Luminara

I'd expect the default difficulty to determine the base numbers. Full effects against three targets, lower per-target numbers as the target total increased, higher per-target numbers when below three targets (but not double or triple). So against a standard spawn of three minions, that Fire Ball would deal its base damage on each target, but in a spawn of one lieutenant or boss and one minion, it would deal 1.1 or 1.25 times the damage per target, and in a spawn of 10 critters, it would deal 0.1 or 0.2 times the damage on each critter (divisors/multipliers presented for demonstration purposes). This would present players with interesting choices. Use the AoE immediately, or cut the spawn down some first? Bring more AoE to blitz spawns, or bring more single-target to take down several easy targets before popping AoEs? As it would also apply to debuffs and buffs, it would vastly increase the value of having more than one debuffer/buffer. We wouldn't be neutering entire spawns with one toggle debuff or buff any more, we'd need multiple players working in concert. For status effects, I think it'd be better to vary the duration rather than the magnitude in this application, as it would otherwise render those AoE controls all but useless if they were only applying mag 1 or less on every critter in a spawn. That would obviate controller/dominator input at all game levels, whereas varying the duration of the control would have the opposite effect, making multiple controllers/dominators much more wanted, rather than making one all any team needs. An interesting side effect of this would be the obviation of target caps. If a player wanted to herd and nuke a dumpster filled with 300 critters, he/she'd be doing so with AoEs which deal 0.3% base damage with each attack. I believe the target caps would have to remain if this were how AoEs worked, though, to prevent players from unintentionally devaluing their own effects to the point of uselessness. They wouldn't be necessary to control player activity, but keeping them would ensure that the stats on powers never dropped below a specific number (presuming no debuffs were active on the player character). Of course, one of the negatives of this would be how it impacts AoE-heavy builds. Most of my builds rely on AoE usage (i really hate fighting three enemies and beating them down one at a time, it's much more delightful to knock the stuffing out of 10+ simultaneously). Farming builds would suffer. We'd all have to shift to more single-target oriented approaches to reduce spawn size before popping our PBAoEs on melee characters, rather than rely on PBAoEs to clear the trash while we hammer on the bosses. That's a lot of respecs and a lot of angry people. On the other hand, it does also bring more purpose and utility to various melee archetypes, as it creates a need. There wouldn't be any more teams where one player runs to every spawn and decimates it, then leaves while the other players clean up the leftovers. It'd take multiple players working in concert, as with debuffs/buffs/controls, to efficiently perform the same activity, so there'd likely be as many happy players as displeased players. As with my other thought experiment thread, this is just for discussion purposes. It's too vast a change for the game at this point in its life. The time for this would've been when Cryptic was looking for solutions to dumpster diving and City of Statues, at the very latest.

It's too much of a difference from current game play, not something they'd implement. I just felt like putting it out for others to ponder, maybe spark some interesting discussion.

AoEs of all kinds work exactly like single-target abilities. They have higher endurance costs, some have lower base hit chances, but they all function just like single-target powers. They have predesignated numbers which are applied on a hit. What if, instead, they had a maximum total for their effects, and the more targets in the AoE, the more spread out the final value? Example: I throw a Fire Ball at a spawn of 10. The game takes the power's maximum damage and divides it by 10, applying that final number to each critter hit. Example: I have 16 targets inside my debuff. The game takes the power's maximum debuff value and divides it by 16, applying that final number to each critter hit. There are some immediate pros and cons evident in this. The fewer enemies you're facing, the stronger your ability, so clearing the trash from a spawn quickly would bring "added value" to AoEs. On the other hand, the more enemies you're facing, the more likely you are to need stronger values but not being able to reach them without teammates/pets/strategy. Noodle it.

Buffs and debuffs have a fixed duration and variable strength. Take Flash Arrow, slot it with -ToHit enhancements, the -ToHit value increases, but the duration remains consistent. Slot Weave with Defense enhancements, the strength of the Defense buff increases, but the interval between and duration of each tick remains consistent. Status effects have a fixed strength and variable duration. Take any standard control, slot it for its control effect, the duration increases, but the magnitude remains consistent. What if status effects functioned the way buffs/debuffs do? What if every status effect started at a base magnitude and slotting increased that magnitude, but the duration remained fixed? Archetype modifiers would still apply, so controllers and dominators would remain the premiere archetypes for imposing status effects. What do you believe would be the positive results of such a thing? The negatives?

They stack.

A video game. Noob.

Braggart.

I'm seeing that a lot of attacks used just after Mass Levitate tend to be corpse-blasts or massive overkill. I know the goal is verisimilitude, but at 2 seconds, we're more likely to waste endurance and time firing off an unnecessary attack than we are to be impressed at the synchronization... and since we're also likely to slot a KB -> KD IO to prevent everything from being hurled out of melee attack range (mag 4.154 KU on a melee attack? did the designer of the power learn absolutely nothing from the feedback that resulted in almost all melee attacks with heavy KB being reduced to KD before Issue 3 because players were ready to lynch the developers?), it's not even synchronized at that point. The rapid and sudden application of force to propel the subjects upward would be sufficient to cause internal hemorrhaging, and there's no visual indication that the power actively slams the subjects back down, so a delay isn't really necessary to provide verisimilitude. If there does have to be a delay, though, it should be shorter. I'd recommend a 1 second delay, at most.

There's a level 2?

So, basically, a proc which is useless for Defense-based sets and Willpower? Or anyone who builds well? How about no? Does no work for you? Because I've got some no you can have. Would you like a side of no with that? A tall glass of no to wash it down?

I'll also add that I believe some archetypal comic book characters can't actually be confined to a single Co* archetype. How they're defined is entirely dependent on the threat and whether they're teamed or solo. Let's look at Batman. You can argue whether he's a scrapper, a stalker, a brute, whatever, but that's only applicable to a limited aspect of his activity as a superhero. As a member of the Justice League, or leading the Bat Family, he's clearly a mastermind. He's the planner, the organizer, the character thinking ten steps ahead while everyone else is trying to figure out what just happened, and moving his pieces into positions which will ensure that his team wins. And against a lot of JL antagonists, he's outclassed as a fighter. In Batman/Superman: Apocalypse, Batman faces off against Darkseid, but he doesn't do it by throwing every kick, punch and Batarang he has, he out-maneuvers Darkseid. Everything the others were doing was a diversion to give him time to arm Darkseid's own planet-busters, which he threatened to use if Darkseid didn't relinquish Kara. That has mastermind plastered all over it. Essentially, defining established comic book characters within the boundaries of Co* archetypes isn't strictly a question of their power levels or basic skills, it's whether or not they're part of a team and how they fit into the framework of that team in the context of the threat they're facing.

In the Justice League animated series, I think it was the episode Secret Society part 1, the JL is bickering amongst themselves and attention turns to Superman. He's accused of being egotistical because he insists on being the first one in when there's a fight. Superman responds (paraphrased, because it's been three or four years since is watched any of the episodes (RIP, beloved portable HDD)), "It's my job to take the hits so no-one else has to!". Pretty sure that definitively qualifies him as a tanker.

Found a reproducible bug which causes a client crash every time. Two crash reports submitted, with details, but I'm also posting this so players can avoid it. If you dismiss tip missions, you're likely to encounter the bug which causes the police scanner/newspaper to disappear from your active Contacts list. I tried opening the Inactive tab as an experiment when this occurred a couple of days ago, wondering if it would restore the missing police scanner (changing zones (entering a mission, entering a base, going to a different world map, etc) restores the scanner/newspaper, but i was looking for a faster solution). Instead, it crashed the client. I repeated my actions the following day (dismissed tips, caused scanner to disappear, clicked Inactive), just to see if it was random. It's definitely not random. DO NOT CLICK THE INACTIVE CONTACTS TAB WHEN YOUR SCANNER/NEWSPAPER GOES ON VACATION. Don't. No click. That crashes the client.

I lack the creativity that all of you display with the costume editor. Words are my medium, not graphics, so my characters tend to be comparatively plain. I use the Roman Sandals far too frequently, for example (but do not apologize. they're damn nice boots). Nevertheless, I did have a concept that I just couldn't stop thinking about. It gnawed at the back of my mind for months. I created, and deleted, several characters in an attempt to silence it. I kept one, an Ice/Stone brute, and revised the costume over and over again, but it just never worked. So, around the the release of Page 3, I took it back to the beginning, started with a clean canvas and a question: What defines the biome of the taiga? Beginning the process from there, I identified key aspects of the taiga. Mountains. Glaciers. Flowing rivers and streams. Stone and trees and mosses and evergreen plants. Something vast, towering, wild and inexplicably beautiful. A living mountain. This hair style makes a perfect snow-capped peak bringing water down to keep the forests thriving, the face pattern giving the impression of a solid mass of ice and snow on a mountain side. The animal fur top pattern helped me replicate the natural growth of a forest on a mountainside. We have evergreen plants growing at the foot of the mountain, areas of bare stone and tall tree trunks, like the great redwoods of the North American boreal forest (which lies in the taiga biome). The character is at the height slider maximum, so she's biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig. But it gets even better. With the Stone Armor toggles set to Crystal (minimal), I now have glaciers and frozen areas in the lowlands. Above, meteors tumble through empty space, waiting for gravity to draw them in, evocative of the Tunguska region (which experienced a comet airburst in 1908). Mud Pots makes a glorious hot spring, bubbling with deep-earth volcanic activity, rich with minerals giving the water that lovely color. I finished it off with the Earth Mastery APP, adding in that one little something which made it feel complete. Moss-covered stone. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Spirit of the Taiga.

It's certainly made me want to gnaw off my own limb to escape. 😛

Oh, hey, that does look right now.

Moon base, soldier shoot butt.

IOs didn't alter archetype roles. Powers did that. Powers in primaries, secondaries and pools. The base game itself created the potential for players to cast aside archetype distinctions and play any way they wanted. And bland, flavorless mush is what we had before IOs. Standardized slotting, standardized power selections, standardized play, the only distinction between anyone was costumes. You complain about homogeny, and simultaneously complain because you're not being homogenized, and blame IOs for everything when IOs didn't do anything but give players the courage to explore the potential inherent in the game. If you want to be shoved into a box, labeled and expected to perform one function, like a printing press or a grain thresher, you picked the wrong game. Co* never forced that on players. The only reason we even have archetypes is because Cryptic didn't want to give players ways to completely gimp themselves, do something inane like take all Defense/Resistance powers and travel powers and no attacks. The original version of CoH had no archetypes, and the development team realized it wasn't going to work, so they took the free-form power selection and re-organized it into archetypes so players would have an assured way to progress. What you consider inviolable rules, they were never anything but suggestions.

Why would we need three trainers in AP? Do this in a zone without a trainer. Boomtown. Eden. Crey's Folly.

❤️

The very notion that out of control inflation was a factor in creating differentiation between archetypes is ludicrous. There were no IOs for the first three years, there was no inflation at all because there was no player economy, and players were bending and ignoring archetype definitions the entire time. The core mechanics of the game permit every archetype to perform in the role of every other archetype. This has been the case since launch. The Invention system may have allowed more players to (finally) recognize that, but it didn't create it nor will restricting IO availability prevent it. Over-availability. What a ridiculous thing to say. IOs were added to the game so everyone could use them, not to reward elitists and snowflakes. The entire idea behind the Invention system was to give players, all players, a way to improve beyond the level cap without raising the level cap, and suggesting that this freedom be curtailed and given only to a select few is abhorrent.

5 slots in Entangling Arrow for a "cheap" purple set. Attacks frankenslotted because the prices on Apocalypse and Ragnarok were so high that 5 of either of those required several months of farming a scanner mission at +2/x6. Only having a -KB enhancement on my main because it dropped for another character. Yeah. I remember.