Doc_Scorpion

If you didn't want to discuss tactics, then you shouldn't have made them an issue in the discussion in the first place. Um, that's how military operations work. If there's no opposition to fight, no valid targets to engage, then no combat happens. Combat requires two to tango, and if your playmates don't show up you go home and call it a day. You haven't really proposed anything that makes it more involving or more purposeful. You've just moved where combat occurs and introduced weightless "consequences". And I already have a purpose - make the Rikti die for their alien dimension.

None of those things are unique to any zone though. (And only tailors are significantly limited.) If I can't level (etc...) in King's Row because the Rikti currently occupy it, I'll just go to one of the many other zones that offer those services. Heck, Atlas Park and the RWZ offers all everything I could ever want and are never subject to invasion. (And that's not even mentioning my base is available if I ever get around to finishing it.) No offense, but you neither understand strategy nor the nature of the Rikti war. Heroes are not the primary threat to Rikti supremacy - they are the only threat to Rikti supremacy. Therefore any strategy that doesn't prioritize nullifying that threat does not advance their overall goal. Similarly, their operations and tactics are defined by their technology. They have the ability to teleport, and thus traveling on the surface is counterproductive - it consumes time and troops that could be better spent directly attacking the primary only threat. Ditto attacking targets that aren't superheroes. Teleporting directly to pockets of superhero resistance is far more efficient.

Pondering on that point of view... To me, the problem isn't necessarily the existence of bias. It's that the high value of the reward for being biased will almost inevitably distort gameplay. What happens if we reduce that pressure by dramatically scaling back the rewards to something akin to a guaranteed rare salvage or recipe drop?

There's considerable discussion (incl Dev discussion of the intent) in the Focused Feedback: Giant Monster Balancing and Rewards thread.

Good point! One of the dev team's goals (previously stated, not in this discussion) is for new players to use the auction house. Giving them something in high demand that will quickly sell is a good step in that direction. But there's still something missing - something that steers them towards the auction house in the first place. The only place I'm aware of that does so currently that is Twinshot's execrable arc.

I agree and disagree with this part. (I heartily agree with the remainder.) While 2XP (and the imbalance between XP and Inf in DFB, even without 2XP) contribute to the problem - they do not in and of themselves cause the problem. I've cold started a number of toons (without using either 2XP or DFB), and it's still very difficult to afford a SO build with nothing but normal gameplay. (By which I mean running the missions the game steers you toward, not using hacks that will not be obvious to the new player, such as earning the Atlas Tour Guide accolade.) Even affording a DO/TO build can be difficult. As I said, I agree with the goal (making enhancements easier to afford), I only disagree with assumption (that the problem is lack of cash rather than high prices) and the solution (driving characters towards a given playstyle).

On HC, it's customary to use the Open Beta server as a Training Room. You can either play normally, or use the popmenu to grant yourself levels, IO's, Inf, or other rewards. You can also use the copy tool to copy a character from a Live server to a the Beta server.

Two hours is a bit of hyperbole, but where I see the problem being isn't hard mode content - it's the stated intent of putting of a little more cash into the pockets of new players. That is, Posi -1 and -2. This paragraph leaves me uncomfortable. It assumes that new players will play TFs and kind of requires that they play TFs to get around the core problem - that low level SOs are too [bleeping] expensive for new players and low level characters to obtain. It leaves new players that follow the hints that the game gives them and who start playing contact/story missions behind the curve. Note: I am NOT disagreeing that something has to be done because something absolutely does. (But that extended discussion and the tangle of related issues is way off topic here.)

Have you looked into recoloring existing powers at the tailors? Because really, we don't need powersets that are "like 'x' only with a different name and colors for the exact same power".

There's one vertical at the end of the motor pool maze, and another in the motor pool area behind Serpent Drummer. Plus the stairs makes three so far.

That does make sense, in which case the patch notes might say "level 51 to 54 training dummies*" (or something like that) rather than "cons +1 to +4". *As they do have levels currently.

+1 to +4 relative to what? I took a lvl 29 and checked (while there was a lvl 50 present) and they all conned purple, though the light were correct (yellow, orange, red, purple). When I take my lvl 50 (while there was a another lvl 50 present), they conned orange, red, purple, purple (though the lights were correct as above). The other 50 was not incarnate and did not have a level shift (I asked to make sure).

- The motor pool maze could seriously use some signage. And has anyone found more than the one (very obscure) connection to the surface at the far end of the maze? Not seeing any differently colored lights, though the dummies con correctly. Ah, the lights are in the floor and kind of hard to see from where I was firing from, back near the guard rails.

Depends on the characters... My melee/offensive toons tend to grab the first contact and head out. I do PUG with them, but generally level locked because I play them solo a great deal. Solo tends to be a mix of story content and radio missions, with judicious use of the XP lock to avoid outleveling. My support/defensive toons DFB until I'm bored or am at least level 9-10 and then head out to PUG it. Blasters are special case... some solo, some PUG, some mix the two.

You mean the nugget that completely fails to match your specific claims? (Those specific claims being that you were unable to handle mobs -10 to your level, and that "most builds at higher levels couldn't handle basic mobs of equal level without taking forever or risk of being defeated".) If you didn't slot accuracy, that lends credence to the people who've pointed out that you likely had a bad build and/or failed to adapt to the changes. Anyhow, I'll repeat what's been said before: Whatever your mistaken beliefs about the past are, they're are not applicable to the current game. All but the crappiest build and most incompetent player can handle -10 mobs. Any reasonable build and decently played toon has a decent chance against standard spawns. (It's always been possible to get in over your head depending on specifics - but that's not necessarily a flaw in the game.) The path forward is one of your choosing... Go hunt. Kill Skuls. Or stew over the perceptions of past injustices. Me? I'm gonna go kill Skuls.

No, they have not. Not one single person has agreed with your hyperbolic claims about not being able to kill mobs ten levels beneath you or of your equally hyperbolic claims of it taking excessive amounts of times to kill standard spawns. Not. One. Single. Person. And that's why you're receiving so much snark. You keep making unhinged exaggerated and hyperbolic claims (such as the one @Nuc quoted) that have absolutely no grounding in reality.

I have never played any game where you didn't have to stop the flow at one or more points in order to explain one of more game concepts to new players. And it's not clear to me that bringing back TO's will prevent that - because you still have to "stop the flow" to explain what enhancements are, how they work, and how they're used. Slotting and enhancements are fundamental to playing CoX, and you're doing your friends no favors by not doing so. That being said, if you absolutely must have TO's, they're still available from the Longbow Quartermaster inside the Freedom Corps building east of City Hall. You don't need a supergroup.

The early game, you only have a handful of powers... So, I'm not sure what else you'd expect. Later in the game, when you have a larger toolbox, you'll have more of an opportunity for decision making.

So do I. Sometimes I even remember to keep them updated.

Quoted for being the ever lovin' truth.

I always love these proposals... "I really want these on all my characters, but not badly enough to actually work for them. So, please trivialize the cost without changing the benefits!" Hard no.

Disable AE on Excelsior and watch the load plummet... /s 🙂 🙂

Never hurts to try!

I've been playing one of my 'bot MM's heavily over the last week... And I have seen my Protector Bot and Maintenance Drone simultaneously healing, but it only happens very rarely. That suggests there's an error or bug somewhere in the Protector bot's AI.

And we already have [far] more than enough of that in the game.