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Everything posted by BlackSpectre
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The likelihood is that there were multiple reasons why NCsoft decided to shut down COH, not just one. Reasons such as resources being stretched too thin, other projects seeming to have better prospects to make more money, to rising costs, etc. Personally, I never understood the decision. A business endeavor generating enough revenue to support itself with a small profit is no reason to shut it down. It is a reason to start pursuing additional business ventures though. I've never heard anyone state that it was expected that COH would start losing money in the future, but that also could have been a possible consideration to factor in.
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The most common things players build for using set IOs are reaching the defense soft cap (45% for normal content), resistance hard cap (75-90% depending on AT), and perma hasten (recharge). Because the most common damage type in the game is smashing/lethal defense and smashing/lethal damage resistance, it makes this damage type the most common thing to build for. Blasters, controllers, and other ranged ATs/powersets often build for ranged defense; while melee characters often build for melee defense. These positional defenses are less effective than building for smashing/lethal defense which protects against all positions (ranged, melee, and AoE defense), but not all damage types. Of course what actually determines what you build for is what your goals are for the character. Also, look into Set Enhancements with Special effects. Many are extremely useful. I once wrote an enhancement guide back when playing on the NCsoft live servers that didn't include set IOs, but I'm sure someone has written one somewhere.
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I don't discriminate against any AT. I learned long ago that a team of all defenders can absolutely decimate enemies. Same for controllers. Same for any AT. So all are welcome. Sometimes on rare occasions when I'm doing a trial or TF on the highest difficulty settings I will ask for a specific power set.... that's about it. PUGs are PUGs. Random. Player quality is variable, and that's the most important thing. And to be honest, a few good players can carry the rest of the team.
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This post might help...
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What is the Stance on Public Domain Characters?
BlackSpectre replied to Arnabas's topic in Help & Support
My understanding is that trademarks protect TRADE. Since a player in a game is not making any money off of it, nor are they attempting to say that they are the owners of the intellectual property, my guess would be that the protections offered trademarked public domain characters wouldn't apply to players playing a free, non-profit game. If Homecoming, for example, used a trademarked, public domain character, it would be a bit more murky since Homecoming is a brand using another brand, more or less. I am not an intellectual rights attorney, so don't take my word for it. I'm merely musing out loud here. It's a good question... -
Someone is standing in your way and you have to move around them is disruptive??? Just because you're annoyed at being forced to deal with others doesn't mean they or the world around them is wrong. Certainly not "disruptive"... unless you're talking about disrupting your effortless clicking on something. In which case, who says it should be effortless? It's a tiny thing that doesn't harm you or anyone in any way. It seems to be human nature to: 1) blame others for any problem one has instead of looking at oneself as the cause of the problem (disregarding any evidence) 2) If other people pose a problem to someone, the first impulse is to attempt to control the other person rather than look at what they can do to solve the problem themselves. To put it another way, try to force others to change rather than change themselves. It's odd, but it is very prevalent. I see it in children and adults. For most of the discussions like this thread, this is the primary dynamic that I see going on. When playing this game, I've found it much less upsetting to find a way to change myself (work around people) rather than to attempt to force them to change (do what I want). But I you want to be upset, then by all means blame others for making you feel annoyed (hint: how you feel is not their fault), and then attempt to control them rather than look inward to oneself for the solution. It's a sure fire recipe for conflict and heated emotions. Just some unsolicited advice, my friends. Nothing more.
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Why stop short? The next question that follows is "Why have a game at all?" And I think you can sense the absurdity of the line of reasoning that you started. No need to really comment. @Troo, you're a good person and a stellar COH player, and I see that you've narrowed down your objections to the idea of "excessive". There's that old pearl of wisdom, "too much of even a good thing can be harmful." And in that, there's no argument, at least on my end. For me, moderation and balance is usually a healthier way to live. If we apply it to COH, then I think even players who go to extremes eventually realize that it's not worth the cost (attention, focus, obsessiveness, work, time, etc.), and completely on their own reel in their own excessiveness. Either that or they burn themselves out and drop out of the game. So for me, the issue of excessiveness is transitory at best. It's here, and then gone. Which brings us full circle back to just letting people enjoy the game the way they like. As long as no harm is done, it's all good.
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It's nice that you're trying to be considerate of the devs' time and effort, but is it your place to do so? Believe me, if the devs thought it a huge nuisance they'd do something about it. As it stands, it follows the same rules as multi boxing... meaning, is there enough room for players to just sit around taking up a spot? Whether or not it's a problem is entirely conditional on how many people are on the server and/or in the zone at any given time. You can complain if you like, but a toon standing around not doing anything isn't hurting anyone.
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In a non-AE zone? Never seen that. Crazy. It is usually less productive unless they're farming giant monsters (I guess)? And quad-boxing? Man, that dude has a nice rig to support all of that! In a superhero game where the focus is on power and ability, there's always going to be people who buy into it and say "Hey! Look at me! Look what I can do! I'm amazing!!" and walk around flaunting it and showing off. They feel really good about themselves. And they want others to feel really good about them too. They think they've accomplished something no one else has done, or at least only a few, and want to enjoy the power trip. As long as it's harmless fun, I don't see anything wrong with it. Is it sometimes annoying to see someone all puffed up, bragging, and with an ego about 10x the size of the Empire State Building? It can be. Me? I usually just laugh at them in my own mind and move on (if I'm feeling spiteful), otherwise I just smile and move on. They're having fun... even if it's AFK. They think they're doing something no one else can. There's a lot of that that goes on in this game. People wonder if they can make a build that can do something amazing or difficult, and have at it. While running BAFs, every once in a while there is a player who splits off from the group and goes to door sit. They're seeing if their toon can shut down an entire door all by themselves. Does it bother me? Not at all. The league can almost always carry a few individuals who are off doing their own thing. They're having fun. I'll mention where they're supposed to be, because people often just don't know, but after that I let them be. They're having fun. And that's what I want people to do when playing COH... have fun. To me, that shows that they are committed, really enjoying the game, and want to share their joy with others. Writing a guide is not an easy thing, and if they do there is a social reason why they do so: Sharing knowledge, sharing joy, or the desire for more accolades and approval from others. You are coming from a point of view that what they are doing is wrong, but I don't see it. The code of conduct states "We allow a basic level of multiboxing on the Homecoming servers outside of peak times". The only consideration is whether or not there is enough "space" for one person to take up more than one spot on the servers by multi-boxing... and that is completely conditional on how many people are on the server and in a particular zone. It is allowed. Not "wrong." Using malicious code and hacking the game is not allowed, and it can mean account deletion, but other consequences can be levied too. whether or not someone is hacking the servers is something that is difficult for players to determine. I don't think what you saw was hacking. Again, I don't see that they did anything wrong. Annoying? Maybe. Distasteful? To some. Were they hurting anyone else? No. Where they having fun? Yes. Historically, that's not the case. People who have complained about farming are the main antagonists to farming these days, but your point is well taken. One bad apple can often ruin the whole bunch. Still, I don't see the bad apple here. Back when the game was originally live, NCSoft had moved to the "pay to win" model and that model depends on making things hard and time consuming in order to accomplish anything so that people will pay real money to get what they want quickly. Farming makes getting XP, Inf, and drops easier. AFK farming makes getting XP, Inf, and drops easier. So it went against their model for making moola, and that's why the old devs always seemed to take the anti-farming front's side. These days that model is gone. Everything is free, and the only thing our wonderful devs want is for their players to have a wonderful time playing COH.
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I did the same thing as @catsi563. Adding SuperJump to the mix might be fun. I need to try that...
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Need Help With Macro-Fu Rust Removal
BlackSpectre replied to Plasma Wisp's topic in Tools, Utilities & Downloads
Try https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Macro_(Slash_Command) -
Yeah, if you want something made persistent, it's worth trying it out as a command line parameter to see if it will work. The launch parameter list at the wiki has all of the known command line parameters, but there are probably many slash commands that can also be used as launch parameters that no one knows about yet. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/List_of_Command_Line_Parameters
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Halloween Tricks and Treats drawing to a close...
BlackSpectre replied to Dacy's topic in General Discussion
A-STOUNDING! 🙂 Avertitable ectoplasmic delight! -
Wow, I've never seen the Steam Controller before. How do the touch pads compare to the thumb sticks on other controllers? Easier? Harder? Less/more precise?
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@LKN-351's suggestion above is a great idea. I do basically the same thing. However, if you really want it to be persistent, then you can add the "-camdist 25" command to the Extra Launch Parameters box in the Homecoming Launcher (Settings--> Homecoming). That way the view distance will be set at log in. There are other camera view commands that might prove useful to you. Check out https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Camdist_(Slash_Command)
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I love ya, @Ukase, but really?? You exit rather than being defeated??? From others I'd expect to see a strip of yellow running down their backs, but not you!!! Debt is so small and burns off so quickly... why? Why, man, WHY??? 😉 If I don't die, or teammates don't die, it's just a ho hum mission. Of course, I do like a challenge. Nothing makes be feel more like a hero than facing death head on and saving either myself or teammates from it's gaping, ever hungry maw.
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Well, thanks! At least SOMEONE gave their opinion... 🙂 OK. I'll put the guide on the list of things to eventually do. As usual, I'll try to retain as much of it as I can while at the same time adding improvements. I've updated the wiki with the Issue 27 Page 7 and Issue 28 Page 1 changes to slash commands and the keybinding system. It turned out that a surprising number of pages around the wiki needed updating because of the updates. I added some new pages too, the most important one being Keybind Profiles. It's in a final draft or first published kind of state, so if anyone has any suggestions or additions, just let me know. Otherwise, I can't think of anything else to do at the wiki related to binds, macros and commands. It seems fairly complete now. 🙂
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Sending Yourself INF after Issue 28 - An Open Question
BlackSpectre replied to archaelia's topic in Suggestions & Feedback
Oh, man... this is a sad day. I just now read the Issue 28 patch notes and saw that the devs removed several email slash commands. Most are nothing that I'd cry about, but /emailsendattachment being removed is making me sob like a little baby. It was by FAR one of the most useful commands in the game for me. Yes, it had its problems. Yes, it very rarely mucked up people's in game email... but for me, the usefulness of the command was SUPER! Devs, I have a request... would it be possible to make a new command that had similar functionality as /emailsendattachment but without the glitches and risk? -
In general, Influence and XP go hand in hard. So if you find a mission with the best influence yield, it will also be the best XP yield. Don’t know if this helps at all, but with the following AE map I’m able to get 4,217,911 XP per 12 min run — 342,920 XP per min. Map: 62525 - street tunnel FF vet levels are 5,608,000 XP So that’s about 17 min per vet level.
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That has always been true for toggle powers. Click powers worked differently, especially if there were mixed click and toggle powers in the command string. But now, they appear to work the same when mixed. I do need to do more testing, though, to make sure what I've seen is not an anomaly. A click power with a very long activation/cast time, for example, might account for the ability of a toggle power to interrupt it, but... A string of click power commands will only activate the last (far right) click power, and nothing else, whether it's on cool down and queued or not. The first click activates the last power, the next click queues it while it's in cool down, and subsequent clicks simply refreshes the queue for the last power again. Toggle powers work a little differently. The last toggle power in the string activates first, but when the bound key is pressed again, the activated power is turned off, and the second to last toggle power is activated. And then it just cycles back and forth, on and off. That said, what toggle power activates in the command string really depends on which power(s) in the string are in the ON state. Turning off a toggle power takes the game almost no time to accomplish and if multiple toggle powers are ON, then all the toggle powers will be turned off, and the first toggle power in the OFF state (if any) from right to left will be toggled ON. OK, thank you. In re-reading the click power section in my guide for a second time, I think I just got confused when I re-read it the first time. In my guide I often refer to the command on the far right as the "first" command because I am referring to its apparent activation (ON state) sequence, not its attempted execution sequence. If I ever rewrite the guide, I'll change that and always refer to the command on the far left as the "first" command in a string. Less confusing I think, especially if you're reading it quickly.
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As some of you may know, when I wrote my Advanced Bind Guide back in 2007, I analyzed the game's parsing of bind strings, and power activation sequences. To my surprise at least one thing is a little different now. It used to be that if a click power was placed first (far left) in a bind string, that no other powers than the click power would activate. Now it's reversed! No other powers in a bind string will activate if the click power is the last command in the bind string (far right). More importantly, toggle_on powers will now interrupt a click power, and a click power will interrupt a toggle_on power. All toggle_on powers will activate, and once that's done the click power at the beginning of the bind string will activate. /bind K "powexec_name CLICK POWER$$powexec_toggle_on TOGGLE A$$powexec_toggle_on TOGGLE B$$powexec_toggle_on TOGGLE C" In the above bind string, Toggle C will activate first. Toggle B will activate on the second key press, and Toggle A will activate on the third key press. Then on the fourth key press the Click Power will activate. If this is an actual change and not just a bug, it's a good one. It treats all powers executed by powexec commands the same, as far as interrupting goes. Can anyone try this in their game to see if what I saw is true? Does anyone know if this change was intentional or an unintended consequence of some other code? In other words, is this change here to stay?
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Should we update The Incomplete and Unofficial Guide to /bind? As I said in its talk page, I'm a bit hesitant about changing anything in it. It's been THE guide players have gone to in order to learn keybinding since the beginning of the game. However, there are some important things that could be added from my own Advanced Bind Guide, new discoveries from the Homecoming forums, and from recent updates to the binding system in the game (Issue 27 Page 7). After reading its talk/discussion page, it's clear that @Curveball's guide was rewritten by a team of Paragon Wiki editors with @Curveball's permission. In fact, @curveball even joins in on the discussion and offers his approval of the changes. The guide is stamped with the standard wiki warning "This is a players guide, we disavow all responsibility for it". The guide was originally written by a player, yet because wiki editors played a major part in rewriting it, I kind of feel like the wiki version is not really a player's guide... but rather a wiki guide (if there is such a thing?). The information in it is accurate, authoritative, and proven. If you read it, not a lot of opinion is in the guide either. So... I feel like we should remove that tag and make it an official wiki document. Make it authoritative. What do you think? Re: updating... if we decide it's a good thing to update the guide, anyone interested could work together with me many different ways. I could take the lead, for example, and suggest changes for discussion, or we could do something else. We could discuss it here, or on its talk page... but first thing's first... should we edit it at all?