gameboy1234

I like this idea. I'd like to see a couple more roles added in (like the original five ATs), but the HC team are volunteers and I don't want to overload them with requests. Let's see how folks react and take it from there. If all goes well more work can be done and Prismatic Aethers added too.

An extended tutorial, even it it just info dumps information on you, would be a good idea for some of the suggestions in this thread. Trying to do too much at the beginning is going to overload players, but pacing it out would help a lot. I'd like to see: Pool Powers in general are poorly explained, imo. I think I'd like to see the pool powers added to the regular power screen. Right now the right side of that screen is just blank, with a button way up at the top, and I think that can be confusing. Either add the pool powers to that screen, greyed out and blank, or maybe add four buttons that say "Choose a pool power!" or something, just so there's a more obvious thing to click so players will be encouraged to explore the pool power menu. A more general explanation (part of some extended tutorial) of pool powers, what they do, and how they work would re-enforce this. I'm not sure where I'd put this tutorial. I'd say add it to Twinshot's second arc, but I don't know how many players actually complete that arc. I'm not sure I've ever seen a pop up telling me Twinshot wants to talk to me again, and I think I frequently blow past it with out realizing it's available. Some NPC with a pop-up would be preferable.

I went back through the tutorial on the current build, this time through Breakout. Overall I found it a much nicer experience than blue side (where I was sent to the original contacts in City Hall). The tutorial (esp. the distance between NPCs that I have to talk to) is much crisper, and gets the trivial stuff out of the way quicker. The only thing I noticed is that some NPCs would repeat their starting (introduction) text after I accepted a mission, which was weird and confusing. Sorry but I didn't write any of these down. I *think* it was H.T. (Find Nurse) and Angel Lopez (Talk to Mr. Verde). After Breakout I accept Kalinda as my contact and overall the experience was pretty good. I don't think any real large changes are needed here. Some small points: 1. A lot of snake holes (the mission entrance) are very subtle decals dropped on the map, and the yellow map marker for the entrance is off by a meter or two. New players might easily be confused. Try to scooch the markers closer to the entrance, and if the entrance could be made more distinct and noticeable I think that would help a lot as well. (Maybe a displacement map added to the decal? This would at least not require new geometry.) 2. Navigation is pretty tough still. The streets in Mercy (the walled area next to the docks where players start) are all kinda samey, and the buildings are tall enough that they block what visual markers do exist. Anything to aid player navigation would be helpful. I think maybe the minimum would be to add some searchlights that reach all the way to the skybox, and make sure they are visible all throughout the starting area (draw distance). (Arachnos is under attack by Longbow, so searchlights would make sense.) I'm envisioning some red searchlights (evil, right?) that just happen to be placed directly above the elevators (entrance) to the docks, and some white searchlights that are on the walls directly behind the player starting area.

At least some of the TF starter mission text is unclear or rather minimalist. If there's a planned "spiff up TF mission introduction text" pass planned, a nice orange text warning about "recommend a full team" or something would be a good addition. (Positron: "Character, how are you?" Literally that's all he says. Hey maybe explain to me what the TF is about and what my choices mean? The "Discuss events" player choice text should clearly indicate that they're starting a TF and which one.)

Just making pasta (throwing stuff against the wall to see if it sticks): require a trip to Null the Gull to unlock TF team sizes less than 6. Might be a bit of a pita, but we all seem to make the trip anyway so it's just one more thing as long as you're there. It might keep new players from making mistakes until they're a bit more experienced.

This is super minor but could contacts be sorted by relationship by default? I find that almost always matches what makes sense to me. Sorting them by name makes the contact I'm working with disappear when I complete a mission, which is what always reminds me I have to switch the default sorting yet again.

Thing is, we don't need "diversity" to play the game well. 8 Defenders, 8 Masterminds, 8 Tankers (I miss Tanker Tuesday), 8 Corruptors, 8 Dominators, 8 Brutes, are all equally likely to be a "good" team as one with 5 different ATs. Some suggestions up-thread had suggestions for "all same AT" as well as "5 different ones." That would encourage players to experiment and actually learn to play the game, rather than jut accepting the idea that one requires different ATs in order to do well. More "diversity" in the types of teams that the game encourages you to try would help people learn more.

Random thought: if you go with the idea of having an NPC give a tour of Atlas, at the end they could say "BTW while you were dealing with Outbreak, Galaxy City happened, blah blah." and then the player has an excuse to feel they were informed about the events before talking to Matthew. If any part of Matthew's text refers to events that the player personally dealt with, then that text should be changed to the player understanding the events happened, but not necessarily to them personally. Might smooth things over.

This is getting very extra, but I'll add some suggestions here ("extra" means I'm just piling stuff on here, might be too much to implement). Having Ms. Lib finish the intro with a short tour of Atlas Park after the Outbreak tutorial might extend the tutorial nicely. We should at least think about doing the same red side. 1. Send the player to P2W so they know where she's at. 2. P2W could say "Hey remember that you can use Enhancements to increase your powers? Here's some more for you." And then just dump the prestige enhancements on the player. That way new players don't have to know to go look for them. 3. I think P2W has a really weird menu for new players. Is there any real reason that new players should know what the old Prestige Powers are and why they're listed as such? I think it might be better to list all powers by function -- travel, attack, utility, fun, etc. -- and then just list all powers in the appropriate category. List temporary powers here too and just mark them clearly as temporary. 4. Now that I think about it, it might be OK to list some powers as "Beginning Powers" or "Starting Powers" or something, and just put all the early freebie powers there, plus the cheap jetpack. Means new players have one stop to find all the starting goodies. 5. Prob should also have Ms. Lib point out where the store(s) (the Longbow ones) are so players can buy and sell. 6. When I did Outbreak and got sent to Johnathan St. James Smythe, he sent me to read the history plaque of Atlas. This was a nice touch, explaining to players that the plaques are an intractable thing. Could have Ms Lib do the same if those missions aren't going to be used any more. 7. Could also have Ms Lib send the player to Longbow Sewer Inspector to learn about DFB. (I mentioned this already but I wanted to include it in this list.) 8. Finally Ms Lib should send the player to Matthew Habashy rather than one of the old contacts inside City Hall. OK, I think I got that all out of my system. Thanks for working hard on this for us!

I just looked this up (for other reasons). "Collective nouns" are nouns that refer to a group of things: team, group, committee, people, class, family, etc. Yes, they are singular and take singular verbs: "The team is here now," not "the team are here now." Very occasionally it is correct to use the plural verb with a collective noun, if you are emphasizing the individual members of the group. It is super rare though. "The committee participate in various volunteer activities in their private lives." https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/grammar/subjectverbagreement

After scratching my head and realizing that I don't think I've started in Praetoria for over 4 years, I finally figured out that those images were buttons that you need to click. It's a bit weird to ask players to make choices like this before they have any idea what is going on. Possibly add Praetoria to the Outbreak/Breakout/Galaxy City choice dialog (the one at the end of character creation), again with the explanation that it's harder content for experienced players.

Thoughts: 1. Start of tutorial, could Sprint be activated by default? I'm running pretty slow and new players might not know to click it. 2. Doctor Miller: "There's an Information Terminal next to me for you to read." Yeah, I'm never going to click on one of those again. Maybe a glowie of some sort? The mission updates from the Terminal back to Officer Flint with no hint during the text I just read. Might be better to mention that I'll be going back to Flint in the info text. Players might not be used to looking up at the Nav bar yet. 3. Officer Flint pass me to Officer Parks but there's still a yellow arrow over his head. These should probably disappear when a contact is no longer active. 4. Holy cats I run slow! 5. Ok Parks tells me to click on powers. Well thanks a lot dude, that was a slow run over here. 6. I have Tranq Dart and Athletic Run but neither those appear in my starting tray. 7. There's no mission update or dialog at the end of Coyote's mission to tell the player to return to Coyote and speak with him. All you get is a blank Nav bar. OK that's about it, otherwise, working as intended I think. Opps, one more: in Atlas Park, I have Johnathan St. James Smythe as my contact and marked on the nav bar, but I was told to go to Ms Lib. Might be confusing. Ms Lib should probably tell me to talk the Matthew Habashy. (Edit again: talk to Iris Parker, defeat all zombies in the sewer, yeah I'm directed to start the old introductory mission sets. Besides Habashy might want to send me to the "Longbow Sewer Inpector" to learn about DFB. (That's a job? How bad do you have to eff up for Longbow to put you in charge of inspecting sewers?)

Well this is new. And cool. Or did I just miss it in the patch notes? Haven't tried any of this so far, will give a go soon ish. One idea from me is that Outbreak is indeed kinda tedious, but I agree it's the better tutorial. So maybe update Outbreak to be a little more streamlined in the future?

There is a lot of "BAMF!" in this update.

Or Faultline... I mean, Arachnos is already there in force.

Just as an aside, if this feature gets removed, another way to add Inf and items for new players is to just dump them on players during one of the intro missions. For example, Manticore could show up at the end of Twinshot's first arc and say "I'm rich AF, here's a Prismatic Aether." I don't think this is valuable enough to make the arc feel mandatory but it would help out new players who will often be the one's to run that arc. Ditto for Dr. Graves, he could say at the end of the arc "Our mysterious benefactor has decided that you will receive one of these" and there's a Prismatic Aether. Also, besides valuables, new players don't know about P2W, so it might be nice to add one or more arcs to those intro missions that direct a player to talk to P2W so they know where she's at. Heck, the mission could just dump some goodies on players, like the basic free attacks, prestige enhancements, and explain what the free movement powers do. Or, during this one intro mission, P2W could have an abbreviated menu listing just the free powers and letting the player choose which ones they want. Finally while I'm thinking about it, P2W has confusing menus for new players. Is there any reason a new player should understand what powers used to be "prestige powers" when the game was live? It's weird, honestly. I think all powers should be listed by what category they fit into, what they do, like attacks or movement or just for fun. That should be the top menu. Then powers get listed under those categories. Temporary powers should be carefully marked as such.

I think I have to agree. Asked to come down on one side or another, I'd have to go with I don't like it. It purports to tell people how to play (that's what Cobalt actually said) while doing something different. Better to make it a fun challenge sort of thing than trying to make it instructional. Thus I'd like to see something like the lists of challenges like some folks have started proposing (like Bastille Boy just above) rather than trying to evaluate the correct "role" for individual archetypes.

I like it too, rather a lot and more than the original idea. A "Team Composition Challenge" might be a fun idea to add to the gameplay. I do like the "original five" and the "villainous five" challenges. Back on Champion we had Tanker Tuesday where all tanker teams would do missions together. All "x" missions would be fun, curated a bit just to make sure we don't add one that's too hard (all blaster? just bring Vengeance). All tanker, all scrapper lock all the time, all defender, all controller, all dom, all VEAT (soldiers and widows), these sound like neat ideas for a extra game play idea. If this is pitched as a "fun extra" rather than "learn to play" I think a lot of the original objections go away, because now you're not telling people it's how you *should* play.

Part way through the Oberst Straxt arc. Overall it's great. I don't mind the tone of the missions, I think the text would work for all my villains and rogues. He's paying so why not work for him? And yeah, the shorter tighter mission text is nice, even helps Straxt to sound like more of a jerk. The only thing I'd mention is that in several of the early missions you're told to plant bombs and burn the structure down (warehouse, ship, etc.). I'd be nice if at the end of the mission the whole place did burst into flame. Bonus points if you give the player a "detonator" power that allows them to trigger the explosion, which requires planting all bombs first.

Yeah, I think this would be my biggest concern. It's an artificial distortion of the community and the game mechanics, and seems like it might do at least some harm. We were all new at some point and we learned how to play. No reason others can't learn too. (And by "learn" I mean at least a few team wipes and the occasional disbandment of a TF. It happens.) I don't know that this will definitely harm the game, but I'm a little nervous. The motivation is good -- teach people how to play and make some nice extras for players. Not sure about the implementation though. OTOH letting it ride and go to live isn't unreasonable as long as it isn't considered a done deal and might be open to tweaking or removal later if needs be. (I'll add somewhat humorously that any "learn to team" system that doesn't let people put eight defenders on a team and tell them to go for it isn't actually teaching people to play CoH.)

I think this is the idea. Night Widows get the same combo. Almost invisibility in Mask Presence, and then Smoke Grenade to let the player slip past spawns if needed. Keeping a second spawn on pause is also something I've done, and it can be handy. The -To-Hit is useful on teams as it effectively adds to defense. It's not meant to be a world-beating power, it's a little bit of role-play and a convenience that some players might prefer. It's skippable if you don't want that convenience. That's about it.

Playing a level 20 Arsenal Control / Arsenal Assault Dominator in Striga, the set is basically fun. I'm playing against +0 enemies in missions. I have to be careful how I set up attacks and use powers, but if I am I can steadily work my way through almost any groups of mobs with little risk. It's a bit slow, but it is steady. I do have to pay attention, I can't just button mash and expect the powers to do it all for me. Not sure how it plays at higher levels, but it feels OK at the middle levels. I think other controllers and doms felt kinda weak at this level, so feels par for the course right now.

Well thaaaat's interesting...

Looking good. I love the VEAT customization, can't wait to log in and check it out.

Hmm, the beta test server got a fairly chunky update this morning... Edit: can't log in yet though.