Also sprach Geko

Geko talks about power design, power nerfing, and … upcoming powers:

As I write this, I am glancing over my shoulder to my white board. On the left in bright blue is a spot reserved for future power sets. Some have been there a long time, and may never happen for technical reasons. Recently erased are Archery, Trick arrow, Sonic Attack, and the CoV power sets like Plant Control and Robotics. At the top of the list are ones you can expect in the near future (names are all pending): Street Fighting, Electrical Melee, Electrical Armor, Shields (melee and defense versions), new Henchmen for CoV Masterminds, and a new techno defense set for CoV Stalkers. There is a fairly good chance you will see many of these in the next Update. Some will be shared in both CoV and CoH, and some will be exclusive to one or the other.
Street Fighting — why this was not in the original release (although, of course, it’s not like any major heroes, like Batman, Daredevil, or anyone important uses it …) — glee! But … no pistols?!
Alas, much to Geko’s namesake dismay, we probably won’t see wall-crawling. But he makes me want to take another look at Claws …

ALLIANCE FORUM

Given the chronic problems of the Freedomphalanx.com forums right now, if anyone wants to use this thread as an Open Chat area (not that anyone here feels particularly restrained in using any thread for that) for whatever they want that they’d be doing there (game coordination, commentary, bitching, whatever), feel free just drop comments in on this thread.
I don’t actually know anyone’s e-mail address aside from the few AoC folk, so feel free to pass the word, as you see fit or necessary.
And, in the meantime, might I recommend this observation …

Out of sync

Through various travails (mostly character rebuilds/restarts/replacements), our lower-level alts are out of sync, level-wise. The current “pairing” goals seem to be:
1. Psi-clone/Amorpha
2. Velvet/P-siren
3. Taste of Honey/Kazima
4. Torchielle/Hildgarde
5. Fazenda/Araware
6. Mr. & Mrs. Azure
7. Big Lungs/Star Protector
with Lynn Calodo and Fallen Twice rounding out the bunch as “unaligned.”
Problem is, at the moment, #4-6 (arguably 3-6) aren’t in sync, level-wise.
Thus, we spent the evening getting Big Lungs and Mrs. Azure both up in levels, closer to where they need to be. BL is there; Mrs. Azure needs a few more levels to catch back up with her hubby.
Problem is, Margie rebuilt her to be Sonic Defense vs FF Defense. And now she’s finding that the Sonic bubbles make her … a tad nauseous.
And so it goes.

Croatoa Woa

Continued this evening with Velvet and P-siren, since we’d been doing well last night.
Beat up lots of pumpkinheads and not-really-wolves. Never too much of a problem unless I got more than, say, twenty of the Fir Bolg around me (given that my Resist Elements is pretty crapola right now).
Eventually got a Keen Temporary Power, the Rune of something-or-another, which basically zaps Fay for big damage. Kind of weird having Velvet as a blaster, but useful.
Then we got sent on the Mission from Hell. Or Faerie. Guard the Dolmen. Keep the Fir Bolg from slipping through it, which they are bound-and-determined, Taunt or PunchVoke or no, to do, doing little mini-wave attacks/samba lines on their way. We did pretty good for a while, but eventually they started coming from different directions and we had to pull back to where it was nigh-impossible to distract them from their cause.
Annoyingly, it can be up to 5-7 minutes between waves (based on my Dull Pain perma). Irksome.
Evidently the story line dead-ends there if you can’t beat it until you level beyond it (based on Amorpha’s experience). Before we do it again, we’ll be bringing in a few friends.
PS dinged 29. I’m about two pips from it. Yay.
I’d put it to bed for a week or so, just to wash the taste of the failed mish from my mouth. But with the Rune of whozits in my hand, it’s like having the Lollypop … you can’t stop playing until it’s gone.

R-E-S-P-E-C-Vee

Finally got onto I5 with Velvet, and did the necessary Respec, going to a much more toggle-heavy build that should take care of her nicely.
Current build (bearing in mind that she’s just 28):

  • 01 : Jab endred(01) dam(3) dam(17) dam(37) dam(39) dam(40)
  • 01 : Temp Invulnerability damres(01) damres(5) damres(7) damres(11) damres(19) damres(25)
  • 02 : Punch endred(02) dam(3) dam(13) dam(31) dam(39) dam(39)
  • 04 : Dull Pain recred(04) recred(5) recred(7) recred(15) recred(15) recred(19)
  • 06 : Combat Jumping jmp(06)
  • 08 : Unyielding damres(08) damres(9) damres(9) damres(11) damres(13) endred(17)
  • 10 : Taunt tntdur(10)
  • 12 : Swift runspd(12)
  • 14 : Super Jump jmp(14)
  • 16 : Health hel(16) hel(31) hel(33) hel(34) hel(36) hel(36)
  • 18 : Invincibility endred(18) thtbuf(29) defbuf(27)
  • 20 : Stamina endrec(20) endrec(21) endrec(21) endrec(23) endrec(23) endrec(25)
  • 22 : Resist Physical Damage damres(22)
  • 24 : Air Superiority dam(24) dam(27) dam(31) dam(34) dam(34) dam(40)
  • 26 : Knockout Blow dam(26) dam(33) dam(37) dam(42) dam(42) dam(43)
  • 28 : Rage recred(28) recred(29) recred(33) recred(36) recred(40) recred(43)

Last night’s summary …

… played after a very long day on the business trip and a very yummy P.F. Chang’s dinner, and a with a very sleepy head …
1. Went to Dark Astoria solo with Psi-clone (while Margie was finishing up some Star Protector stuff). Stealthed an Orembega mission, wrapping up a story arc, and then spending some time whomping baddies on the head with the lollypop for XP.
2. With Amorpha, fought a lot of Freaks who were trying to set a lot of fires. Again, much whomping ensued. Decided I will avoid Nemesis folks, since the are confuse-resistant …
3. After Margie signed off, sold stuff, visited contacts, listened to some odd CC chatter, went to bed.
And that was, I think, the End of the Lollypop.
Good to be home tonight.

A night in lonesome September

Ate with various office folk at a very nice Trattoria in Old Towne Pasadena. Would rather have been there with Margie. By the time I got back to the hotel and signed into CoH, she was ready to sign off (after having done some Star Protector stuff).
Gathered a few people up to do some missions, and dinged to 35. Afterwards went out, cleaned my tray, took Resurrect instead of Hasten (which is what I’d planned, but, frankly, I’ve got a just fine rate of powers to spam around at the moment) (Resurrect, btw, gives a 90 second grace period for XP loss if killed again).
Afterwards, just because, I tracked down an unfamiliar icon in Talos on the newly downloaded fresh Vidiots maps (very nice, with added info, but with no indication of how to turn off the obnoxious ($) store symbols) and discovered it was an entrance to the Paragon Dance Party … which was deserted.
Out of idle curiosity, swung by the Arena in Talos, too. Had never been inside of one.
Beautiful. Pretty. Spacious.
Starkly empty.

A momentous return

After a long dry spell while the folks were out visiting for the Labor Day weekend, got back into the CoH thang with a bang.
Got home early enough that I had a chance to play a bit with Big Lungs while watching over Katherine. Fun with sonics, and had a passerby express admiration for the name. Meanwhile, Margie reset Star Protector to be Sonic/Rad Defender. Eventually, the two of them are intended to run around together.
After dinner, once Margie was on, we brought on Psi-clone and Amorpha. Started off with some impromptu RP with Healing Rayne, followed by …
… well, followed by discovering that I really needed to download the newest version of HeroStats to work with I5 properly. Which was annoying to discover but painless to remedy.
2005-09-06_nemesis.jpgWoo-hoo! Took a trek all the way across Crey’s Folly to do it, but Psi-clone got the Lollypop.
Which is very cool, but has its problems. First off, annoyingly, it doesn’t seem to be affected by Containment — which means my Spectral Wounds does nearly as much damage (up front) as the Nemesis Staff, which is just kind of wrong.
Second off — well, PC is just not a blaster. He’s not all about the smiting. Thus, giving him a Big Gun just means that he’s going to shoot it at someone who will then shoot back at him.
Still, it’s very cool, and I’ll be making maximal use of it over the next few days.
Demonstrations of the second point came up a bit thereafter. We were heading to a mish in IP, when someone sent out a broadcast about a Giant Octopus …
2005-09-06_luska1.jpgAmorpha and I tracked it down in the SW corner of the bay. I, of course, wanted to lay into the critter. Margie, being the planner that she is, started trying to gather together a team, etc., etc., all the right strategies. So I fidgeted. And waited. Sure it was going to flee. Positive another team was going to get to it first.
And then we were ready! And I charge in! And zapped it with the staff! And …
Bam. Thwack. Zorch.
Dead in the water. Literally.
(Grumbles.) I flew back as fast as I could (which, given the speed of Fly is maddeningly slow). I did, though, get back after just one tentacle had been taken down.
After that, it was a lot of fun. Zoom in. Zap with the staff. Zoom waaaaay back out. Heal. Heal. Heal some more. WTF, there are no other healers on our team of 8? Evidently not. Zap. Heal.
Rest.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
By the end of the battle, I hadn’t quite cleared off my debt (dagnabbit) — and Amorpha had died once, too — but I’d gotten …
Three badges.
Devilfish, for being on the team that did the most damage to Luska the Giant Octopus.
Unyielding, for clearing 500K in debt.
Medic, for healing 250K of damage.
Lots of irony in that particular combo of badges.
A Giant Octopus. Too much frelling fun.
Did a bit more together after that, and ended up about a half-hour short of dinging 35. But that should come tonight … 🙂

Velvet and I5

So the alt I’m most worried about in I5 is Velvet, given that she’s an Invuln tanker. Ironically, I recently (a few months back, right before they started announcing I5 changes) respecced her into something that much less toggly, much more auto. Irritatingly, what I’m taking her back to is something very close to what I had previously.
Really, though, the main difference is that rather than having RPD fully slotted, I’m tossing more slots into TI.
I realize that I’ve also been a bit spoiled with Velvet, based on her running with P-siren and getting all the bubbly goodness for protection. Since that’s now correspondingly less, I need to be a bit more careful with stuff.
Here’s what I’m currently looking at (written to 44, though I’m only at 28 so far):

Ghost toasties

Another event of yesterday when I’d signed on as Velvet in the late afternoon after getting home (and cleaning up the guest room): the Ghost Ship showed up in Talos.
Now, this isn’t too wildly unusual, except …
… I’ve only actually seen it once.
… I’ve never actually fought any of the ghosts (though Margie/Amorpha had)
… the Ghost Ship was stuck.
Yes, stuck. It was off on the western edge of Talos, “aground” just short of the wall. Just sitting there.
Spawning.
Velvet jumped in, started fighting, quickly learning how many of her toggles needed to be turned on against those little buggers. (Actually, given that they have negative energy attacks, I think, most of her toggles probably weren’t all that useful).
Punch, punch, punch, superjump to the next group, punch, punch, punch.
Amorpha showed up. We teamed. She finished her badge. She left.
Punch, punch, punch …
There were probably a couple dozen heroes over there — between it being late afternoon for half the country and most folks on busy building sonics and archers over in Atlas/Galaxy, it was a much lighter crowd than I’d have expected.
Punch, punch, punch …
Ectoplasmic!
Badge in hand, I departed, too. Fun.

City of Alts, Book V

Last night …

  1. Spent most of our online time last night as Velvet and P-Siren, since Invuln and Bubbles took it particularly hard from the nerf bat for I5.
    It had been some weeks since we’d done much with the pair. One thing we immediately learned was that most of our mishes were old, old, old — the last activity had been at least one TF, if not more.
    After about an hour of bashing grays (and seeing how much damage they actually did me), Seventy-Six came on with an RFH, so we joined up with him. Sort of. Nobody else answer the call, so only one of us could SK up. Bubbles don’t scale, so it made most sense for PS to be the 28 on a level 46 mission. That said, she soon discovered how the Malta could one-shot her if they spotted her.
    The mish was actually pretty straightforward, even though 76 had set it back up to Invincible. I found I needed to run all my toggles — TI, Unyielding, and Invincible — to keep damage down to an acceptible steady stream. Never touched Dull Pain, though, which was good, I guess.
    “Watch out for ambushes when we get out,” 76 warned. We exited. Looked around. Nada. Beat up on some gray Vahz nearby (the mish was in Steel). Nada. “Well, then …”
    Whoosh. Three Titan battlesuits unleash missiles on 76. We run in. He goes down. I follow fairly quickly.
    Well, heck. I head to hospital. Get out. Look around for 76.
    He’s on his feet — he’s yellow, he’s orange, he’s …
    I get over there in time to see him down already. He goes to hospital this time — and I see the mob of lvl 47-48 Malta making their way across Steel toward him.
    He heads back, we beat up a couple, the rest vanish. Mercifully. It would have been a painful pull back to the Perez gate for the policfe bots; too many people at the close Yellow Line station to be able to risk that.
    Learned what I needed though, and what I suspected, i.e., drop RPD, figure out a way to get Tough. I put together the respec … and learned I’d already taken my free one, so what I had was my TF one, and I really didn’t feel like running to wherever dude is to make it happen. So I shut Velvet down.
    Main disad to the respec, aside from the question of how well it will work (I should be able to get, at this level, to the 90% damage cap with Unyielding, Temp Invuln, and Tough, but just) is that I can’t take Air Superiority, unless I forego Hasten for the future, which I’d rather not. Not enough Power Pools once I get into the (urg) Fighting Pool (to the get the invulnerabilit that Invuln no longer gives me).
    No idea how much Endurance this will all suck, but …

  2. The streets were even more full of archers and sonics, and frustrated people trying to come up with more unique names for both (most ignoring the common advice of adding an honoriffic or title — “Lady Longbow,” “Captain Scream” — or a gender designation — “Sonic Blast Man,” “Longbow Lass” — or even a name — “Screaming Sally,” “Bob the Bowman” — to get a unique moniker).
    Meantime, Atlas had to spawn an Atlas 2 because of the traffic, and starting off with a new character was frustrating because both Contaminated and Hellions were being taken out much faster than the game would spawn them.

  3. One unexpected bonus of I5 is that it seems to have fixed the in-game e-mail system — or, at least, it freed up some e-mail that had never gotten through.
  4. The revised Outbreak is fine, though having to hit an Info kiosk to learn more about enhancements was annoying. Flower Knight is also kind of annoying — either she dives into battle while you’re still going over to the glowy computer, or else she’s in the very last room, and so worthless.
  5. Margie rerolled Mrs. Azure to change her from FF to Sonic secondary (still Mind Control primary). I’ll be SKing her up to get her up to the Mister’s level. She quickly discovered that the Controller “Containment” damage boost worked great …
    She also rerolled Star Protector to be an Empathy/Sonic … er, Sonic/Empathy … well, not sure which, but he had both powers, which Margie seemed to be happeier with than the Kinetics/Dark Defender he was before.
    Only problem — with both characters she failed to “empty the pockets” before deleting the old version. Which was costly with Mrs. Azure …
    I decided what-the-hell and went ahead and created Big Lungs on Champion, only slightly tweaking the design. To do that, I had to drop Truly Unstable, who was fun as a character, but I didn’t really care for the Rad/Rad power set. Twelve levels, easy come, easy go.
    Big Lungs and Star Protector did a bit of running around. Lots of screaming, so to speak. Worked well.

  6. With the ‘rents in town this weekend, not sure how much CoH we’ll get, but that might be just as well as people get used to I5.
    Certainly I have no intention of going near Croatoa for a while, nor Icon. CC chatter was pretty quiet last night (I waggishly opined that everyone was intimidated by the new CC guidelines); more chatter in the SG channel, but mostly OOC on I5.

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.

The Night of a Million Zillion Archers

big_lungs.jpgAnd 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 …

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 …

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.

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.