Luminara

It'd be really nice if vanity pets were persistent on zoning. I enjoy having my way-cooler-than-@Jimmy cat watch me kicking and throwing things, but I don't enjoy it enough to summon it again every few minutes.

And, per developer commentary, publicity releases, dev diaries and other sources, it was also deliberately designed to be as solo-friendly as possible so anyone could take any character, play for a while and log out with a feeling of accomplishment, even if they weren't on a team. The sole purpose of archetypes, power sets, power pools and power pool restrictions was to make it impossible for anyone to make a character which could not function solo. They actually threw the alpha build of the game in the trash and redesigned it from the ground up, consolidating powers into sets, creating archetypes and assigning those sets to them, taking leftover powers and compiling them into pools, and devising limitations like every player having to select at least one pool power by level 26, and every secondary automatically assigning the T1 to the player, whether they wanted it or not, to force every player to make a solo-capable character, even if they didn't want to. Players forming teams was always Cryptic's preferred goal, but outside of *Fs, Trials and a very limited number of missions, it was never the enforced path of progression.

3 converters, one click, /ah.

The people supporting the idea have said, "I shouldn't have to take a pool power because <REASONS!>", and "Other people should have to take a pool power because <REASONS!>". These comments were made. Not implied, not inferred, outright stated. Pointing out the monumental hypocrisy of bitching because you have to take a pool power to do something, and simultaneously declaring that other people should have to take a pool power to do something just so you don't have to, is not exaggeration or casting aspersion, it's highlighting the arrogance of the tiny minority who made those statements. If you shouldn't have to take a pool power to do something, then neither should anyone else. If "they can just take a pool power" is sufficient justification for your request to change the tame so you don't have to take a pool power, then your justification is applicable to your own request, you can can just take a pool power. Expecting the game to change to suit your whims, and everyone to meekly submit because it's what you want, is arrogant, entitled and selfish. And that's not judgmental, it's objective observation. You are not the center of this world. Deal with it.

The responses aren't negative because we're opposed to using pool powers, they're negative because the fundamental argument, the very foundation of the proposal, is, "I shouldn't have to take a pool power to do something, but everyone else should. Change the game so I can have more options, even if it's accomplished by taking options away from others. Give me the ability to have everything I want in a single package and to hell with the intended and designed limitations of the game, those should only apply to other players." But making other people take a pool power for something they think they need, and previously had but lost because a few players threw temper tantrums about having to follow the same game rules as everyone else, is cool. Yeah...

If you need a teleport, just grab one from the pool powers.

It took me 15 minutes to figure out how to use merits to purchase converters, use converters to turn crap IOs into IOs I could use or sell, and kit out my first build before it was out of the teens. I did that with no gifts, no costume contest prizes, no friends, nothing but the inf* I'd already earned by that point. Another 10-15 minutes every few levels (solo, +0/x1, no XP boosters, no Experienced) paid for every IO I wanted for my "dream build", including purples and ATOs at 50. I didn't even know there were guides detailing various wealth generation methods until afterward. I never used a single merit on the original servers, I left before attunement or converters were added, and I still had it nailed down in 15 minutes, with no assistance. I did that with the next six or seven characters I leveled to 50. No alt funding, no hand-me-downs, just the costumes on their backs and whatever they earned along the way. Merit vendors are everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. Two in many zones, a human model and an ATM model. Click the vendor, click Salvage, scroll down to Converters, click Buy, 30 converters in hand, ready to be used or sold, quickly and painlessly. It takes less than a minute to reach a crafting station, regardless of which side you play on or which zone you're in. It takes one second to open the Recipes window and see what's highlighted, and another second to craft what's highlighted. Three or four seconds to open the Convert window, drag an enhancement into it, select the type of conversion and click Convert. If the player doesn't know that the /ah command exists, it's another minute to run to the nearest market and click on a rep. Drag, type in a sale price, click, five seconds and done. A few minutes spent just crafting what's in your inventory, clicking Convert a few times and selling the results, and bam, you're rolling around naked on a bed covered with money. It is trivial. It's not hard to figure it out and it's not a massive time sink. It doesn't even require an obsession with the market or deep knowledge of the game. Any new player can do this with a minimal interest in the game. Oh, look at the maroon and yellow person standing over there, I'll click on that dude/chick. Oh, look, it's a vendor where I can spend these merit thingies. Oh, look there's something that says "Convert" on my Enhancement tray. Oh, look, the vendor sells something called Converters, I wonder if they're related to the Convert thing. Oh, look, they are. Oh, look, the Convert window has a round slot like an enhancement slot, I'll put this enhancement that I crafted into it. Oh, look, there's a menu at the top. Oh, look, the Convert button is highlighted. Oh, look, I turned a piece of garbage into something I really wanted, or can sell to someone else so I can buy what I wanted. Oh, look, I'm filthy rich now. You don't need an IQ over 140 to make inf*. The game all but walks up and hands it to anyone who shows even the slightest interest in acquiring it. They may not acquire it as quickly or efficiently as a marketeer or farmer, but they'll get what they need if they're even remotely invested in the game.

Maybe the Spectrum costume pattern applied to weapons would fit the holographic/elemental bill?

That implies that the 0.67 KD also affects the primary target, which would make the actual KB of Propel 4.82, rather than the expected 4.15, without KB->KD enhancements. I'd assumed that the two effects were distinct, but looking at the data for the power, there's no flag isolating the KD from the KB, or vice versa. The power info and Real Numbers need to be updated to reflect the real KB. I still want to see if Melee_Boosts_60's scaling variable has any effect at lower levels, but I think testing can wait now that it's clear what was happening. Thanks for the additional information, @Bopper.

Making people redesign their builds and forcing them to take pool powers to recover a lost ability, so a other people don't "have to" take pool powers, is not the same as leaving the powers in question alone and expecting people who want optional powers like Combat Teleport to take it from the pool. That's why it's not worth consideration.

With no movement buffs at all and both Sprint and Swift slotted with a single Run Speed enhancement, your character runs at 56.921'/second. In ~1.05 seconds, your character will move ~60'. To move the same distance with Shield Charge, you spend 1.716 seconds. Lightning Rod, 2.772 seconds. In ~1.23 seconds, you cover the same distance as Savage Leap's range, 70' Savage Leap's animation time is 1.32s. Before we look at anything else, we've already established that simply holding W for 1.05-1.23 seconds is faster than existing in-set "gap closers". And you and the OP think that's not good enough, but neither of you wants to admit that the Teleportation pool exists expressly for the purpose of granting players access to even faster methods of covering the equivalent distance, so you're both clamoring for Combat Teleport to be added directly to melee attack sets. Okay, so where does that end? If the argument, "I shouldn't have to take a pool power to play the way I want" is acceptable for this scenario, is it not also acceptable for all other scenarios? "I shouldn't have to take a pool power to get more global +Recharge, I need 70% global +Recharge for every set." "I shouldn't have to take Aid Self on sets with no heal, I need a heal in every set." "I shouldn't have to take a pool attack for more damage, I need an extra attack in every set." "I shouldn't have to take Combat Jumping or Hover for vertical movement, I need movement powers for every set." "I shouldn't have to take pool powers to cap my Defense/Resistance, I need the ability to hit caps in every set." At what point does the expectation that every set have everything imaginable stop? How far down that road do we go? What is the value of playing this game when we no longer have 21 different melee attack sets, rather 21 different variations of a name for a single melee set and 21 different default color schemes for the same homogenized nine powers? And all of it in the name of "Don't make me take pool powers to play the way I want", when pool powers were added specifically so players could play the way they want? But let's pretend that there really is a snowball's chance in Hell for this inane, selfish, poorly conceived and thinly veiled argument to convince the HC team to implement a Combat Teleport in Confront. Do you honestly believe it's going to have Combat Teleport's range and animation time? I guarantee that it would be slower to animate and/or have a shorter range, and in the end, it would be no faster than pressing W for an equivalent period of time, because a teleport which also debuffs enemy Range by 75%, Taunts, and has neither a hit check (in PvE) nor endurance cost would not be given a sub-1s animation time and 100' base range. Either Combat Teleport would have to have its animation time, endurance cost and/or range drastically altered to make it "less good" than the "baked in" version in every melee attack set, or the melee attack set version would have to be significantly worse at teleporting to compensate for all of the other things it does. And I can tell you right now, they're not going to nerf Combat Teleport into the ground just to satisfy a couple of players who think they "deserve" instantaneous spawn to spawn movement without pressing W or taking a pool power and try to justify their demand by pointing at other games or bitching about having to take a pool power. Sorry, champ, but that won't fly no matter how many rockets you strap to its ass. Nor are they going to rip Confront out to make room for in-set Combat Teleport, or delete everything that Confront does so it can be "better" at teleporting, because gutting powers like that is only done when absolutely necessary, and this wouldn't qualify. So your "baked in gap closer" would end up being shit. I estimate that the range would be reduced to 40', an endurance cost of 7.5, minimum, attached, an animation time no faster than 1.32s, if they change the animation time at all... and it'd have a hit check, leaving you with your dick in your hand when it missed. Even when it hits, it'll take longer than just pressing W, and in the end, all you will have gained is another few points on your blood pressure. Of course, you're more than welcome to spend the next three days posting "bu y tho" and arguing. It won't get you anywhere, but it's your time to waste, so please, have at it. This proposal was a non-starter before, it's still a non-starter. The HC team doesn't rip powers out and replace them without careful consideration and examination of every other possible solution, and numerous attempts to make any other solution work before they resort to replacement. They don't change powers on a whim, either, because disruption of a hundred thousand or more existing builds has consequences. The changes proposed in the original request, the first revision and the second revision, are all unbalanced, poorly thought out and patently obvious attempts at mass homogenization of the game for selfish reasons. But if that's the bandwagon you want to ride, go for it.

I tested against critters +1 to the character, +0 to the character and -1 to the character, so the Alpha slot shift is irrelevant, the enemy levels were relative to the character level. Propel's base KB mag will always be 4.15 versus a +0 critter, and it doesn't matter if that critter is 51 or 50, it's still +0 to the character. The only way Propel can deal greater than 4.15 mag KB is if the critter is susceptible to KB, and the enemies I tested against aren't (CoT). And the Sudden Acceleration KB->KD enhancement can't act as a level 51 enhancement because there is no level 51 in Melee_Boosts_60. It's capped at 0.764, regardless of level shifts, at level 50. If there were a level 51 in Melee_Boosts_60, the enhancement would be 0.771, slightly more effective, not less, so that can't be the root of the discrepancy. So the only point at which a level shift could be affecting the outcome would be if the player were 50+1, playing at +0 and encountered -1 foes. That does happen frequently, it's why I run all of my Incarnated characters at +1. I suspect that to be the case with the original poster, he/she simply ran into some -1 foes while playing at +0 and using the Sudden Acceleration enhancement, and ran into the KD stacking problem with the Overwhelming Force enhancement. I'll go ahead and test in sub-50 content, though, because I'm interested in seeing what Melee_Boosts_60 does at lower levels. Testing Overwhelming Force probably isn't necessary, as we already know that causes KB when two KDs stack, but since I have one, I might as well compile some data on it. But I ain't doin' nothin' until I've had some ibuprofen, some food and some time to bolt the cheap piece of shit exhaust back onto my bike. Again. For the tenth time. Fucking Chinese garbage. If they'd designed the mounts properly, I wouldn't have wasted so much time trying to keep the goddamn thing from ripping itself off (and failing miserably because i didn't want to modify anything). But nooooooooooooo, they had to attach the exhaust to the same plate they mounted one of the shocks onto, putting significant stresses on the retention bolts, shearing them off and causing the other exhaust mount points to vibrate loose. I had to ride home today with the exhaust held on by a single stud nut. because the other stud is broken off inside the head, and I can't drill into it to remove it because the frame is in the way. They know this engine produces enough vibration to rip the exhaust apart in less than a week, they know adding lateral stress to mounting bolts causes them to fail, and they still designed it this way. Incompetent motherfuckers.

In the game testing now with my Grav/TA, mission set to +1/x5, Propel slotted with 5/6 Apocalypse (everything but Damage) and the Sudden Acceleration KB->KD (level 50, not attuned). Primary target, level 52, knocked down and takes damage, secondary targets knocked down. No knockback. Reset mission to +0/x5. Primary target, level 51, knocked down and takes damage, secondary targets knocked down. No knockback. Reset mission to -1/x5. Primary target, level 50, knocked back, secondary targets knocked down. At level 50, Sudden Acceleration only knocks back when targets are -1 or below, or specifically vulnerable to KB, per test results. Below level 50, there may be an issue due to Sudden Acceleration using a level variable modifier (Melee_Boosts_60), but I don't have time to run a bunch of Flashbacks this morning to test at different levels. I'll see if I can work it into my schedule this afternoon/evening. I'll also test Overwhelming Force in Propel when I can (since it uses the Melee_Ones table, which is invariable, all tests can be conducted without Flashback and results will be applicable at all levels).

Overwhelming Force: (-10 * Melee_Ones (1.00 at all levels for all archetypes))%, so -1000%. Sudden Acceleration: (-10 * Melee_Boosts_60 (0.764 at level 50 (level variable modifier) for all archetypes))%, -764%. Overwhelming Force has a Null for 10.25s entry with the ReduceifKD flag. Sudden Acceleration does not. Yes, there are differences. Additional data: Overwhelming Force's KB is flagged with "Does not scale with enemy level". Stupefy's KB proc is not.

One of the RWZ arcs (level 35+), and vigilante tip missions (level 40+).

Mag 300 KB and animation glitch. https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=rikti.uxb.nuke

Why not just punch new players in the dick a few times?

If it is, then ignore everything I wrote. SSDs have no platters, no R/W heads, so the freezing approach won't work. Well, unless the problem is broken traces, but that's unlikely unless it was positioned above a high output heat source (CPU, GPU, PSU heatsink), and if it were, it would've failed years ago. And the data is inside the flash memory chip(s), which are soldered to the board, so there's nothing to swap. SSDs, being composed of flash memory, have a maximum life determined by write cycles. One can only write data so many times before a transistor burns out, then the sector becomes unusable. Most manufacturers do two things to extend flash memory lifespan: first, they code the firmware to move data out of bad sectors when write failures are detected; and second, they reserve a small amount of memory for those data transfers. So there's built-in leniency and fault tolerance, but 11 years is beyond even the highest manufacturing standards for anything I've seen or read about. If it is an SSD, it has to be toast at this point. Literally. Of course, 11 years ago, SSDs weren't common, so you may still be working with a standard HDD. If so, freeze it and see what happens.

Put the HDD in a Ziploc bag (name brand, not a cheap store brand, you want quality for this), seal it up and stick it in the freezer for a few hours. Then try extracting the data. You'll only have a few minutes before it begins to warm up again, so don't dawdle. It's a trick which worked for me several times in the past. Heat caused HDD platters to expand slightly, causing just enough offset to prevent the R/W heads from finding sectors, and freezing the HDD kept the platters in their normal geometry long enough for the heads to find and read the data. That was what murdered IBM's HDD line, the Deskstar (AKA Deathstar, because the goddamn things died so fast). Don't know if it still works, considering the advances in HDD technology over the past decade (no damn clue what they're making HDD platters out of these days, but just about every material known responds to heat in some way, so i suspect it's an ongoing issue with HDDs), but as long as the drive is protected from moisture (thus the Ziploc bag (NAME FUCKING BRAND! don't cheap out!)), it won't hurt to try. The other possible solution is a board swap, but you need exactly the same model and make of the HDD. It'll work if it's a firmware problem, or resistors/capacitors are shot, or the board developed bad traces, etc., but the replacement board has to be from an identical drive.

Yes. It doesn't convert Repel to KD, so in powers like Singularity, it "doesn't work" (it does work, but it doesn't work on that effect). And if you slot it in a KB or KD power, the KD can stack and become KB, which is not converted to KD, so critters "squirt" (no, not like that (well, maybe, but it's none of our business)) out of AoEs/cones.

I face-planted and ran back to missions a dozen times on one character before I remembered that I'd picked up Return to Battle. It was on the tray, it was highlighted every time I went down, and I still forgot it. I have Misdirection, Shadow Field and Haunt on my Dark/Martial dominator, and I forget to use all of them. I remind myself to use Link Minds... and then I forget after two or three cycles. OSA, Disruption Arrow and Entangling Arrow on my Grav/TA. I become so focused on hammering the life out of things with my melee attacks, I don't remember that I have anything else. Yeah, if it's not in slots 1-6, chances are I've forgotten it exists.

/bind_save (just creates a saved bind file with the name keybinds.txt in the default installation location) or " /bind_save_file filename.txt " might do it. https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Bind_save_(Slash_Command) https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Bind_save_file_(Slash_Command)

Told you not to put that in your mouth.

By turning the team size up to x5. Let the spawns do the work for you.