gameboy1234

Realism: Face it, CoX was designed by people living in California. Winter is something that that happens to other people. We only get snow for exactly two weeks right around Christmas, and only shop windows. It can be easily tidied up over a weekend and put away for next year. All alien planets look exactly like Southern California chaparral, and all seasons consist of mostly nice with only occasional rain.

I think this is a good point. For me (Bots/FF) FF is just so darn passive. And that's because the only good powers back on live were the strictly defensive ones, the controls in FF kinda sucked for one reason or another. Fixing the control powers would be a first step I think (and sounds like they're already part way there). An absorb mechanic might be cool but I'd like to see a plan to fix the set first, then see where we're at. If all sets converge around one or two ideas (Absorb or -Res) then all sets are fundamentally the same, and I don't think that's a good thing.

Oh, I meant my post: I copied the idea straight out of EQ. I didn't mean anyone else was copying. Sorry about that.

Actually I thought it would be selfish for me to ask this, but I'd love to see this as well.

I like this, I've had the same suggestion for Sonic Attack and Sonic Resonance. A wrist mounted option would be great, so would a one handed pistol and a two handed rifle. These latter I think are already in the game, so it shouldn't be too crazy to add. Specifically for Sonic I'd like to see a different sound, I really hate the growling "I scream at them" sound and animation that's in game right now. A rock-and-roll guitar noise was suggested. I'd like to see a musical harp sound, and maybe some sort of electronic retro sci-fi "Buzzzaaaap!" sound. For sonic I'd also like to see some options for holding a musical instrument, but that's getting more art intensive right now.

The idea is that combining two powers into one is OK, since they basically do the same thing (I always thought it odd that FF had those two powers that seemed nearly identical.) One way to combine them would be just to put the KB and Repel effect into the same PBAoE power. I think that would work. The idea here is to free up one additional slot, so that we can add a whole new power without disturbing the rest of the set too much. Now that I think about it, we have powers now that add three powers for just one pick (Bio Armor does this, for ex.). With one new slot power in FF, we could add more than one power to the set. So a few more ways to spice up FF exist if we do that.

Yup, I'd like something like this too. If Repulsion Bomb is now good and folks want to keep it, we can combine the two "Keep away" powers like I suggested earlier and just add a new power that does the implosion thing, but either way I'd like to see a "gather together" power that basically does the opposite of AoE KB. Gather a bunch of foe into one spot.

Just saw this thread. I played a Bots/FF to 50 and beyond on live, and I may be biased a bit by having a primary that actually kills things, but here some thoughts by me. I didn't know about this change either, not sure how I feel about it (and I haven't played it). I'd just make PFF add a bit of +Def and that's it (maybe around +7% to +10% or so). It stacks with Dispersion Field and Leadership so you'd have to be careful to not go overboard. Maybe Ranged and AoE only, but not Melee. Done. Possibly this is a power MMs shouldn't get because they'd be too tough with it. I always liked the single target mitigation FB provided, it's a much more precision tool that Rep. Field. I also liked the -Fly in FB, that's very very handy (and a lot of folks don't know about, or maybe it was MMs only). Maybe make it do a bit more damage for a primary, as a MM secondary it's fine. Personally I would not change this at all. Just make it a regular hold. If the Homecoming wants they can keep the the "oh shit" aspect of it and make it a Mag 4 or Mag 4.5 hold on a super long timer. If not then just make it a Mag 2 or less hold on a regular timer, maybe even give it a small Targeted AoE effect to hold a small group. On live this just did KB I think and I dropped it fast. If it does damage and KD it feels fine to me. Upping the damage a bit would be nice but MMs do damage already, however AoE mitigation is always appreciated. These two I never played with much, mostly because I already had a wall of metal to stand behind. What I personally would really like is an AoE power (not PBAoE) that gathers all enemies together. Basically the reverse of AoE KB. All mobs in the effect range get yoinked towards the center of the AoE effect. This would be very handy and I think unique in the game and it would make the FF set truly distinct and sought after. I think what I would do is combine Rep. Field and Force Bub. into ONE power that does ALL the "Keep away from me" and then add a new AoE (not PBAoE!!) that does the gather together thing. Just my two Inf. Other powers that you identify as fine are also fine with me. Good luck to everyone on getting some improvements for FF!

I like the idea of a harder game. However I think I'd like to not change the game we have now too, a lot of folks are very comfortable with how it plays. So if anything changes, what I'd propose is a new "hard mode" server where folks can try out the harder game but aren't required to play it. They can return to the easier servers at any time. How this works with the Homecoming team and financials, I don't know. Folks would have to figure that out, it may or may not be possible. But I think it would the best way to approach making the game harder.

This is copied straight from the original Everquest: "Runners" in EQ used to fetch help. You could develop huge trains this way. In EQ it was crucial to stop runners before they got to a second group because they'd cascade: now with more mobs it's even harder to catch the low hp runners, who fan out and bring more, who then cascade onto you. So I'd add that mechanic: runners who take off at low HP have a small pbaoe "taunt" that transfers their hate-list to any mobs they run past. Such new mobs will then proceed to attack (and move towards) the players they now hate. To prevent this from being completely off the hook, when a runner gets enough friends ("enough" being left to AI programmers and balance) it stops being afraid and also returns to fight the players.

Bio Armor isn't as customizable as I'd like. The Adaptation armors -- Efficient Adaptation, Defensive Adaptation, Offensive Adaptation -- are only tintable and I'd like them to also support the Minimal FX option (i.e., no FX at all). Likewise Ablative Carapace seems to require an actual Carapace graphic and is only color tintable -- would like this to display basically nothing at all. And the armors after that -- Evlovling Armor, DNA Siphon, Genetic Contamination, and Parasite Aura -- could all use a minimal FX or at least tone down the SFX by a lot. The first three armors in the set -- at least on a brute -- seem to support a decent minimal FX option (those are Hardened Carapace and, Inexhaustible and Environmental Modification).

I vote on this yesterday. I wonder if voting twice breaks any laws? Seems to work...

Runescape was still at 23% when I voted but CoH was up to 20%. We're solidly just behind the front runner.

I almost always start with plain IOs (not the Sets) as soon as possible, because they're just like SOs, but they don't wear out. At level 22 you can slot IOs that have around the same bonus as SOs, making them totally worth the time investment to make or buy. And below that you can often get IOs cheap on the market because people dump them. That's it. That's my full theory of how to use IOs. 1. Buy at level 22. 2. Below that make cheapo bids on the market. There's a few specific cases where I frankenslot IO Sets at lower levels, such as Widow Mind Link. But those are really rare for me.

A lot of maps are really horribly designed. They should be redone and the old ones retired. Something to look forward to if NC Soft ever lets us go legit I guess.

This seems pretty reasonable. I don't think I knew that Karma actually granted To-Hit and not Accuracy.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Also some people will want Female, Male and Huge versions of each of those models, so potentially leaving some people out or making more work for the devs.

Not pingus, mostly it was BMT of Champion for me. Welcome home nevertheless.

But losing minions isn't that big of a deal. The recharge time to resummon them is pretty quick (I think it's been reduced at least twice; originally it was pretty long). Lose pets, summon more. You shouldn't (imo) be trying to hang onto your minions no matter what. Let them fall, you can make more. I might be biased here because as /FF my minions were tougher than average, but I always found the prospect of letting a bot soak *all* the damage, then resummoning them at full health to be the best prospect overall. (To be clear, you also have to manage your pets, and direct their fire so that they're killing specific targets. Put those targets down, then the enemy is doing less damage. After resummoning your pets will now last longer. If you're not commanding your pets and just letting them do damage willy-nilly then you might lose the second set of minions just as fast as the first.)

Sorry got to be that guy... PVE only: I played a Bots/FF mastermind to 50+ on live. At low levels, running up to a dude and giving him a smack is a fairly significant part of your damage. While the changes are pretty good at around 26+, I wonder if we could get the battle drones at levels 30 (or so) and below marked as "normal" rather than "ranged only." Keeping the assault bot and esp. the protector bots out of melee I think is probably fine. The same idea might apply to other lowest tier pets. These changes can go to the main servers as-is, but if we could get that little tweak for the lowest level pets in a future patch I think everyone would be happy. (Don't forget if you don't want your pets rushing in, that Stay and Go To are still available to you. Just takes a bit more pet management.)

I think this nails it. When it came out, I was disappointed that CoV didn't take place in Paragon City where villains could get up to some real mischief. Stuffing them into a "walled garden" of their own I think in the end was a design mistake. Maybe an easy one to make since foresight is never perfect, but still it would have been cooler to be able to interact with heroes more often.

Those two effects could be added to the one remaining power to allow it to function as both. Or maybe add another IO set that gives the same effect as having the two in one power. Depends on how folks feel about powers and power creep and such like. And I meant "gather foes together" NOT as a PBAoE. That would be silly. Obviously it would have to be one of those powers with a white circular cursor like Tar Patch or Rain of Fire and you place it away from your squishy toon, not where the guys will get you.

Well, justify "needs." A fair number of support sets are mainly relevant in the early and mid game, but fade out in the late game. Empathy and its clone Pain Domination come immediately to mind. Are we going to revamp them too? Or is OK to leave FF, Emp and PD alone. They're fine for someone who wants to play those sets. I played a Bots/FF to 50 and beyond and had plenty of fun. "Power" didn't interest me much, it was more about the journey, which was weird, and fun. But we could make some proposals. Personally I'm bad with the numbers end of this game, so I don't really know what to do about it. (Well, and to be fair the Bots have a load of -Regen, which is usually helpful on high end content.) Maybe a Set IO that goes in PBAoE Repel and offers some goodie against high level foes.

If this happens, I'd also ask for a global proc for Brawl. Seems an obvious place to put such a power. Brawl, Sprint, Rest, and maybe one of the Health pool powers too, since everyone has that now.