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).

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)

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.

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.

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.
2005-08-27_trial.jpgIt 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. 🙂

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.

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 …

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.

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. 🙂

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.

“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.

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.

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.

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?”

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.

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.