Already talk of doing it again with a bit different set of character and/or players, though I'm not sure Honey will want to go through that again.

Got Kitten down to bed after that, then played a bit more, but I found myself nodding off around 10:30p (having had to get up around 7:30a for Kitten), and bailed out early.

So, where now for Honey?

Oddly enough, I was complaining after the Trial to Margie that I was finding her power set annoying -- having to hit for a Heal is a PitA. On the other hand, as I was running Psi-clone later, I found myuself missing Tar Patch and Recall Friend, so maybe it's not so bad.

The Invis is great, and, even I5-nerfed, will be helpful for her. That means waiting for another full level to 16 for a travel power -- and it's a power I didn't originally have slotted for her. So not sure what's going to happen there.

Also need to think about pairings. Honey and Kazima work well together, but that leaves Torchielle out in the cold again. Margie's ambivalent about Ebon, not sure what's going to go on with him.

But at least Honey's back in the game. Now I just need to write up some stuff for her -- a *lot* of stuff -- and maybe get some folks involved in that.

But no more Positron at 8:30p. That's just crazy. :-)

Posted by Dave at 11:37 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

August 25, 2005

Behind the scenes with Manticore

UPDATE: Now with an actual link! Woo-hoo!

Manticore answers questions and feeds tantalizing hints of future CoH game content, including the return of Hero 1, attacks by the CoV villains and the Reichsman and 5th Column, the Avilians, and more.

Part of what's seriously (unfortunately) been overshadowed in all the game system tweaks of I5 is the content stuff -- the new Croatoa zone, the Troll Rave, the arson in Steel Canyons. Indeed, some of that stuff has been on Test for so long, that a measure of excitement over it has worn off. Folks are more forcused on which of their powers have been nerfed.

Unfortunate, because there are a lot of keen content bits in CoH, and that's what makes the game, more than the mechanics, interesting.

Posted by Dave at 10:54 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Talk about a timed mish ...

The government of China is forcing online game manufacturers to start coercing players to get off after 3 hours of play (and taking a 5 hour rest).

In China yesterday, the government agency that oversees the online game industry said that testing of a system to regulate the number of hours gamers spend online will be ready for deployment this October.

The system will impose penalties on players who spend more than three hours gaming online. The system is slated to be fully operational in late 2006 or early 2006 and will be compulsory for all massively multiplayer online role-playing and online casual games.

"This timing mechanism can prevent young people from becoming addicted to online games," Xiaowei Kou, the deputy director of the general administration of press and publication (GAPP), said during a press conference in Beijing.

According to the Interfax news service, an official arm of the Chinese government, the system reduces the ability level of a player's online game character if the game is played beyond the three-hour limit. Basically, play more than three hours and the system cuts a game character's ability by half. Play more than five hours and the system reduces a game character's ability to the lowest level possible.

Sounds like another reason not to move to China ...

Posted by Dave at 10:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: True Life

August 24, 2005

Statesman speaks! (Sort of)

LiveJournalist who got to speak with Statesman at GenCon as to the basis for some of the I5 changes:

What he explained to me is that he doesn't want teams or individuals rushing through the mission maps recklessly. He wants people to stop and think and discuss and figure out strategy. He doesn't want this to be a mindless game of beat up on things that an 8 year old could play, but rather a thinking person's game.

He is as frustrated with I am with the way most teams play of just plowing on through and not thinking. I explained to him that this is my problem with playing on large teams, and as a result I die more than when I solo and take my time going through missions. He said that this is the reason he's making these changes, to make people slow down and think.

One fellow said, "But I like to take on mobs solo on Unyielding." Statesman chuckled and said, "Well, you won't be able to do that." The guy (in his late teens, kid to me) shrugged and walked away.

I agree with Statesman on that, that would be unreasonable and make the rest of a team unnecessary if you could. solo on Unyielding or Invincible. Tenacious, he agreed, would be doable.

To compensate, the mobs will be more spread out and not as bunched up. Also, higher XP.

It sounds good in theory. I have been feeling like, really, in most missions I'm on the actual risk factor is really low if you simply don't make egregious mistakes. People can die, yes -- but most often when it happens it's because of a yo-yo move regarding drawing aggro or not having a toggle up. If you have the basics down, you usually (at least in most of the battles I'm in) don't have to do anything particularly smart, just not do anything particularly dumb. March in, do the preferred tactic you've used in the last several dozen encounters, bad guys go down. Lather, rinse, repeat.

And I'm not sure that's a good thing.

So ... if you make groups a bit harder, and a bit more varied (in size and composition), and space them out more, and make them worth more (and, on missions, make debt less) ... you may be making the game harder. If you have to stop and chat for a couple of seconds before charging into the next group with any more than a hurried "Ready," that might encourage more experimentation, and better gameplaying experience.

Or, put another way, blowing through the bad guys over and over again can be fun, but it can get boring. But you'd best not reduce the overall "experience per hour," otherwise folks will feel like they've become less effective. Increasing XP (and reducing XP debt) sounds like a good way to compensate.

I hope.

Posted by Dave at 1:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Being the Cool Kids

When Margie and I founded the Consortium, it was largely as an extension of our local CoH circle.

Mission: A convenient place for the non-aligned/SGed folks in the Hill-Kleerup ("Consortium") orbit to SG together (and thus see each other while online) -- a fancy, slightly less functional, but currently operating local version of Global Chat. (I'd ID it specifically for our Colorado group, but we'll likely open the doors to Avocet, too, at least. It is largely (for RL purposes) a social grouping; for RP purposes, it's a way to easily team up on stuff. RP for characters not required (but always fun).

As we moved into the orbit of the Alliance, that description had to change some, and it became more of a place for folks to do experimental character work -- alts, mostly. That was mostly for the benefit of Margie and myself, again, since we're both altaholics, and didn't want to have to justify that to any of the existing SGs (or delay in getting them tied into the Coalition Chat once we'd created them). It remained, with a couple of stray exceptions, mostly a place for our circle of friends, and often mostly for alts.

That's been changing in the last month or so. We've been getting a steadily increasing number of applications. They're generally alts still, including a growing pod of Kheldians, but the Consortium is becoming a lot more than just our vanity group. There are numbers there -- when I look at who's logged in on the SG page it's now often more than 2-3, more like 6-7. It's becoming a place where, to some degree, some of the cool kids hang out.

Wow.

I don't know how that will continue to change the Consortium. Two areas that come to mind:

1. We probably need to schedule more regular SG events and communications. The Consortium has always been RP-light, and as a largely alt-driven group we haven't had much identity and bonding after the initial admission. Perhaps we should look at evolving that a bit.

2. We (Amorpha and Psi-clone) probably need to consult with our folks a bit more often than we have over Alliance issues. Maybe. In general, I've felt comfortable speaking in the Royal We for the Consortium in Alliance Leadership discussions. Can I still say that's true, with the number of active members who are, frankly, *not* me? Granted, our group is mostly alts still, and many (though by no means all) of them have leadership roles in other SGs. Still, something for me to bear in mind.

3. Right now, the officers in the group are all me and Margie, in one body or another. Should I change that? Is there someone interested in more responsibility, and how comfortable do I feel with that?

In short, I feel a bit like we're moving from a family business to something a bit more corporate (appropriate enough). I'm not thinking of any significant changes, especially since I think it's the non-demanding, non-melodrama aspects of the Consortium that a lot of people are attracted to. But as we get bigger and more diverse, some changes will (and should) occur. I'm beginning to think about that.

And I'm noodling about it here rather than on the Consortium forum because, well, it's still in the noodling phase. :-)

Posted by Dave at 7:06 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Consortium of Justice

August 23, 2005

Ding-ding

Sure, it's a lot easier down at the lower levels, but it was still kinda cool that Fazenda and Araware managed to ding two full levels tonight (starting just in 6, ending just through 8).

Even managed to have some unexpected interaction with Malcalypse and Shade Dancer.

Posted by Dave at 10:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

"Well, what would you prefer? Yellow spandex?"

Well, here's a bad idea ...

A lot of folks have been clamoring for Supergroup bases. Why, I'm not sure, but I guess it would be a comic booky thing to do.

The assumption was that there would be some sort of Influence cost to have a base, but the latest rumor from GenCon is that it will be paid for by a new SG stat called "Prestige," generated by ...

... folks being in SG Mode. I.e., in their SuperGroup colors.

Oh, yuck.

Is there anyone out there who actually spends much time in SG mode? Most folks pay a lot of attention to what their hero looks like, and color schemes are part of that. (That some folks couldn't design a palatable uniform for themselves to save their souls is another matter.) To change over into the color scheme (at a minimum, the symbol) of the SG is usually jarring, and rarely pleasant.

I occasionally see folks show up, briefly, in SG mode to SG events. Depending on my hero, it either is just tolerable or is just plain yucky.

I mean, think about it.

---

IRON MAN: Well, Cap, we figured out a way to rebuild Avengers mansion.

CAP: That's great, Tony.

IRON MAN: Put this on.

CAP: What?

IRON MAN: It's your new Avengers uniform. See? It's the same design as your current one..

CAP: But I'm the symbol of America! I wear Red, White and Blue!

IRON MAN: I don't follow.

CAP: Well, who chose Red and Yellow as the Avengers' official colors?

IRON MAN: (Whistles innocently.)

CAP: I mean, who am I supposed to be, Captain Red China? Captain North Vietnam?

IRON MAN: Well, maybe we could change the colors, just for you ...

CAP: And there's -- where's my star? My chest star? Like the star on the American flag. There's an "A" here now?

IRON MAN: It's for Avengers.

CAP: I'm not wearing this!

IRON MAN: But we need the mansion! And it's not like you don't already wear an "A" on your damned forehead or something.

CAP: Then let me use that one, and leave the star!

IRON MAN: Sorry, Cap -- team insignia only go on the chest ...

---

Yeah. That's realistic.

Okay, so I understand the idea -- it's an extension of the Influence idea: as the citizenry recognizes an SG, they get the prestige that allows them to buy (or solicit from the city) a SG HQ.

But in Comic Book Reality, that doesn't come from wearing super-hero outfits or logos (esp. given the limited number of logos). The citizenry knows of the Avengers, or the Justice Leage, or, hell, the Power Company because they get interviews of heroes, and track who belongs to whom. It's the "common knowledge" embodied in the little SG name that floats over a hero's head.

Team uniforms kinda went out with the New Mutants.

Posted by Dave at 9:09 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

August 22, 2005

Manticore recap

Ran the Manticore TF on Saturday night. As a TF, it was pretty successful -- took us about 4-5 hours, I think, with only two deaths (both Amorpha, and both kind of fluky).

Gameplay-wise, it was only so-so. Since we had a higher-level Illusionist, Panik, with us, as well as a couple of other folks with area holds, a lot of what Psi-clone brings to the table was pretty limited. I basically stood back, fired off Leadership, and did Healing and RA for folks (all of which was also available from others).

It was kind of disturbing, thinking about how PC's build does or doesn't lend itself to large teams, vs. the duoing that I usually do with him.

Task Force write-up is here.

In other weekend news, did some running around and leveling with Fazenda/Araware. Current plans are to get them to 10 and apply for the Storm Knights.

Made a brief pro forma appearance with the Azures last night; Margie is pretty certain she's going to restart the Mrs. once I5 goes lives, doing her up with Sonics rather than FF. Not sure if that means I'll be PLing her via SK, or if I should restart the Mr., or what.

Had a rather keen idea related to the Transcendence Trial yesterday, and took steps toward implementing it. That's going to be a challenge, depending on timing.

Posted by Dave at 7:57 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

August 20, 2005

Baby's First Tesla Cage

Posted by Dave at 3:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: True Life

August 19, 2005

And new twists on Test ...

Various and sundry changes. The ones that stand out to me:

Banished Pantheon Summoned Husks no longer give experience when defeated. The Death Shaman has been given a slight increase in experience reward to offset this somewhat. Mentioned only because I sometimes encounter them. Were folks "farming" husks? Jeez.

Pool/Fitness/Health: now also grants you some resistance to Sleep. I've taken to taking this power on a number of alts, so I guess this is helpful.

Pool/Phase Shift: Although still a Toggle power, Phase Shift will desctivate if you leave it on for more than 30 seconds. Increased its Recharge Time. Mentioned only because folks are going apeshit over it on the boards.

Powers and Inspirations that resurrect will now leave the target protected from XP Debt (duration dependent upon the power). Now that's pretty cool. You can rez someone and if they get gacked too quickly, they don't get double debt. Nice.

All archetypes will now be able to reach their Max Defense sooner (was level 40, now level 20). Tankers now have a higher Defense cap than Scrappers and Kheldians. Scrappers and Kheldians have a higher Defense cap than all other archetypes. I guess that's good -- given that Defense has been clobbered so much.

Fixed text for Controller/Illusion/Group invisibility (regarding Defense suppression). Shudders.

Reduced Hold Duration of Freeze Ray, Bitter Freeze Ray and Tesla Cage (To bring it into line with other non-controller single targeted Hold powers). You be nerfed, too!

UI Add new slash command, /release_pets, that unsummons all of your pets. Yay! Later, Fred.

Game Players can push aside a pet, hostage or friendly NPC that blocks their way. Yay again!

For the most part, mostly quality of life issues coupled with some minor irks. For those looking at archery powers, a number of nerfs are included.

Posted by Dave at 2:57 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Statesman on Forcefields

I ... think I'll let Margie comment on this one. After I've plied her with Scotch. And a back rub.

Posted by Dave at 2:09 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

August 18, 2005

Tanks a lot

Updated INV data from Iron Vixen (from the "Weathering the Storm" INV (Tank) guide):

Interim test I5 resist numbers:

TI:30% to smashing/lethal (white SO is +6%)
Uy:5% to smashing/lethal, 10% to all other (non-psi) damage (white SO is +1% to S/L, +2% to all others)
R/El: 7.5% to Fire/Cold/Toxic (white SO is +1.5%)
R/En:7.5% to energy/negative energy (white SO is +1.5%)

Invinc now caps it's +def bonus at 14 mobs in melee Statesman puts the bonus at 1.5% per mob, our tests show it close to 3.5% per mob.

Tough Hide is 5% def base to non-psi, non-toxic, non-AoEs.

"What are we supposed to use? Harsh language?"

Posted by Dave at 5:24 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

The irony is killing me here

That even as I was contributing to discussions in the Alliance leadership yesterday regarding escalation of personal conflicts to various leadership and guidelines of how such conflicts should be resolved ...

... I was dealing with a real life HR issue on just that very theme.

I am here to assure that it is *much* easier to deal with even the most fractious and irritating CoH character/player than a real, live, employee.

Further deponent sayeth not.

Posted by Dave at 7:28 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Consortium of Justice

August 17, 2005

Design tweak

I've tweaked the individual archives to have a sidebar in them, both for informational/utility purposes, and to make the body of text look a bit better (shorter line length).

Posted by Dave at 8:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: This Blog

August 16, 2005

Manticore task force guides

• Gameamp guide
• Coldfront guide
• COHonline guide
• RPGexpert guide

Posted by Dave at 8:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Scattered

Amusing, in a "WTF" way ...

1. Amorpha got the Nemesis Staff (the Lollypop) on Saturday. She has yet to use it. Sunday was all the Respect Trial stuff. Yesterday was folks over at the house.

Tonight, though ...

2. So yesterday I thought to myself, "I'd love to do a TF with Amorpha and Psi-clone." So I researched the time slots available this coming weekend, looked up level-appropriate TFs for our characters, discussed it with Margie, and set up the invitation post for it in the Alliance planning area.

Of course, I completely forgot that we'd done it already.

Oh, well. Should still be fun, and with a different set of characters (besides us), it should play differently.

Posted by Dave at 7:18 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

August 15, 2005

In a bind

Okay, I want to do the rotating taunt thing that Doyce has documented (and can be found in the full-blown taunt guide here), but do it as a macro, so I can replace the taunt power button in my tray. But the rotating thing looks to be set up as only for binds, not for macros. Is there a similar bind_file sort of mechanism for macros?

Posted by Dave at 11:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

City of Alts!

Friday I played with my various alts on Triumph -- taking each out for another spin and getting a feel for them, as well as creating the haughty Amethyst Queen (Broadswoard/Inv scrapper), who would be fun to play "in production."

Actually ended up teaming up one of them -- Captain Antares (Energy/Energy blaster) with another odd group of three or four others (the number varied, which was one of the odd things). That I was the oldest person in the group (older than the total of the others, I suspect) also made it odd. (When anyone asks, "How old r u?" it's usually a bad sign.) Cap is another one I'd like to bring "live" onto Champion.

Friday night, Margie and I took Kazima and Torchielle out for a spin. Fun. Unlike previous instances, we felt a lot less "brittle" than before, and managed (both duoing and teaming up) to survive and thrive.

The Brunch-n-Brawl on Saturday has already been noted as another K&A show. Again, a lot of fun, some good XP, and some good teaming.

Margie and I got on again in the evening with Psi-clone and Amorpha, at last. We brought in Avocet on a mish (and kudos to him for bearing up with so much exemping down this weekend), then ended up getting pulled into a surprise birthday party for Callypsa. That's not the sort of RP I usually get into, but it was fun enough, and it introduced PC to Lady Photon, which might develop into something interesting down the line.

Most of yesterday was taken up with errands and house cleaning. We got on by 5, though, to run the TV Respec with Velvet and P-siren, as organized by Ode to Joy. Lord, what a slog. Team of 8, but everything, both prelim and at the reactor, was conning red and purple, and in copious numbers. Velvet was the sole tank -- along with one controller (Mal) and one blaster (Avo), and everyone else a defender of some sort (Ode, Sun of Glory, Agent 12, Doctor Rune, PS). Crikey. A couple of deaths, mostly when we managed to aggro the entire control room (due to an anchor who ran riot through the place) and had to duke it out for what had to have been 10-15 minutes. After that, the core was almost anti-climactic. Double-bubble goodness and enough XP to nearly level Velvet. (PS was hampered in levelling by some griefer TPing lvl 52 Nemesis to the Talos train station. Yikes.)

(PB commented that there'd been a lot of griefing over the course of the day. Wonder if the Summer Kids are winding up their stay ...)

Afterwards (and post-Kitten), we ended up on an odd team with Dr Awesome, Avo, and Zazi, along with ... hmmmm, memory's faded already. Anyway, Velvet was the sole tank again, and we rolled through some some missions without any real problem, getting Velvet through her last two bubbles to ding 28, the "Rage" level. Woo-hoo.

The irony about Sunday being a Velvet/PS day is that on Saturday night, during our one PC/A team (again, along with Zazi), Amorpha got the Nemesis staff. If we hadn't had the Respec Trial already planned, we would probably have been focusing on those "mains" -- and we will be, for the next couple of days (though we'll have a late start tonight).

Posted by Dave at 6:13 AM | Comments (15) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

August 13, 2005

Level 18 Scrapper Looking for Feedback

As Dave said before, we dusted off Torch and Kazima today and had some fun. I've only run duo with Kazima since the Caverns and was more than a bit rusty. I also realized that since Dave and I duo so much I don't have a good feeling for how well I play her on a team.

So, I would sincerely like your feedback/constructive criticism on my style of play. And even though running Kazima was the impetus for this post, input on all my characters is welcome.

Thanks!

Posted by Margie at 8:06 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

CoJ Brunch-n-Brawl

Though the "Working Lunch" adventures of the CoJ today -- as organized by Margie as of yesterday afternoon -- was slow in starting, we eventually had a great group and some fun times.

Dubh Bas was there, so we brought in Kazima and Torchielle. Other CoJ present were Girl Five, Tanker-belle, and Strete. We also had guest appearances from Empty Suit and Black Mynx.

Though we started out in the Hollows on the (perennial) Frostfire mish (that makes BD 49-and-2, I think), most of the time we were over in Kings Row, doing missions there against Vahz and Clocks and Hellions.

Both Kazima and Torchielle dinged (I think everyone who was along for most of the day did so). There was a lot of "rusty with this character, sorry, trying to remember the best tactics to use" around the group, since most of us were running alts that had been in storage for a while. Margie's going to post separately about Kazima's tactics.

For Torchielle, I was in hog heaven -- lots of big groups of baddies (mostly conning from green to white), held in a nice tight cluster by a couple of tanks. I only rarely felt in too much danger, even after all of our Defenders left. I had much fun simply pouring flames of destruction onto groups and watching tons of damage numbers float upwards (including DoT).

On the way out of one KR mish, I was jumping to the next and saw a bunch of player reticles on an odd street corner. I dropped down -- and saw a bunch of folks fighting with a giant clockwork ... Paladin. Giant Monster. I'd read about it. Told the team. Broadcast on Coalition Chat. Started chucking fireballs ...

And took the worst screen shot evah. Proof off to the right. I was trying to do too many things and having too may keyboard/finger problems. Bleah.

The battle probably took about a minute or two before he got dragged down hard. Didn't get the badge, but did get about 300-odd XP (not shabby at 18th level) and had a blast (so to speak).

The whole party thing was a lot of fun, and kudos to Margie for organizing it.

Posted by Dave at 7:14 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

Common grounds for CoH

Troy Hickman will be taking over the scripting on the City of Heroes comic for the next three issues. Hickman is the writer of the Eisner-nominated Common Grounds comic, which is a fave of mine, so I'm hoping it will be a better arc than the okay-but-disappointing Waid run.

Posted by Dave at 8:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Media

August 12, 2005

Verisimilitude

This isn't happening in CoH (as of yet), but I expect it's a trend that will continue in the online gaming industry: ad placement in virtual environments.

After updating my version of SWAT4 to the latest patch from Vivendi, I soon discovered that the game was phoning home to grab posters to place in the enviroment of the game's levels. Not only did it do this for every level that was played, but it also informed the advertisers of how long each poster was viewed, and by which gamer. Expect to see this kind of advertising and brand placement becoming standard fare in the very near future.

Now, I don't know that this is an intrinsically evil thing. My biggest worry, in fact, is that it will cause a hit in performance. But it's still vaguely ... disturbing.

(via J-Walk)

Posted by Dave at 6:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Media

I5 on the way ...

A week or so back, if you signed into the Test server, then on your way out you were given the opportunity to download the I5 content.

Now it's happening on your way out of the Live servers, too ...

Posted by Dave at 12:03 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

August 11, 2005

Out of control

Statesman on various Controller issues:

We reduced AOE hold durations and increased the recharge times in order to prevent perma-holds in large groups. The single target holds remain quick, however, and with slotting, allows a Controller to hit one target, recharge, hit another, before the first one wakes up.

Well, hopefully more than one. To that extent, PC's actually not in bad shape. Most of my holds are singletons -- I never took Flash or Flare or whatever the multi-blind is. Indeed, my main "holds" are Blind and Deceive -- which, it sounds like, have not been screwed with.

We decreased the # of pets because of their overwhelming power compared to some others. However, we added new pet functionality - permanence and going into elevators - to make the pets a little more Controller friendly.

Elevators? Elevators?! They can go through elevators, too!? Cool!

Hmmm. How about portals, too?

The number of pets isn't such a concern to me, since I just got my first Phantasm and haven't been trying to summon more than one. Indeed, one is sometimes more than enough. And, oh, yeah, Fred rocks.

Some Control powers in other sets were overlooked and still had the original values. We've been fixing those one at a time. A Controller should still be the best at holding!

Unless that holding is large group holds for too long a period.

AE limits on the # of targets - that's something I'm still analyzing.

If the duration is going to be reduced and the recharge increased, don't also reduce the number of targets. IMO.

Definition of the Controller's role: that's straightforward enough. Hold! I posted descriptions of my own Grav/Kin tactics. I'd fire off either Wormhole or Gravity Distortion Field to take some of the group out of the battle from the start. Then I'd selectively aim at others that were outlying. Note that I let the Tankers and Scrappers go in a few moments before hand to take the brunt of the initial aggro.

Always a good idea. Unless you can Deceive.

Now, let's talk about Invis ...

Posted by Dave at 9:47 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

Goth

Reference material for Lynn. She's (I've decided) a Goth Geek.

Posted by Dave at 3:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

Fred-be-gone

Phantasms are great -- until you don't want them any more, and instead stand there appalled as they barge into the next group of Evil Bad Guys just as you were trying to set them up ...

And with I5, Phantasms stay up (according to the release notes) effectively as long as you want (until you zone, die, etc.).

In a move that makes me feel slightly better, States has announced ...

I've seen many, many requests for an ability to unsummon pets...We'll add more later, but for now we have a slash command:

/release_pets

Cool. Now Fred the Phantasm won't be energy blasting past my shoulder that horde of Purples while I'm making my first Deceive attempt. Now all I need to do is reslot the Attack Rate so I can summon them quickly after I've banished them.

Now, to what "add more later" means ... will this be a click option on pets? Or will there be other pet controls (someone on the board suggested "attack $target," "stay," "guard $target," etc.)? Maybe, now that our AoE "control" powers are being so weakened, "controller" will represent our control of our pets ...

Posted by Dave at 3:19 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

So ding-y together ...

Got Psi-clone up to 33 yesterday. First level where, suddenly, we drop out of the "power/2-slots" pattern. Knew it was coming (I have PC planned out to 50), but it was still ... somewhat surprising to be offered three slots.

The other thing that's changed is a more intentional effort by Margie and me over the last week or so to do more teaming outside of our duos. Last night ended up (after some SG Leadership Stuff) doing some missions with Strete and Zazi. It's interesting the changes in tactics and dynamics (not to mention the difficulty in shouting "Don't go over there, that wandering Fire Thorn Wielder isn't by himself!" when two of the four party members are not in the room.

Teaming is slower, but does make the dynamics of different missions a bit more variable. Good stuff. And it makes the Empathy side of things with Psi-clone all the more useful.

Posted by Dave at 6:17 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

August 10, 2005

Double Take

Or, as the picture title has it, "Two Babbages, Ten Heroes, and Two Very Unlucky Trolls."

Posted by Dave at 12:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Humor

August 9, 2005

Doyce Does the Test Server

Doyce has been doing some testing of I5 numbers.

The Strategist MA/SR build.
Hyperthermian and Blaze.

Good analyses.

UPDATE: I5 and Stealth. Plus, Dave posts on the boards!

Posted by Dave at 7:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

August 8, 2005

Weekend update

Well, not actually much to update. The Blogathon kind of sucked it all up -- early to bed Friday, all day blogging Saturday, big nap on Sunday, and early to bed Sunday, too.

Did have some fun helping Mal ding to 50. Also played the Azures, which is always a joy. Mr. Azure got Jump Kick at the last level, which does much better than Brawl in terms of damage (and knockdown), but which has the world's goofiest animation.

Margie, whilst I was busy, spent a lot of time on Test, as well as doing badge collecting. It was nice having her stay up late with me on Saturday, and nice that she had "something to do" while I was busy typing.

On the Dev front ...

... the NPCs in Escort missions will be faster (if not necessarily smarter). Other NPC/Ally types of stuff are slated, if not for I5, then for the future. (Interesting comment in that thread about the new value for Team Teleport and Team Fly with these sorts of mishes.)

... Blaster Defiance is being buffed. That fits in with the comments I've read previously on it. Looking forward to seeing how it works with Torchielle.

... Some graphical bits and pieces from Test, including NPC highlights (Margie commented on this the other day) and stores on maps (missing labels, but that's a known issue).

Posted by Dave at 9:44 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay , Resources & Rules

August 4, 2005

Dev posts

Flood of Dev responses on the boards to various I5 bits. Long one here on Tankers and Invuln. And I5 should be downloadable (content) if you sign into and out of Test.

Posted by Dave at 11:26 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

"You, sir, have an illness"

Or at least that's what Avo said when he notice me with yet another new alt.

In this case, both Margie and I have them. New alts on Champion.

On the left is Margie's, a creature named Araware, a "dust spirit" of some sort (she can provide more detail) who happens to be a Spines/DA Scrapper.

On the right is mine (and the trigger for this change), Fazenda. A stage magician, who actually performs her tricks (and protects the city) with impossibly high-tech gadgets. (Insert mysterious backstory here.) As a hero, she's an Empathy/Energy Defender.

Fazenda existed as one of my "pilot" characters over on Triumph for a few months before I got a sudden yen for an Empathy Defender. (It's been a common secondary for my Controllers, and it's my second production Defender, after Truly Unstable. Well, there's another, but she's not in public as yet.)

Since we don't have server transfer, that meant a couple of characters had to be retired. For me, the answer, sadly, was Sister Chinook -- fun backstory on her, and I liked her outfit, but the Ice Controller thing just never quite solidified for me (so to speak), nor did I ever find a compelling voice for her. It's a shame to have one of Puck Bunny's countrymen leave, but that's how it goes.

Margie decided to drop SC's cohort, Toxic Sister, since she was looking to do another spine scrapper anyway.

Easy come, easy go (of 9 and 10 levels of character), I guess.

Posted by Dave at 1:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design

Gratz to Doyce ...

... for dinging 50 with Hangtime.

Posted by Dave at 7:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

August 3, 2005

Glutton for punishment

There are folks who are "unlucky in love" -- for whom romantic involvements involve going from failed relationship to failed relationship.

It occurs to me I might have some insight into that now -- because I am "unlucky in Pick-Up Group."

Today's example was yet another PUG in the Hollows with Lynn. Utter disaster. The mobs were conning too high, but that didn't stop us from going into the breach -- complete with an idiot blaster sniping targets in the middle of the massive mobs of trolls.

Three deaths. Yikes.

Finally quit off to the hospital.

Went back to Steel. Managed to kill myself again.

Wandered back from the hospital. Got a tell from one of the guys from the PUG. Felt sympathetic. Should have known better. Teamed. It was the idiot blaster. Who then proceeded to spend all of his time (a) in a store, and (b) afk.

So I dropped the team and sneaked away, then headed onward.

Erased a pip of the debt by the time I was through, but ... yeesh.

Perhaps an intervention is in order.

Why do I do it? Because, there have been times, in the past, when I've gotten involved in PUGs that were simply faboo. Great times. Great XP. Success after success after success. Play time for as long as I could, levelment and merriment.

It's the memories of those rare -- but real -- experiences that keep me coming back over and over again.

Even if I keep having disastrous love affairs PUGs as a result.

Though I did have an earlier good adventure with Lynn that made up for it a bit.

Posted by Dave at 7:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Gameplay

On the Naming of Names

"Name generators, Mr. Rico! Dozens of 'em!"

(via Doyce)

Posted by Dave at 2:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Resources & Rules

On Lurkers

I know you're out there.

A month or so back, someone approached Velvet (I think it was) in a train station. The conversation was along the lines of, "I know you. You have that blog ..."

Then I got a PM on the forums today from Liberty Bill, saying he enjoyed the blog. He then expressed surprise when I told him he was welcome to comment.

Granted it's not, upon reflection, completely transparent to a new user that anyone visiting here can comment. You just need to register, meaning you have to set up an identity in Typekey to sort of establish that you are a human being, not a spambot, and then sign in. The instructions are actually down in the comment section, but maybe not obvious.

It's painless, commercial-free, and secure. And free, of course.

Once you've done that, you can comment away. And, in fact, you are welcome to.

It is odd, though. The folks who comment here are all (with the exception of the two individuals mentioned at the top of the post, and the former only comment once, I think) people I know in RL. Having virtual presences show up here is to be expected, but still a bit different. (At least for this blog.) I haven't kept it a secret, nor have I publicized it (though if anyone clicks on the "www" button beneath one of my posts on the Alliance forum, they come here). It's just been hazy barrier between the IC and OOC world, as much in my own imagination as in reality.

But now I can't get over the feeling now that there are others, just out of sight, watching from the shadows (a la The Mark of Gideon). So, if you are ... comment. Say hi. Set down and chat a spell.

Posted by Dave at 10:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: This Blog

Blowing off the dust

In an odd mood last night, so we played Velvet and P-siren. And, y'know what? They kicked ass. Still feel ponderously slow, but, damn, some big damage numbers rolling up the screen, and not a lot of damage in return. Granted, we were clearing some old mishes, but even the new stuff worked out pretty nicely.

Makes me want to continue working with them.

Meanwhile, the CC was filled with the Big MH Turn to Evil Smackdown. Which was occasionally entertaining to listen in on, but which pretty much monopolized the channel for a couple of hours at least, which was probably *not* a good thing.

Had fun anyway.

Posted by Dave at 5:46 AM | Comments (13) | TrackBack | Edit
Filed under: Character Design