DR_Mechano

Oh don't get me wrong, I VERY much appreciate what the devs are doing. But we've had vague comments like "Controller pets are going to be looked at" and "Super Strength is going to be looked at" and nobody was like "oh my god they're doing it right now!" it was just "Being looked at" and everyone understood WHY the Rage changes were pulled, surprisingly civil about it in fact, so it shows we can handle our 'nerd rage' if something doesn't work out.

Alright, I know this topic is probably going to be unpopular with JUST about everyone, fellow players AND devs a like. It's also going to be a long one, so grab yourself a cup of Yorkshire Tea Biscuit Brew and settle in. If this is too long for you to read...eh...probably skip over it. I want to preface this with the following statement: This is, in no way, meant to be an affront to the devs, I love what they've done so far and what they've done so far has been, frankly, absolutely amazing. They've fixed things that even the live dev team couldn't fix either through lack of time or lack of motivation to do so (The MM pet changes being the largest obvious one). Homecoming is amazing and I'd would much rather be on this server than any of the other server clusters, I like the changes like not having to grind out iTrials and the Phantom Army mirror options for example. This is not meant to spark a witch hunt. Now, with that out of the way. Firstly, I understand WHY nobody wants to do a roadmap. Firstly despite what people could repeat a hundred times that the items on there are not promises they're merely a 'we're looking in to it' you would still get people saying that 'oh we were promised X by Y' and as such, lets not do a roadmap. Firstly it plans too far ahead. For example the Rage changes went through about four different versions on Pineapple alone without the probable internal testing that the devs did on their own. Nothing seemed to work and they were pulled because A) Nobody could agree on what was the best outcome and B) they weren't happy with the changes full stop and as such decided that Super Strength needed an entire overhaul (at some point in the future...). Its for things like this that a Roadmap isn't really a great idea. HOWEVER what would be nice is if we could simply have a monthly update on "what we're working on" "what we're thinking of working on" and "what has been put on the backburner for now". This all stems from posts made by myself and Vileterror about wanting explanations as to WHY certain costume parts that are fully functional, in the correct categories, non-signature and don't cause horrendous model wonkiness haven't been transfered from dev to player yet. The answer we got was a simple "we want to do this right, we have a lot on our plate at the moment and we have no ETA". I get that, you want things to be perfect BUT that doesn't explain any of the issues that we, as non-devs, can see. What are the problems with the particular parts in question? Do they cause ingame problems when you load into a populated server with them? Is it not the case that you simply have to change a flag from dev only to player access but something a lot more complicated? It will use the quote, attributed to and supposedly made infamous by Stalin, "Better is the enemy of good enough". To an outsider like myself, the parts all seem fine, they don't clip, they're all in the correct place (seriously the PPD Hardsuit stuff has it's gloves in head detail 1...why...I'll never know since it COULD just be in gloves like an actual set of gloves. The 60s Arachnos outfit has problems as well which would require a lot of work to make sensible) and it seems like it should be an easy job to enable them...so why isn't it? I'm curious to know the details. It seems like your seeking perfection for perfections sake when...you really wouldn't need too in this case. And before I get the 'we don't want to bore you with the details', no please do, bore the hell out of me with those details, I want to know. I'll swing round to the post about what are the plans for the future. We don't know what's coming next. I know controller pets were going to be looked at now that the MM changes in place so Phantasm would stop suiciding into AoEs when it has no melee attack. I don't know WHEN its going to be looked at, I just know it is. We know that a Super Strength revamp is being looked in to thanks to the whole rage problem, we don't know if it's being looked in to right now or at some point in the future, how far up the priority list is it? SS as a set is still pretty damn functional even with the rage crash still in effect, it's not broken so has that lowered it down the priority list? Is it just one dev for ALL of the power balancing or are there two or three helping out? I'm not asking for names. Is There a separate dev for costume stuff or is it just a 'eh someone will get to it' type of deal where it's handled by the group? We don't know because we're never told. I personally feel that our team, as great and awesome as they are, are playing things FAR too close to their chest. Compared to Ourodev which is pretty much open source at this point (though I'm not actually keen on the people who run their servers...the work they've done is undeniable) and has things far more out in the open. As someone put it they operate more like an open public think tank, which I honestly thing helps them do the more out there stuff. As mentioned a simple monthly topic with a "working on" "thinking about/prodding at" and "on backburner" would be lovely. These things wouldn't be ETAs, they would just be a 'what we're doing right now' sort of deal. While yes, our dev team have focused on backend stuff in order to make sure that this game can be played on modern systems and not encounter problems hit when people stop supporting 32-bit systems BUT did that take every single developer? If it did, well fair enough then. If you made it to the end of this post, congratulations. Give yourself a snack of your choice as a treat.

This sounds like a likely culprit, having done it once I know all the tricks (like follow the carpet to stop the Knives ambushes) and usually just skip the rescue missions and speed run it since it doesn't award any incarnate salvage or merits because it gives you the option to do this.

Firstly Vile, no problem with the thread hijack. Secondly this: Sums up my feelings. The phrase is an old one that "better is the enemy of good enough". Firstly a history lesson on where that phrase comes from just because it's a bit of fun. It was actually attributed to Stalin during World War 2 where he told his military vehicle designs to not overdesign and overengineer their vehicles, that as long as it was 'good enough' to put it into the field. You saw this with the T-34, it was mass produced and far from perfect even in its construction (I live near Bovington Tank museum which has a T-34 and its build quality is pretty shoddy compared to the US, British and German tanks they have on display) but very effective, it did exactly what the Russians needed it to do and only the most important upgrades (switching from the 57mm to the 85mm as the war went on) were done because what had been 'good enough' was no longer the case. I get the feeling that Homecoming is kind of falling to the problem of "better is the enemy of good enough" with regards the easiest to move dev costume pieces. They don't NEED to be perfect, they just need to be functional. There are many more examples of this, for example the big chunky IDF pieces (and yes I made a point of not using the belt which would be problematic since it clips with anything not tights): All we're asking is for the HC team to be as direct with use as possible about what the Issue is with regards these pieces. Like the ones listed so far in this topic, why is moving them from dev to player going to cause major issues? What needs to be done in order for these to be moved over? Is it a simple case of switching a flag or is there a more detailed process? I'm with Vile on this, you definitely need to be more open on things like this, just saying 'it doesn't measure up to our quality' doesn't really cut it (and I mean that in the most respectful way). You've got some people in this very thread offering to do the work of transferring them over FOR you or OuroDev has already enabled these pieces on their servers. If you need someone to go through and literally list every costume piece that is fine as is and could be transferred and other pieces which are CLEARLY not ready to be transferred because there are major clipping issues, they're in the wrong category, they cover MORE than one category (the Ouroborus Mender stuff is actually ones of these, the items cover shoulders, chest AND belt at the same time and would require being split into their own pieces to work) or shouldn't be (even though, personally, I'm against the whole 'signature heroes get special outfits' gig but well, guess I'd have to respec that). Heck I'm willing to do that right now, I'll sit down with a word document and make notes of both female, male and HUGE to see what pieces have problems, what don't and mark out which ones should be transferred over. Edit: Hell I've just been looking through and ones I THOUGHT would be easy to port over turn out to have numerous pieces in the wrong areas. The PPD Hardshell stuff...MOST of it is fine but there's things like the gloves being in the head detail 1 area (why?) and the same with the 60s Arachnos stuff having what SHOULD be mounted to the gloves (the big spikes) actually be a separate option instead be for the Gloves AND Boots as one piece, once again, in the head detail area (seriously why?!). Now THAT is going to be a pain to fix because essentially you'd have to split up that one costume piece into two separate parts, mesh the parts that should be mounted onto the gloves together with the actual gloves piece and then make it the boots spikes an option and then set it so it can only be one colour without any of the overlays on it (like Sharp, Fat strip etc.). This is the MM pet AI all over again isn't it?

'Lone Wolf' is the badge for the one in the final mission, there is also a badge specifically for telling the Cimeorian Freedom Phalanx to stay behind and solo it yourself which is the 'Knows no Fear' badge. Also there are badges for rescuing the Detective and your Incarnate rival which only appear if you saved them at least once in the other arcs. The other easy way to tell if you've missed a story mission is to see if any of them are still contacts in your list. Remember the Dream Doctor, for example, offers a lead in Mission for the Dilemma Diabolique iTrial which also awards a badge once you do it. If he's still in your contact list, means you might need to complete this mission (just auto-complete it to skip the part about actually doing the iTrial). This part isn't actually listed on the Paragon Wiki as part of his arc and neither is the badge by the looks of things.

I will point out that Super Strength is going to be looked at. The problem is Rage. The entire set is build around having rage constantly active, which means that out of rage it deals just trash damage. The devs tried numerous Rage changes but both them and the community couldn't agree on what was good. Some wanted to keep the double stacking with crash, others wanted it to not be able to double stack but lose the crash cost, others wanted it turned into a toggle... So basically the entire set is going to be looked at and rebalanced, how? No idea but that is what has been said.

I think CoH shutdown at a sort of odd time, we were seeing its transition from what was considered acceptable for MMOs (even F2P ones) at the time into a more CO/STO style F2P model where they were clearly focused on pushing the new hotness along with superpacks as the go-to method of money grabbing, a lot of people forget that MMOs were the pioneers of lootboxes. They were basically told from, on high, that new coolness for money was better than fixing old busted stuff. I mean look at modern NCsoft MMOs filled to the brim with loot boxes and grindy gameplay, it's no wonder CoH never really fit their model especially since it bombed in their home country. We've seen that, apart from Guild Wars 2 (which I put down more to ArenaNet than NCsoft), they couldn't care less about their MMOs/MOBAs succeeding in the west anymore and focus solely on Korea as being their market.

Reading this thread just confirmed for me that Assault Rifle is just the worst on Sentinels and really needs some looking at. I mean personally the AT as a whole needs a massive overhaul and rework, the concept is sound but Sentinels as they are now are just...meh...they're jack of all, master of none, middle roady and positively beige. Blasters can, minus mez protection, become just as tough as Sentinels with IO builds nullifying their major advantage but Sentinels cannot deal as much damage as blasters using IO build. A bit more survivable than a blaster, not quite to the same degree as a scrapper, damage which both their competition (I'm not including stalkers because they're single target extraordinare) craps on from a relative height. In a world of specialists they do everything to an 'ok' degree which means they don't stand out from the crowd.

This is something I cannot argue with. Having recently looked at a thread where Sunsette looks through all the Sentinel Primaries, Assault rifle is dead last in terms of both single target and AoE just behind Dual pistols...something really needs to be done because AR right now on Sentinel, at least to me, feels weaksauce.

This is my point. There are server options available. The major Issue 24 servers do not have the easy incarnates that Homecoming has, you have to unlock them the old school way by running the iTrials, with the Hybrid slot only unlocked by running Magisterium. If people want things more difficult we're not saying "go play another MMO" we're saying "Go play the same MMO on a different server cluster". If people want things even easier there is, as both myself and now Grouchybeast have mentioned, the 'We Have Cake' team which will give you insta-50, insta-tier 4 incarnates and enough inf to completely IO out your build however you see fit. If people are really hardcore about difficulty, the source code is out there and you simply could make your own server and call it it something like CoH: Tough Puppy or whatever. That is the one point I almost never see addressed in these complaints, if you're that dedicated to wanting a higher difficulty, make your own server, removing the option for IOs and limit yourself to purely SOs and HOs as the best you can get, it's not like HC have a tyrannical rule that states 'thou cannot make a new server and do it your way'. They want homecoming to be more difficult when there are server options out there that cater to them, as the rising popularity of We Have Cake has proven there is a call for having thing easier. I almost never see or hear of these people complaining on the COXG, Rebirth, Thunderspy etc. discords it's always Homecoming that they come to and complain. So if even those servers aren't difficult enough for you, why aren't you complaining at them to make a change? Also for people that say the same was challenging, I'll point you back to the time I made a crapload of inf on a level 49 character who was used as a bridging service for the Council map farms. They weren't uncommon either, you saw numerous people advertising council or freakshow farm maps for PLing purposes and would sell spots for influence. Those roses tinted glasses of yours seem to ignore the fact that PLing was always going on and it was always pretty numerous. I have noticed a wave of these people (about 3 or 4 to be honest) all of a sudden, all cropping up at the same time, if I was a more cynical individual I would suspect conspiracy but A) I'm not that crazy and B) Well that's just the way people are I guess. However. What everyone seems to agree on is increased notoriety options. Extended the mob levels up to +8 means those same mobs reward more inf and xp per mob death. There you go, there is your reward, you earning more inf and XP quicker.

I'm not asking for THOSE pieces I'm pointing out that there are pieces literally ready to go, that are in the correct categories, that are fully function with no clipping or wonky model warping in sight. The three I listed in the picture are completely functional without any sort of problem.

Going to have to agree somewhat with Bossk_Hogg and Vileterror here. There are plenty of examples that don't break those rules. The pieces I included in my examples are all anchored correctly, already fully customizable, they're all ready to go they honestly just need the dev only tag removing. I'm talking about the specific pieces in the pictures. This being the Athletic Tights option, the Ladybot tights and face option (which isn't used by Nightstar, that is a seperate set of pieces) and the Robo-victoria gloves which aren't AV exclusive, they're used by boss level Warworks NPCs. The Lamatsu Chest piece and Belt aren't tied to a 'signature NPC', its in one arc for like 3 missions. The only piece that may be problematic is the Robo-victoria gloves just because it will clip with various emotes but so do Capes. I, agree with what has been said here, this idea of 'quality' is rather silly in my opinion. If something works and looks fine. I get your busy but you recently noted that more costume options was like the number 1 demand from the community. If pieces that don't clip, that are already not wonky in any way (no bad anchor points, no holes in them, already in the correct places, like the above examples) then I honestly don't see what the hold up is. If other servers can implement them without much issue I really can't understand why Homecoming is being so...reserved...when it comes to NPC pieces.

I think the other major problem is that we're essentially halfway through the Incarnate content. From what we could tell the next set of Incarnate trials, with the Battalion, would have been challenging for fully t4 everything characters since it was basically the case the devs expected you to be at least all rare in every slot once you got to the new set. as Posi said in an AMA, the Battalion were meant to be level 100 whereas even with ALL the incarnate powers (including the ones unlocked by the Battalion iTrials) we'd be level 60 at best. You can also see this in the ramp up of difficulty from the three early iTrials with BAF, Lambda and Keyes being not too tough with slowly increasing difficulty, Then TPN and Minds of Mayhem is a step up in difficulty from those. The Magisterium trial represents another step up in difficulty (Dilemma Diabolique is the odd duck here since it is easier than Minds of Mayhem IMO). So I imagine that with the next set we'd be seeing additional, more difficult, mechanics.

Yeah I had noticed this, was kind of pain seeing people run all over the place but thankfully it's going to be fixed.

I'm not disagreeing with you that the communication should run both ways. Communication for BOTH sides is key.

That is a fair point, I remember dual auras being 'impossible' according to the devs back in the day. I know MM customization was seen as 'Impossible' but the fact you can change your PA from regular to Mirror suggests that model swapping is clearly a thing. Yet here we are...all been solved by OuroDev (I remember the ranged pets staying at ranged first being a thing on one of the i24 servers). I also guess that a lot of stuff was simply shoved far on to the backburner like MM pet customization (I remember Positron being really not keen on the idea and since MM population was pretty low, seen as non-essential I imagine).

There are some minor exceptions, Clamor in the Sister P TF (not the Yin TF) will downgrade to an elite boss if you're on +0/x1 settings, I think there's a few others like the various Mender Taskforces but they're sort of meant to be run solo.

Still I might have to PM one of the devs to see if I can get a response, who knows. I do remember seeing that one of the i24 servers had implemented model swapping for MMs somewhere in the back of my mind. I remember seeing that Bots could switch to Council/5th Column Mekmen and Malta Titans as options (would love to get me some Malta titans, especially since The boss Titan and the Assault Bot have all the same attacks (apart from flamethrower).

That would be part of the communication is key thing yes.

I am honestly curious as to why devs, who were clearly paid and knew the code better couldn't figure out how to stop ranged pets running into melee but a group who do this in their free time, came in to this blind without any sort of background in the CoH code worked it out.

The lesson here is basically...communication is key. Before you join mention that you're just trying to get the badge/merits and want it does as fast as possible. Now on taskforces like Synapse EVERYONE usually wants it done ASAP, the same with Dr Q or Citadel. The thing is those taskforces are incredibly boring so of course people want to get them over with ASAP. If you ask and the team leader says that they're going to see how it goes and increase the difficulty for XP gains, mention that you'd really not and if they insist, bow out. Now something like a Yin TF which can be completed in about 30 minutes, the Team Leader might set it higher because A) it's short and B) it's 90% Freakshow, which are great for XP gain. If you need the badge there is the option to run it solo on base settings through Oro as the Sister P TF, it even drops the AV down to an EB if you have it set to +0/x1. It might take you a touch longer (it actually won't...there's a thread on the guide section which outlines it taking about 30-45 minutes if you know what to do and what to skip) but you haven't got any other people to worry about.

Yeah. I mean there was the guy who beat Dark Souls with a Guitar hero guitar controller or someone who did it using a dance mat, those guys are awesome. There's also a professional Street Fighter player (who has been to EVO) that is a quadriplegic and competes using only his mouth and nose (he actually places pretty well in tournaments), all my respect to those guys. So if you can beat, I don't know, lets say a Positron 1 with your hands behind your back and only using your face I'd be all over seeing that, I'd even give it a like on youtube.

One thing I will accept is, rather that increasing the base games difficulty, is adding more difficulty options to the notoriety system. Mobs of a higher level already rewards more XP and Inf so that is its own reward if you want to fight, I don't know +6/x8 you get to earn more inf and faster XP (which translates to quicker vet levels even at 50) plus its bragging rights that you beat a taskforce on that difficulty level, sure the rewards at the end are exactly the same but YOU did it on a higher difficulty.

Here's the thing, I've played enough MMOs to know EXACTLY what these kind of players are, you see them in ALL MMOs and 9/10 they are the vainglorious sort that simply wants to be 'better than other people'. These are the sort of people that cried for Heroics to be harder in Cataclysm and when they got genuinely tough heroics, they complained it was too hard and they were nerfed back down again. Contrary to the post above people DO play MMOs to feel better than other people. So often I've seen people use the fact that they raid heroic as to why they're opinion on everything matters more than a player who only does LFR because they're not 'simple casuals'. The thing is if you genuinely want a challenge, if you think that things should be tough, why isn't a challenge mode an option? If you want difficult content then it should be for the sake of it being something difficult to do, rewards be damned. You do it because you can, because it's tough and yet you made it through, the fact that you did it when others couldn't should stand as testament and the only thing you need. The Mythic first raiders don't do it 'for the loot' they do it because they're achieving something incredibly difficult and the recognition they get for achieving it by being the very first to get there. In fact doing it simply because the rewards are better actually makes these sorts of thing kind of pointless, I mean if its just for the rewards then you're not doing it because its something you simply CAN do, it's because you HAVE to and that ain't my mojo baby. Rock climbers don't do it because it makes them better than other people they do it BECAUSE THEY CAN. THAT is what challenging content is and that's what its rewards should be. I did Dark Souls 1 fist weapon only runs, SL1 runs, base equipment only runs, whip only runs. Not because I got some reward out of it or it made me feel better than someone who summoned for every boss fight but because I sat there and wondered if I could, my reward was recognition on the Eurogamer forums with me being 'that challenge guy' who people would come to for advice if they were stuck during their own challenge runs. Let's say that CoH was an, inherently difficult game and when asked 'is there things I can do to make this easier' and you got told the usual example of 'git gud or GTFO' from the trolls but you actually got some helpful answers in there as well. In the Souls series games, in the Touhou series of games, the community will help you as much as they can with advice, guides etc. but they can't play the game for you, at some point you're going to have to get some muscle memory going and break through the brickwall infront of you because that's just how the games were designed. CoH is the opposite of that.

The funny thing is...if he wants things the 'old school' way COXG, Rebirth and Thunderspy are right over there. You COULD go play on those if they wanted...so why they're here complaining about Homecoming difficulty I'm not sure...That's the joy of having multiple server options, if you don't like how one is run, go to the other one. By contrast if people want it uber-easy there's the 'we have cake' server which will auto-boost you to 50, unlock all your incarnate slots with enough salvage to very rare all of them and give you more than enough inf to fully IO a build to a ridiculous degree.