MTeague

There was an era when "Bullet Sponges" were really all that could be done in a computer game to make something more difficult. That time is LONG since past. Now admittedly, bringing CoH code into the present day is no small task. That will take years, esp with a volunteer dev team. But the time for Bullet Sponges or solutions like "Just use +5 mobs" should have been LONG gone before shutdown. I want mobs that will RUN and GET HELP from other groups of foes, ambush me around corners, have trip mines setup in my path, maybe take a NPC hostage, like Sigil / Kadabra Kill in Heather Townsend's arc, etc. I'm keeping expectations low. But if you ask me what' the right way to increase difficulty, that's it.

Huh. I confess, I have never come across someone who used BOTH run options on the SAME character before. Fair enough, idea retracted.

I don't think Sprint automatically includes the same +Jump that Naruto and Werewolf get. Also, sprint is a slottable power that can take Celerity:+Stealth. But maybe Remove Ninja Run and Beast Run from the game (stay with me.... not done yet....) Add "Super Run" as a P2W power, or if it's easier to implement, as an inherent (it's already free or so close as to make no difference....) under Power Customization, let Super Run have a "Ninja Run" animation, or a "Beast Run" or "Plain Run" animation, etc. Could gradually add more animations over time if merited, and this would divorce the look from the power itself.

I completely agree with both Redlynne's analysis of the problem, and the proposed "Leadership" solution. That said, ..... I'm not anticipating that any changes actually happen. Because you still have the same root problem. In theory, the HC Devs have far more freedom to act, if they also agree with the analysis and proposed solution. The NCSoft Devs answered to corporate masters and the almighty profit, as well as the plenty-human-enough experiance of having faced the Angry Mob after Enhancement Diversification and not wanting to experience that kind of rage directed at them ever again. The HC Devs, in theory, just need to make sure they can manage monthly donations and nothing more. I do not believe this kind of change would seriously threaten that. (though I fully expect that statement to be challenged by other posters). Solo'ing Defenders / Controllers would not really be so heavily impacted by a "Leadership Resistance Aura" change on mobs because they're probably not running at x8 and have access to more -Res anyway. And esp if this "Leadership Resistance Aura" could be detoggled by Stuns / Sleeps / Controls, it would make teams like to have some Controllers/Doms on hand as well. Sidebar: Confuses. I don't think you intend for Mass Confusion / Seeds of Confusion to turn the players into Unkillable Gods, so this +Resistance that mobs supply to nearby friends would need to be suppressed if Confused. Farmer Brutes / Tankers would be taking another serious hit after the Double Influence Changes, and pretty much guaranteed they would go THROUGH THE ROOF in rage. You may still feel the change should be warranted, but go into it eyes open. This kind of change would hit them SUPER HARD. I think this would be best approached as an optional difficulty setting rather than something placed on the whole player base, at least to start with. Even if you eventually WANT all players to have to deal with something like this, I think it's best to provide players a chance to get their feet wet and retreat to safer waters if it doesn't go well, and also would allow time for bugs / unintended consequences to be reported by a self-selected team of volunteer testers.

Ah, fair point. and Sleep would be out for the same reason.

Awesome episode (it intro'd Na'Toth!!), and awesome adjusted quote. However, I'd say 1 second of Stun may be better than 1 second of Confuse. If they're terrified they should, generally speaking, be cowering for their lives and blubbering in fear, not shooting their friends during that 1 second. A stun vs confuse would seem to prevent any action at all. But again, at least on my mind/kin, I..... just really dont recall this being an issue period.

I get that a lot of people are goal-oriented, but ... I can't support this. There's already so many rewards in the game, more influence than people know what to do with, and characters are already ridiculously powerful. Plus it's a never ending treadmill. Get rewards up to lvl 2000, and someone will hit it. Probably already HAS hit it. At some point, you choose to play the character because you LIKE the character.... or it's time to move on.

My checklist for any Mind Control Overhaul I do NOT want a pet. I want my Confuses. I do NOT want a dedicated Immob power. I like my Sleeps. I would like to see the cooldown on Mass Confuse significantly reduced. I accept it will probably never go as low as Seeds of Confusion (which is honestly gloriously OP), but i'd like it dropped to 50% of the current Mass Confuse cooldown, OR, set to 150% the Seeds of Confusion cooldown, whichever is GREATER. I mean, I get that Seeds is OP, but Mass Confuse is a T9 control power here. It's the "Control" nuke. For Teleknesis, I would like to see one of two things. EITHER, remove the repel (and adjust max number of targets downward, if it's considered too OP), OR, make it a location click power that repels affect targets to the selected location, and immobs once they are at the target location. (if the technology / engine can support this) in both cases, I would want the endurance cost to remain Quite High. either change would make this signifcantly more powerful than it currently is. It should be DIFFICULT / impossible to perma this. Confuse should trigger containment. The target trusts you and is enthralled by you to the point of attacking their own allies. They should be completely blindsided / taken unaware by any attack you use against them. Since @Redlynne's list appears to qualify for all of the above (in one measure or another), I support his proposed changes. I have not experienced the problem @SwitchFade has had with Terrify. Maybe I have decent defense and they miss my Mind/Kin, maybe I'm just used to healing back up with Transfusion so much I don't even think about it. I would be okay with some kind of unenhanceable short term stun or unenhancemable to-hit debuff on Terrify if that's what it took to mitigate a returning volley fire when terrifying a crowd. Or maybe no changes at all, and just once TK has been enhanced you just TK, and then Terrify and the TK will prevent return fire for you (as well as trigger containment....)

I never run below +1/x1 with Bosses and EB's. If my character cannot solo that, they are unworthy of appearing in my character roster. As they get access to more power and more slots, I will crank that up. My Claws/SR scrapper and my Spines/Regen stalker are both currently at +2/x4, and I think they could probably go higher. My Invuln/SS tank and my Plant/Psi Dominator are both currently at +2/x3. My Mind/Kin controller is currently at +2/x2. In terms of drop rates, I believe @ImpousVileTerror is correct. But I have pride issues, and I require my characters to fight harder groups when I feel that they can reasonably do so. EDIT: Though I also tend to use the exact same settings regardless if I'm fighting in Night Ward or Shadow Shard or on a Malta-Centric story arc. I do NOT adjust difficulty slider based on the type of enemy I'm fighting.

You could just..... slot it the same anyways? Don't change a darn thing no matter what is permitted? 🙂 I know.... I know.... and in THEORY, I could walk past an open cabinet without closing it..... in practice.... not so much.

Maybe I just don't have enough alts (35 character total), but I still enjoy the low levels, NOT having status protection and NOT being able to rely on eveyrthing hitting. Not for forever, but I like seeing each character gradually come into their own, and then the feeling of "I have arrived" when they come into their own, and I cna start soloing +2/x3 missons with bosses and EB's. I'm not at all shy about disabling XP though. I like to make sure I get each Safeguard/Mayhem mission AT CONTENT level, and I'd easily outlevel them with teaming if i didn't disable XP. My favorite low levelling areas are probably Goldside, 1-20 (any of the three zones, really) Hollows, 5-18, Redside, Peter Themari and Marshall Brass arcs.

Slow Movment Set: Eternity of the Staff Meeting Slow/Acc Slow/Recharge Slow/End/Recharge Slow/End/Acc End/Recharge Proc: Chance for Sleep

I would change Triage Beacon, to be Triage DRONE, and have it follow you. Other than that, I would not change anything.

I don't often do crazy-high recharge builds. I know, I know, I'm a heretic. (My Dom's are an exception to this) But I have a workable attack chain without it, and powers like Freezing Rain / Tornado / Lightning Storm are coming back fast enough already, I'm content.

Entropic Chaos, Panacea, Power Transfer. It's not exactly Aid Self, but they'll just happen as you use other powers, and if you8're a controller, hopefully you're locking things down in relatively short order.

Another vote for Defennder here. I have a Storm/Sonic at lvl 38. He's fun solo, he's fun on teams. He drops enemy resistance like an anvil dropped from an airplane. Regarding KB-to-KD's Gale: 2 slotted, KB-to-KD and Acc. It's hilarious watching 16 nemesis or malta or carnies simultaneously flop down on their butts in place. And it buys a couple seconds where NONE of them are attacking at all, which teams will always put to good use. Tornado: 4 slotted, 3 procs and a KB-to-KD. it's Too Damn Awesome when it just stayed on a cluster of targets and continues to dot the heck out of them without hurling anyone aside. Hurricane: 4 slotted, 3 to-hit debuff pieces and KB-to-KD. This one I sometimes second-guess. (second guess the KB-to-KD, not the power selection). I still have to be mindful of the Repel effect when teaming, and it's not that often I see it knock things down. But it's still a GIANT to-hit debuff, which is like giving your team a giant Defense buff. Lightning Storm: I do NOT have one in this. I thought about it. But I want the six slot bonus of a set instead. Instead, I'm just careful where I summon the storm. If it's a TALL room or an outdoor map, I'll fly up a bit and summon Lighting Storm above the pack. the bolts zot almost directly downward resulting in VERY little horizontal motion from the target. Basically makes it a knockback. On an indoor map, I'll only summon lightning storm if I can place it so things get zapped back into a corner. At 38, he has basically no more END issues at all. Though he does have a few END procs. The 20's were rough on the endurance-curve. Don't delay getting your Panacea/Miracle/Perf Shifter. He's Storm/Sonic because he was Storm/Sonic back in the old days, and the name demands it ("Thundercrow".... also his name on live). If I had it to do over again though I might have gone with Storm/Electric/Electric. Especially now that there are sets like Synapse's Shock and Power Transfer with Acc/Dmg/EndMod. Used to be slotting for EndMod REQUIRED you to sacrifice damage output, but now...? Could be quite fun, esp with the Defenders higher sapping power.

I would want to see a character dressed up as Jake or Elwood Blues surrounded by 20,000 Council, 5th Column, RIP, or Longbow.

I have to admit, I rarely use Catalysts to attune anything. Given the quirk of the market where lvl enhancments of any level share the SAME inventory and pricing as their attuned counterparts, I've gotten into the habit of *craft EVERY recipe that drops for me* (I have tons of rare salvage from piles of brain storm ideas from superpacks), convert if not already valueable, post it for auction. then buy whatever I actually WANT as an already-attuned-piece. The Catalysts I tend to pile up until an alt dings fifty, and then that alt will withdraw 24-30 catalysts from petty cash to Purpleize ATO's and Winter-O's.

Hilarious? Yes. A good idea? .......mayyyyyyybe not.

There's plenty of good people to team with. 50% of my teaming is a Pick-Up-Groups / Random invites, it still usually goes well. I am a touch curious at what people have gotten judgemental over.

LOL, that's great. 🙂 Personally, I'd probably hang onto the extra Argameddon's. Sooner or later you'll have another character to slot them into. But I feel your pain on the "Wait, quantity is still WHAT?" after clicking "Make Offer".

ah yes, the trap of "Too Cool To Use".

I like having ONE. Maybe two. I rarely keep many. As @ForeverLaxx says, when I know I'm going to die, I try to get some distance between the spawn point and the mob I'm fighting so I can wakie unmolested. Some of this is because, for immersion sake, i hate being "teleported to the hospital" and then the villians just stuck around after. Esp if it's a "rescue these guys from the devouring earth" or something, where they really ought to be Dead/Devoured before I return. I've been known to look at the screen and say "That never happened". and literally restart the mission, no matter how much of the map I'd already cleared, so I can do it "right" without dying along the way. The only real problem I've had with wakies is Praetoria, when what killed you is a laser-guided ambush and they WILL instantly re-aggro the second you rise up, no matter HOW far away they are. But you can sometimes get enough time for rez sickness to wear off if you ran a good bit before you fell. I like @tidge's idea of emailing them to myself. Definitely going to do that.

For the record, I don't mean this guy: No, I mean the term "AH Flipper". What exactly do you file under that category? And what about it do you think is objectionable/not? And, I know, I know, I'm a dreamer and a lunatic, but let's try to keep this free of invective and vitriol. Category 1: Buy something on Auction House. Post the EXACT SAME THING to the Auction House, at a higher price. This I can understand people being angry at. "Now, I have to pay more. I could have bought it at the original price, but you wanted to be a middleman, and really what benefit does the community gain by you being such a middleman and taking an extra "cut" of the price it could have been?" However, an argument (rationalization?) can be made that now the same item is going through TWO auction house transactions, and therefore at least twice at much influence is being drained from the economy, which helps cut down on long-term-inflation. Unless someone is bragging about doing exactly this, it's next to impossible to know it happens, because of course you have no idea who bought what from whom, or who acquired what as a drop vs acquired by the auction house. Category 2: Buy crafted set IO's on Auction House. Convert them. Post the converted result to the Auction House. I don't object to the seller selling the converted result. They bought some basic ingredients, used some of their own resources to turn it into something else that is a more sought-after product. Not unlike buying a house/building that has been condemned, fixing it up, and selling the result. Now I do get, that even that can be touchy. in the real world, there can be concerns over not finding housing you can afford if the cheap places are all converted to something upscale. In CoH terms, maybe I really *WANTED* to use Serendipity or Reactive Armor sets, but I can't because they're all snapped up and converted to LotG or to Unbreakable Guard's. Or maybe I actually WANTED a full set of Gladiator's Net. But other people are buying them and converting them to Panacea's and Shield Walls and Gladiator's Armor and such. Category 3: Buy recipe's and salvage. Craft yellows, and some oranges. Convert them. Post the converted result to Auction House. In many ways identical to category 2. but some may consider this "different" on some level so I wanted to split this out. Others Categories??? I don't really object to any of the above. In part because I can use Converters to change most anything into most anything, and I'll get quite a few dropped recipies on any given night. I'm not thrilled with category 1 and I don't do it.... but every bit of influence consumed by auction house fees is a bit of influence taken out of the economy, and that helps fight inflation. I just personally like to feel like I have added value, and I can't quite bring myself to justify it to myself. I HAVE sometimes engaged in Category 2. I'll do Category 3 a couple times a week. If you consider this "bad", why? What would you say if not some random stranger, but a friend was doing it?

Here's how I see it. It's been a month or so since the Double Influence was disabled / nerfed / removed / your-choice-of-verb-here. There is NO WAY that the devs are unaware of the amount of pushback from people who feel that this was a serious mistake / insult / whatever. The dev have also had an entire month to collect data, observe what has in fact happened. Did a bunch of people quit? Has there been a spike of inflation or deflation? Are certain things posted less often or more often? Has this set out to do what they intended, and has it had unforeseen consequences? If they feel they need to roll back this change, I suspect it's really not that hard for them to do so. If they feel the cold hard numbers mean it's had the desired effect and is in the long-term best interests of their vision for the game, they will keep it. But I do not believe continued rageposting, OR rageobjecting, is likely to sway them in either direction. Now, full disclosure, I am in the camp that considred it something that spiked inflation too much, and I'm glad it's gone. You're entirely free to disagree with me. You're entirely free to file me under one of your numerical categories if you wish. I do not feel a need to "discuss the problem" becuase, frankly, in my view the problem has already been fixed. But if you disagree, there are zero other players who you need to convince. You really need to convince the DEVS. And I bet angry posts aren't going to sway them any more than they have already been swayed (not at all) over the last month. Calm reasoned arguments, backed up by as much data as you can provide, are far likelier to have an impact more than posting about "City of Haters".