Cinnder

Yeah, 60% 60% 80% here. Please don't nerf the sound any more than you already have.

I completed the entire Sister Valeria arc, got my reward table and everything, and she still won't talk to me. She says my reputation does not proceed me. Maybe she doesn't like that I had unfavourable things to say about the new content. 😁 Unless 'Unlocked by completing the first mission in Sister Valeria's story arc' mean that she will give missions only when one is between the first and second mish in Sis Val's arc?

OK I think I've figured out the problem with most new content in HC: it's the homing ambushes. In the Vahz/Freaklok arcs it was exploding or stealth homing ambushes. In Sister Valeria's arc it's the combined boss/monster ambushes. These take away the player's initiative and inherently slant the content towards specific ATs that are good at absorbing damage. Blaster, Stalkers, and ATs of that ilk are doomed if they're not teamed with a damage sponge. I was running this arc with my fire blaster and rather enjoying the excellent writing, cool mish maps, and interesting new enemies until the ambushes began. A homing EB Incarnate cyclops is just not fun at all. I would argue that ambushes of this level should be confined to TF-type content only. --- All right, I finished the arc (after turning down the diff) and my conclusion, based on the difficulty and the overabundance of high-level ambushes, is this: imo this is a TF, not a solo Incarnate arc, and it should be classified accordingly. It's not even in the same class of difficulty as the DA and Prae Incarnate solo arcs.

Thank you. Very good to know we've been heard. Of course the irony here is that's precisely why the cyclopes and minotaurs are not very much fun. A huge bag of hit points that each have powers that make whittling down those hit points go even more slowly towards the end. Plus the new minos also have End drain. As others have said, it's not that they are particularly deadly (one on one) but that they are just a really tedious slog. I don't think you really believe we have been asking for this, but just to be clear I think everyone has acknowledged there should be content like TFs that is not expected to be soloable, but that anything that's not a TF should be. But also to acknowledge the point that not every AT is designed to solo, especially Defs. Again, thanks very much for letting us know our concerns are being taken into account. Even if it takes a while to get the balance right, it's good to know that the game's development trajectory is not explicitly increasing the baseline diff to Dark Souls level.

[Beta] Patch Notes for August 20th, 2022 - Issue 27: Second Chances, Page 4 (Release Candidate 2) Incarnate Mission Content: Sister Valeria Three encounters in Mission 2's open cave area have been adjusted to be one Cimeroran Traitor elite boss, one Minotaur, and one Cyclops; Down from two Minoturs and two Cyclopes. --------- Thank you!

Couldn't agree more, and the point I was alluding to above. Again, I maintain that über-difficult should be an option, not the baseline.

Happy to be corrected if I'm misinterpreting the latest release notes, but does 'These missions are now locked to level 54' mean that to run these mishs with mobs that are at the same level as the character one would need to have a T3 in Alpha, Destiny, and Lore as well as dropping the difficulty to -1?

My apologies -- what I meant was that the flypose chain broke sometime in the past year, so maybe that same bug is now affecting the screenshot commands if folks are using them in chains. Personally I love the idea of your two binds.

I've noticed on several characters of varying AT that the visual effects for the Leadership/Tactical Training toggles (Assault, Maneuvers, Tactics) sometimes disappear, making me think they have dropped when they are actually still active. Then at other times they reappear even though the character hasn't reactivated them nor been suppressed at any time. Is this WAI? (I didn't happen to catch the screenshot just between vfx cycles) I've noticed if I turn the powers off and on again the vfx return (for a while at least), so I'm wondering whether they are meant to appear only for a while after activation.

He's also trying to follow you up a hill. Goodness knows even the slightest incline can completely flummox a following NPC. If they don't get stuck in the terrain, of course.

Could it be a problem with chaining commands rather than the commands themselves? I know for a while there's been an issue with an old bind that used to chain all the flyposes together so you could cycle through them with a single key. Now it selects only the final one. If you set up these keys only to toggle the UI and a third one to actually take the screenshot, does that work?

Most definitely. As long as they are not geared for characters with all T4s as a baseline. The solo Inc arcs vary in difficulty from easy (Heather Townshend) to challenging (Dream Doctor) to extreme outlier difficult (Sister Solaris*). I enjoy the entire range between the first two, but would like to see less of the latter. *Made worse with the recent upgrade of the monsters.

That's definitely a fair point. What sort of character build (or range of builds) do the devs use to test new content? I'd say the sweet spot for new solo content should be somewhere in the middle between those two. I'm not sure I agree with this entirely. I think Bionic_Flea addressed this point well above. Also, while it's true that difficulties can be adjusted, there are far more options for making content more difficult than there are for making it less so -- which is why I maintain the baseline for soloable content should be only somewhat challenging for the most part (with the occasional EB thrown in for drama of course!). Good question! I think Bionic_Flea has the answer to that: I understand there's a wide range of playstyles active in HC, and even if I'm not interested in it I'm glad some über-difficult content is being developed for those who enjoy that sort of thing. But as I've stated elsewhere, I'm concerned that all the new content coming out seems to concentrate too much on being especially difficult for those players who don't min/max and who just like playing good stories about supers.

I'm struggling with this statement a bit and not sure how much the smile is meant to mitigate it. Is this content meant to be group content (i.e. TF-like) or solo Incarnate content like the DA arcs? I fully agree that TFs should be hard to solo, but I'd argue that anything designed as solo content should not be extremely hard on standard difficulty or else it pretty much defies the definition. Seems to me that content marked as soloable should be playable by single characters that are not outfitted with all purple sets, and if it's Incarnate content then no more than an unlocked Alpha should be required or expected on standard difficulty. Otherwise it should be categorised as group content rather than solo and clearly indicated as such.

OK thx for explaining.

Just for my own edification, is there some functional reason why someone would want a specific detective? Or is this for RP reasons?

Aside from the sappers it's all just firearms and stun weapons. Compared to aliens, wizards, animated earth creatures, etc you'd think they'd be second or third tier rather than first.

Heh, good point! Makes me think of Malta also -- in modern times the toughest enemies are just some regular humans with weapons?

Burnt Umber I think you have hit the nail on the head for me: I'm far more interested in good story with some challenge than in raid-like challenge in everything. P.S. Also loved your point about the dilution of the significance of EBs.

I haven't had a chance to test it myself, but this does concern me. Now that these monsters have been upgraded to the Incarnate versions, it means the final mission in the original Cimeroran arc is already rather un-fun, and that's just at boss level. I hope this new arc isn't even more unpleasant. I've noticed a trend here on Homecoming where all the new content seems to be particularly difficult even at base level. It would be nice if super-difficult were an option rather than the baseline.

Ah interesting! Thanks for the info. So is that a 'no' on the second part of my question requesting an option to keep the original sound for those of us who prefer the deafening awesomeness? If there are no resources for UI modification, a simple command line toggle would do.

One helpful mnemonic I heard somewhere was that in the word discrete (meaning separate) the t separates the 2 e's.

'Powers that play a sound on each target that is hit will no longer reach a deafening volume when there are many targets. When the same sound is queued multiple times at the same instant, the audio system now reduces the volume.' Just out of curiosity, what's the cap on this? It seems as though the sound will continue to increase per enemy up to some definition of 'many' -- is that correct? Or does the sound dynamically reduce per enemy affected starting with the second enemy? Any chance we can get a config option for those of us who appreciate the magnified sound as rough feedback regarding number of enemies hit? Set a numeric cap (if it works that way) or simply toggle off the reduction? While I understand the noise bothers some folks, others of us really love the way it works now.

😂

Is there any chance the tech for the speaking range can be applied to fix the bug where enemies in mishs are 'overheard' when they are still very far away?