PeregrineFalcon

Yeah, I saw the article yesterday. The game's not supposed to launch until end of 2022. Of course this upcoming open beta was supposed to happen a couple of months ago, so who knows when it'll actually launch. Of the three CoH spiritual successors this was the one that I was most excited for. I've become incredibly less excited as the years have drug on, and now not at all that CoH itself is back. If it ever launches I'll check it out. *shrug*

I'm talking about making the Shadow Shards fun and challenging. You're talking about making them annoying. Not the same thing. 🤪

I understand your point of view, and I don't entirely disagree with you. I do think that fixing the power creep will require a little more in depth and complexity than what you've proposed, but I don't think that your solution is inherently wrong. However, I think that the developers have chosen to solve the exact same problem as you, just from the other side of the equation. By raising the inherent ToHit of critters in the Challenge Mode content, they're doing exactly what you recommend. Raising NPC's ToHit lowers PC's softcap, it just does it from the other end of the equation. So it appears to me that the developers are already doing what you want. Lowering the softcap. They're just doing it in a way that's less obvious to the players and only in end game Challenge Mode content.

Part of the problem is that some people think that killing is always morally wrong. This is clearly not true no matter which deity or moral code you subscribe to. (Yes, there's always an exception to every rule. Blah, blah, blah.) The real question is: "When is it justified?" That's where a lot of people disagree. For some people their line is closer to Superman's (Christopher Reeve version), mine's closer to Rorschach's. "God doesn't make the world this way. We do."

A recent thread made me start thinking about the Shadow Shards again. What if they were made into the zone(s) that were truly a challenge for Incarnate teams? +5 bosses with special powers. EBs leading an outdoor ambush after a completed mission. Maybe even some unique and weird GMs wandering around certain floating islands. Zone invasion events, but with Battalion or something new. Basically like the revamped Dark Astoria, but an actual challenge. And definitely co-op so that villains can get their Incarnate drops/threads too. (Sorry Warpact. Not trying to steal your thunder, but your thread seems to have devolved into a PvP discussion thread.)

An aura like a glowie aura around a character? Or like a mishappen ball of chiton glued the side of my character's head? See, that's why I've never played Bio Armor.

What I want to know is... Can I play Bio Armor without the horrible FX?

Correct. Protecting people's rights is one thing. But once you start passing laws protecting people from the consequences of their actions you get chaos and the downfall of society. So you'd prefer a situation in which the police can take me (or you) to jail simply because I look like an "obvious threat"? There have been places in the world like that. The Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, The United Kingdom under King George (which we rebelled against, you may recall). Our Constitution and legal system are designed to protect us against that kind of horrible authoritarianism. So you'd prefer a world in which every upset and/or scorned woman can have you arrested by simply claiming that you're a threat? Yeah. That ability would never get abused, no sir! Wow. I'd hate to live in your world.

Yeah, but those are infrequent and usually portrayed as risky maneuvers. They can be explained by the usual technobabble. Matter in a warp bubble doesn't move. The warp bubble moves space around it. So the warp bubble takes that bit of space and warps space until that bit of space (the air and the away team) is on the planet. You can't move the away team faster than light anymore than you can move a ship faster than light. The ship doesn't move. The space around it does, much like the universe expanding does. This is why ships "accelerating" at warp speed don't squish the crew. The ship isn't actually accelerating in the Newtonian sense.

What they could have done is say that the Transporter creates a warp bubble around the away team and quickly moves them to the surface of the planet, matches velocity, and then dissipates, leaving the away team on the ground. This would give the transporters the same basic parameters shown in the show, make them more reliable, and would require like .001% of the energy that dematerialization/rematerialization requires. And it would have the added benefit of not killing tranportees, it would simply move them.

While not entirely wrong, the actually situation is far more complicated than this simple statement implies.

We actually have "Challenge Zones" in the game right now, but rather than use them people prefer to come to the forums and whine that "Game too easy, bruh!" New Dark Astoria. There are level 54s on the street and repeatable missions (like scanner/newspaper missions) there as well. I often play there and that zone is deserted. Monster Island. Just north of My Island. It's covered with GM's. A couple of those should be a challenge for an 8 man team. The Hive. Like Monster Island, but it's an entire zone. Incarnate Trials. "But Peregrine, that'd require me to talk to an actual living person. I'm a dedicated soloist, a lone wolf." Yeah, whatever.

Yes. On TNG they introduced Replicators. These are essentially small transporters that use a pattern in memory to materialize small things like plates of food or cups of Earl Grey tea. They don't technically create matter from nothing, they create it from energy drawn from the ship's power plant. So there's no reason that they couldn't take a snapshot of you when you're beamed down and then use that information to repair you when you're beamed back up to the ship. Don't bother doing the math though. The amount of energy needed to convert it into a cup of tea, with that kind of detail and accuracy, would be something on the order of several seconds of the full output of the sun. A society with the level of technology to do that would also allow you to travel to other star systems without a space ship.

Like I said, "Men get arrested. Skulls get put down!"

I never saw that one coming. 🙄

Here's what I believe will happen over the next year: Challenge Mode will be proliferated to all Task Forces and many level 50 storyline missions. A major rework of Sentinels will make them not suck. Assault Rifle will have some 'fixes' applied, but will still suck. Mercenaries will be fixed and no longer suck. Scrappers will still not have Super Strength. Tankers will still not have Energy Aura. .

No lie in my life. I've always known that my fireballs don't have a stun setting. Men get arrested. Skulls get put down!

Yes. Because: I want people who love using the system to make their characters über still be able to do so. I want the ability to make my characters über if I have the time and desire to do so. The developers are in the process of proliferating a new difficulty mode that will require your characters to be über just to survive. So nerfing defense and/or IOs right now makes no sense. That being said, after the developers have proliferated the new difficulty mode more, and more people have had a chance to spend a great deal of time with it, then we should talk about whether or not defense and/or IOs and/or Incarnate abilities are still too powerful. Until then? Motion denied! 😁

I specifically said SOs or level 25 non-set IOs, not TOs. Way to use hyperbole to dismiss the point that I made. Pro tip: people aren't going to want to respond to you when they see that ignore the completely legitimate points they are making. What part of the "devs are proliferating this system" did you miss? It's been mentioned in this thread at least 3 times. It's going to take some time, just as implementing any suggestion will. If the devs do decide to nerf IO sets just as you want them to, that'll will take time to code and implement too. And at no point did I ever say that I am content for challenge seekers to have only one TF to play. I even suggested other challenges as well. At this point you're not even responding to the statements that I'm actually making. Instead you're deliberately twisting every point I make. That being the case I'm done wasting my time responding to you. That may change if you ever decide to start responding to the words that I've actually written instead of just making stuff up as you have been in this thread.

The developers have already developed a new difficulty system that they're in the process of proliferating throughout the entire game. Do you seriously want them to create a third difficulty system on top of all of that? Maybe what would be better is if people either went and played the Aeon SF with the new difficulty system and/or AE 801 missions and stopped spending time on the forums complain that "game too easy, bruh!" There are ways to challenge yourself that do not involve unslotting your Incarnate abilities and/or set IOs. How about you all use those systems instead of starting another "game too easy, bruh" thread?!?

See, that's where the problem lies, @arcane It's the perception that you, and a lot of people like you have. Not everyone uses set IOs or even IOs at all. I regularly play CoH with a group of 2 - 5 close friends. Of them I'm the only one that has any set IOs slotted at all. And in my case it's usually just a Performance shifter proc and/or a Panacea HP/End proc. Most of my friends don't have more than 1 level 50 character, and even that level 50 usually still has just level 25 non-set IOs slotted. And only then because I make the level 25 IOs, fill up the base storage with them, and I keep reminding everyone to not waste Inf on SOs and just slot the IOs once they reach level 22. I can play at +4 x8 on exactly 1 character. My main, a tank with set IOs. But without other characters with me even that character will die eventually or take forever to complete a mission. I have another 50 with set IOs. A blaster. And that character isn't at the soft cap, having only 38% ranged defense. The point being that a lot of people, including myself most of the time, and all of my friends, play this game casually and don't use the IO system at all. People have told me that it's more effort than they want to put into it and they'd rather just play on +1 x4 and have fun.

From the patch notes: Ok, see that part that I bolded and underlined? The developers are in the process of either adding more content which uses the new difficulty options, or adding the difficulty options to existing content, or both. This new difficult content requires defenses and IO sets and Incarnate abilities just to survive this content. Asking for nerfs to defenses and IOs right now, while the developers are in the process of addressing this issue, just makes no sense. Why don't you all wait until the developers have proliferated this new difficulty setting to more content before you claim the game is too easy and defense and/or IOs need to be nerfed? Maybe once these settings are more widespread in game you won't think that the game is so easy. Unless of course you decide to not play with the new settings on, in which case the problem won't be with defense and/or IOs.

In the reality where I'm clearly mistaken. I thought Claws was the worst at single target damage. But what do I know, I thought that Fiery Melee was still the king of melee AoE damage. Thank you for correcting my misinformation. Anyway, I'll stop derailing the thread. OP, if you want great regen set, my suggestion is to just play Willpower. It's greeaaaat! 😁

Wait. So the best single target Tanker damage set does the same amount of damage as the worst single target Scrapper damage set? That sounds like how it should be to me. And are you talking about a damage proc build? If so then that invalidates your argument in its entirety, because you're talking about the procs' damage not the ATs' damage.

@arcane Listen. I understand your point of view. Telling players to stop using the uber purple gear is not the correct response to the statement "The devs should balance the game properly." However, the devs are in the process of balancing the game. They've added the new difficulty levels, along with improved rewards, and they've already said that they're planning on adding the new difficulty level to a lot more content. (I want to say they said that they're going to add it to all level 50 content, but don't quote me on that. It's too early and my memory's probably wrong. Need more coffee!) So once they get the new difficulty system proliferated then people will be able to up the challenge. Until that process is complete, there's nothing that can be done to increase the difficulty except to NOT play uber munchkined IO'd Incarnate Demi-Gods. It's not the best solution, but it's a solution, and it's the only one that we the players can offer right now. Also, trying to get defense caps and/or IOs nerfed while the developers are in the process of proliferating a system that will require a massive investment into IOs and Incarnate abilities just to survive, is utterly ludicrous.