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Grindingsucks

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Everything posted by Grindingsucks

  1. So, earlier today I completed a solo run of The Graveyard Shift. I considered making a new topic to post my review, but finally decided it might be most useful if I placed it here, referencing Gavric's original post in this topic for easy comparison. I do agree with some of the opinions that Gavric expressed. I disagree, on others. Specifics are discussed below. I did run the arc with a very different character than Gavric. I chose Frank Savage, a level 20 Street Justice/Super Reflexes scrapper. He had the following powers, slotted as shown, throughout the entire arc: I didn't use any P2W amplifiers (although I did have 2x xp boosters and finished the story arc at lvl 21) and I don't have a base yet, so I didn't craft any empowerments. I sometimes stopped in at a nurse station to refresh my inspirations, though- and I do have Inner Inspiration which also helped refill my inspiration slots. Notoriety was set to +0/1, choosing not to fight elite bosses or archvillains. I'll begin my critique, proper, by addressing Gavric's various points, quoting for reference: I don't think I felt quite as strongly about the arc as Gavric, but he does have some valid points. The first mission was a breeze, agreed. The second mission wasn't much more difficult for me, possibly because of the AT I chose and the powersets that went with it. One thing that must be kept in mind when critiquing missions that are run solo, is that the different AT's in the game perform very differently when tackling solo material, and some are just much more suited to it than others. It would be hideously difficult (in my opinion) to construct a single mission or chain of missions that would provide relatively the same level of challenge for every AT in the game. The 3rd mission, where you crash the warehouse where the rave is being held, this is where it first gets quite challenging. Gavric is right, the difficulty ramps up dramatically here, with a great many mobs that con orange to you spaced (in many cases) alarmingly close together. I think this was the first point in the mission where I ate the floor, albeit largely because I got a bit impatient and careless in stepping around a blind spot once, and blundered right into a group of Champion Slashers, Reapers, and Embalmed Cadavers. Despite the difficulty, this mission IS soloable- and it can be soloed without dying a single time, if one approaches it with patience and careful tactics. Here is where the new teleport abilities really shined for me. After my initial faceplant, I got VERY cautious and worked to leverage my powers to their greatest effect. Teleport target allowed me to snatch targets away from groups and take them down one at a time. Where a target was too strong for me to yoink with TT, I would Combat teleport into the middle of them, maul them with spinning strike, then combat teleport away if things got dicey, to retreat and hide, pop inspirations, rest or what have you. I also have CT slotted with a stealth enhancement, which allowed me to sneak past certain groups of mobs to attack from a better position and scout out future ambushes without being detected. I hit level 21, right before tackling the boss at the end, which boosted me sufficiently that he didn't prove as much of a challenge as he might have. If I hadn't leveled, perhaps I would have taken a dive again. Regardless, I thought the mission was extremely challenging and fun, though not so challenging as to be frustrating. On the other hand, if I had been playing say... a controller or defender, I might very well have torn my hair out in frustration. Then again, I've frequently felt that way when soloing standard missions with those AT's, as they aren't the most robust choice for that, at least until you've gotten to reasonably high level and are loaded up with good enhancement sets, procs and such. Okay, so I think I actually have to pretty much agree with Gavric on this one. I will say, that they don't ALL hit automatically. Watching the combat window, it seems like there's a flat 50% chance to either automatically miss and do no damage or automatically hit for a minor amount of damage, with no in between. Either way, there doesn't seem to be anyway to kill them before they explode or to jump or teleport out of range before they do so, unlike with the embalmed cadavers, for example. The general concept of fast, exploding zombies is cool, and I approve. The execution of how they perform mechanically is unfortunately rather unsatisfying, because they rob players of agency by by hamstringing their methods of countering them. I am, at least, thankful that they don't do much damage but I still think they should receive some tweaking to make them actually interesting enemies to fight. My recommendation is to provide multiple avenues to evading or killing them and avoiding the explosions, while ramping up the damage they inflict if you fail to do so. They should be challenging and dangerous, but capable of being dealt with by a smart player. I mostly disagree with Gavric on these points, albeit with the understanding that what comprises good writing may be subjective to the reader. Maybe the dialogue could have been a little tighter and less expository but, overall, the grammar, punctuation, etc. were very on point, and the text was informative and interesting. Watkins isn't the most memorable npc in the game, it's true, but he's not any more boring than most of them. I suppose that I'm neutral where the subject of Watkins is concerned. I didn't get much pop-up text from the zoombies. Where I did, I didn't find it excessive, annoying, or distracting. In some cases, it amused me. I also never got infodumps from Watkins while I was locked in combat. I'm wondering if my slower, more methodical approach to tackling the missions may have made a difference here. Regardless, my experience here was quite different from Gavric's. Like Gavric, I will confess that I hate chase and fetch missions. The greatest offender of these on CoH, has to be that damn Shining Stars mission arc, where you have to run all over Atlas Park chasing down and talking to the various members of your team to get to the next mission. I actually played that story arc twice, then never touched it again. Although it's a great arc, that one bit is so tiresome that I have no interest in ever playing it again. Now, having said that, I only had two points in Graveyard Shift that I experienced this. One was during the investigation, when I decided to check out the call boxes. I had to run around (skyway city?) and click on four different call boxes. While it was much quicker and less painful to complete than that Shining Stars mission, it was still a waste of 5 or 10 minutes. I recommend simply providing the player with a text box that explains what you find when you investigate the call boxes and get them going on the next mission, rather than making them spend that extra five minutes running from here, to here, to here, to here- which provides zero payoff for the time investment. Likewise, in the very last mission of the story arc, you have to run back to the CDC to talk to a guy there. Nothing else happens. You just run there, click on the npc, and then read the dialogue, collect your reward merits, and the story ends. Unless you want to put some interesting last minute encounters along the way, just provide a dialogue box that says you go to the CDC, talk to the npc, and wrap up the story. Otherwise, it's just another pointless and boring jaunt from one part of the map to another. Well, I didn't have the teleport issue. The HQ's was nothing to crow about, but it was serviceable. I don't really expect to be wowed by the spectacle of a lone agent operating out of a van. If you wanted to make it prettier, you could, sure. Personally, I don't really care. I got the information I needed from Watkins, then I moved on to the rest of the mission. And now, for a few of my own opinions and observations: 1) Some of the new maps are interesting. I like the idea of sneaking in from the roof of the building, then dropping down and exploring from above. A minor thing, but a refreshingly new way to explore the map. Wouldn't mind seeing more unique approaches to map exploration/design, like this. 2) I got 40 merits for beating the mission. I felt this was a very nice payoff, particularly for a lvl 20 character. Of course, I immediately went to a Merit ATM and bought enhancement converters, then sold them on the market. 😁👍 3) There was one part in the arc that had a timed mission. I'll make a confession here: I loathe, and always have loathed, timed missions. This is not a comment on the quality of the mission or a dig at the author. Just an admission of a personal pet-peeve I have. I made a token attempt to complete the mission but, true to form, once it started to wind down the clock, I tired of it and just let the timer run out, deliberately failing the mission. Now, I admit this was irritating. However, on the flip side, I was pleasantly surprised that instead of failing me and ending the mission arc, it gave me an alternate avenue to complete the arc, despite my failure. This was quite welcome and I thought it was great that the author took the time to provide an alternative to completing the story. 4) There's this boss at the end, Pathogen. He has a power that I "think" is completely new/custom. I was totally caught off guard by this, and it's another one of times (3, in total) that I died. When he triggered the ability, I was so boggled by the sudden assault, I panicked and made several tactical blunders that caused my death. It took me a while to figure out how to deal with the guy (I fell back on CT and Spinning strike, again- that old combo that has proven so effective- along with patience and caution), though I finally beat him. Now, maybe I just haven't encountered a villain with this power yet but, it was a genuine surprise to me, and a welcome one at that. When you've played this game for a while, you get pretty familiar with the tricks the bad guys have to pull out of their bags, and it was a lot of fun to have a curveball thrown at me. 5) With regard to the difficulty in each mission of the arc, I would consider making adjustments that cause the difficulty to increase more gradually, as you progress. I would make the opening two missions more challenging, but less so that the 3rd mission. I was quite alright with the difficulty of the 3rd mission, but feel it would be more appropriately placed (challenge-wise, I mean- not story-wise) as the climactic battle of the entire arc. As it is, the arc seems to yo-yo up and down in terms of challenge, in a way that feels a little off to me. This, of course, is just my opinion and others may well hold a different view. Just throwing it out there for you to think about, if you want to tweak it a bit, or for when you decide to work on a new series of missions. Overall, I very much enjoyed the arc. On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being dismal, 3 being average, and 5 being brilliant), I would rate it a 4. I appreciate the time and work you put into it, and I'm looking forward to getting a group together and running through it again, with some friends.
  2. A nearby hero that you couldn't see, using a confuse power, perhaps? Otherwise, it certainly seems odd, yes.
  3. Everyone is entitled to voice have and express their opinion. But, I swear, if anyone bitches about moving the SG portal from up on that skyscraper in Grandville, down to the ground, I'll scream. 😛
  4. Already been doing that. It works great! Yanking them back with teleport enemy is pretty sweet too! I don't mind them running much, though. Then again, I'm not bothered by blasters that knock back stuff, either. That's what the "F" key's for! 😛
  5. I could go either way, really. Same with Batman. I think Stalker feels a bit more fitting for lone vigilantes that creep down shadowy back-alleys at night, ambushing crooks. Scrapper is pretty fitting too, though, so either/or. 🤷‍♂️
  6. I wouldn't want to assume or attribute any particular emotion or motivation to you, with regard to your critique. However, you may wish to consider your phrasing more thoughtfully, in the future, when making such critiques. Certain comments that you made, while no doubt sincere and, perhaps, not meant to be insulting, could have been phrased more tactfully. To help you understand what I'm talking about: Frankly, I don't necessarily disagree with your general feelings here, but I would have put it more gently. I suppose the original Devs may not even be aware of these forums, or follow them, but the phrase "insanely stupid" is rather harsh. Wouldn't you find it abrasive if someone critiqued you in this way? Perhaps not, but I think most people would find it insulting. Clueless? Well, I don't think so. They made some design decisions that I wouldn't have made and, clearly, you feel the same way. You could express that a bit more tactfully, though. Clueless implies ignorance and stupidity. Even if the original devs were ignorant and stupid (and I don't think they were), it feels like an intentional insult at worst, and insensitive at best. Fair enough. I don't disagree, and it's clear that the Homecoming team doesn't disagree, either. However... You are, of course, entitled to your opinion. However, I feel it is unfair and, also, probably inaccurate, even from your own point of view. You have stated that you're relatively new to the game and never played it when the game was live. Okay- again- fair enough. But if you have enjoyed the game at all, since playing on Homecoming (and I assume you DO enjoy it in some capacity, since you're taking the time to offer a critique to make it better; if it's a complete flop, not worth paying a subscription for, then why bother?) then you ARE enjoying new content (issues 24, 25, and 26) that the team has implemented since bringing the new servers on line. So clearly, they are good at making new content- even your own appreciation of the revamped teleport pool indicates that you acknowledge this, in some respect. What I'm saying is, the first part of the above comment was unnecessary, untrue, and also lacks tact. Tact, while not obligatory, is important if you want to the devs to respond positively to your feedback. Now, as to your specific criticisms: I haven't played this yet. I just got my new teleporting scrapper to 20. I mean to try it solo, then wrangle a well-balanced group to run it for comparison. Your complaints feel reasonable to me, if the content proves to perform as you've described, but I'll just have to wait and see. You make some good arguments here. I haven't tried all of the fast travel methods and fully considered how they impact the game experience- particularly from the perspective of new players. I'll have to give it some more thought, but your comments here are useful in this regard. I agree. Love the new TP Pool! 👍 I haven't tried sonic for blasters and, honestly, I probably won't. Sonic is a power that doesn't fit conceptually with most character ideas I come up with. You could be right, at least regarding Blaster Sonics. However, I don't agree that melee attacks as a secondary are an inherently bad design for blasters. Unexpected for a primarily ranged archetype, yes. And perhaps not the direction I would have went. CoH players often love playing Blappers (the slang they use for running blasters like a scrapper), though, and you would alienate a large portion of the player base by trying to change the basic paradigm of the AT. Also, as other posters commented, the team has implemented the Sentinel AT, if you want a ranged AT with defense secondary's. You may argue that Sentinels are a poor implementation of that (many do!), but that is a separate (though admittedly relevant) topic from the issue 27 content. Lastly, I would like to address the following reply you made to another posters comment: You are of course, entitled to your opinion. I have a very different opinion. MMO stands for "Massively-Multiplayer Online". Now, that could imply massive numbers of players, each playing by themselves on the same server, but I think this is probably not the expectation of most people who enjoy MMO's. I would agree that there should be soloable content because, as you rightfully point out, However, I would argue that most player expectations in an MMO are the diametric opposite of yours, and that most missions should be designed with an eye towards balance in team play. CoX does, of course, try to balance the difference and create content that is playable both solo, and in teams of characters of broadly different levels of power (via sidekicking, etc.). In practice, this is very hard to do. However, if you want content to be easier, I would point out that you do have the option of setting enemy difficulty to -1. In summary, I would agree with you that negative criticism is sometimes necessary to improve any game. However, I think some of your expectations may be unrealistic, given the nature of the platform (MMO) and I certainly think that you could benefit from trying to be more diplomatic in your comments. Just one fellows opinion. Take it, or leave it, as you think best.
  7. It won't be as efficient for cross zone travel. The range is much less and then there's that brief cooldown, after you port 3 times. I do love the power, though. Great for zipping around at short distances and excellent for making a quick escape if you need to run away. If you mainly port for travel, I would keep the standard teleport (slotted for +range and - end cost, as you have). Still... if you keep Granite going all the time, I would take both, honestly. I think you'll find it useful to have the ability to swiftly reposition in combat, get a +10% accuracy on your next attack, and also the slots to mule enhancements like slow resistance, stealth, etc. Granted, this is coming from a guy who is a shameless teleport power fanboy and is besotted with the new iterations of it. My main problem right now, is figuring out how I'm going to assign keybinds them all, to make them efficient to use. Ah, first world problems. 😛
  8. Already going live! I'm SO excited about the Teleport changes (presently brainstorming a character that has bampfing as his signature power 😁👍). Thanks for all your hard work!
  9. Ah, I see. That certainly puts things in perspective. Thanks for the clarification. 👍
  10. No kidding!? It never occurred to me. Thanks for the tip! 🙂👍
  11. So, my two bits: What I like: If I want to play a cosmic-level hero or villain like Marvel and DC's heavy-hitters, it provides an in-setting justification via the lore and gives the character an additional level of power relative to other characters that makes you FEEL god-like in combat. What I don't like: This additional potency, while fitting to the concept and mostly functional in solo play, becomes too powerful in groups, making group combat boring and too easy, even on +4/8 difficulty. Yes, you can turn the powers off to make it harder, but sometimes I want to play the God Squad, and have a Thanos/Doomsday level threat that can actually pose a danger to our little band of cosmic super-toons. Also (and I realize this is a minor/unimportant complaint) I don't like the ghost-like transparency of the lore pets. Yes, I understand they're "aspects" of the well, rather than the actual creatures themselves. I just would rather see the full detail of the standard model. Also (and more importantly) only a few of them feel very useful. The others simply die a handful of seconds after they enter combat. Really, I'd like to see completely unique models, with better abilities. I often don't bother to take lore pets, at all, as the utility is not worth the cost and effort to craft the ability and the choices are just not very interesting. Balance of the Sets: I don't have enough experience playing different incarnate characters/sets to offer an informed opinion on this, except to say that I HAVE unlocked and tried different judgement sets and none of them seem as appealing as Ion. Though I do use other judgement powers apart from Ion, I choose them for thematic reasons and I'm always disappointed in how they perform, by comparison. Either lower the damage on Ion, reduce the number of arcs that jump to other targets, or else buff the other Judgement attacks to bring them in line with Ion. The Crafting System: It's mostly okay, but I think all components should be able to be built using shards/threads. Don't add influence into the mix. If you think a rarer incarnate component should be harder to get, then make it cost a lot of shards and/or threads. Also, while I'm fine with the tier system, the way that 3rd tier branches off into two is unnecessarily complicated and annoying. If you need that extra speed bump, fine- but please just make it 5 tiers, instead, with the branching part it's own tier. Here's a snip with the offending part circled in red to show exactly what I'm referring to, in-case I'm explaining it poorly: Where I'd like to see them go: Well, apart from my few complaints, I'm mostly satisfied with how incarnates work. What is missing, is truly awesome foes/threats to challenge GROUPS of incarnates (ergo, my God Squad comment, above). I think new Incarnate tier characters/enemy groups need to be developed to provide the appropriate challenge for groups of this power level. If you mean to add the other abilities that were planned during live, this is almost a necessity. Adding MORE powers, at this point, would be meaningless without relevant threats to challenge groups of characters that possess them.
  12. I don't buy them, so I have no opinion, honestly. I mean, I DO have strong opinions about the market in general, just not this one specific thing. Is it even something that affects a lot of people that use the market?
  13. A Minimal effects option would be great for all powers, honestly, if possible and if it isn't too much of a pain-in-the-butt to implement.
  14. Wait a second... something just occurred to me. You can unslot/reslot your incarnate abilities at any time, right? This entire suggestion may be unnecessary, due to the fact that you can just unslot all the powers until you want to use them again. It's been a while since I played one of my incarnates, so apologies if I'm mistaken and misremembering how this works. 🙏
  15. I both accept and strongly endorse this definition. Never has an image so powerfully conveyed the way that grinding feels to me. 👍
  16. Because they do. Pwned. Go home, loser.* 😛 *This is a joke, son.
  17. In some cases, it does make sense to me that there would be a 100% chance to hit. Say, if you have the enemy locked down with a control power and hit them with a melee attack, and there are no other enemies around to distract you from the attack. But, to be fair, how do you script for something that specific and would it be worth it to take the time to do it? Also, remember that that blade swings both ways. If you can get to 100% hit capability, some enemies should be able to, as well. The 95% cap seems a good compromise to me. It's one of the reasons I've come to appreciate the Focused Accuracy power (even though someone once talked me out of taking it, when I was still new to the game. "Don't do it, man! It's not worth it!" Word of advice: While it's great to take the advice of more experienced players, they don't ALWAYS know what they're talking about. At the very least, you may find that you enjoy a power that they don't have any use for). I like Focused Accuracy, because it gets you closer to that 95% and also helps mitigate the effects of stealth. Just remember to slot a couple of endurance reductions, as it IS a pretty egregious endurance hog. 😛 Remember that foes of higher level than your character will cause your base to-hit chance to drop dramatically. So, if you're running at +1 diff or higher, it's going to impact your chances of landing a hit in a very noticeable way. This game is somewhat odd, in that the difficulty drops suddenly in groups of characters that hit incarnate, due to extra accuracy/dmg/def/resist buffs and such. This is also true with regard to hit probability, as once you have incarnate powers slotted, mobs will start to con as one level lower to you than they normally would (mobs +1 lvl higher will be +0, mobs +2 lvls higher will be +1, and so on). So you will likely be happier once you hit incarnate (assuming you don't already have toons of that level. If you do, ignore my previous comment, of course). If you have your attack hard-capped, you shouldn't be missing that often, unless the enemy has very high defense + defense debuff, and/or is much higher lvl than you. If you find yourself getting frustrated, try running at +0 or even -1. This should go far to ease your frustration, although I suspect, all things being equal, that you may grow bored because you find the game too easy at that point. Solo, I find the sweet spot is about +2 or +3, counting my toon as equal to somewhere between 2 and 4 characters of their level (depending on which AT I'm running). In group combat, fights simply become somewhat boring and easy if the majority of the 8 members are 50+ lvl, even if the difficulty is set at +4/8. But if you're having similar struggles in groups at lower levels, simply request to turn the difficulty down (to +0, or whatever).
  18. So, from my perspective, yes- you're missing something. I don't want more grind. In fact, I HATE grinding. I don't view grind as challenge. Grind is about patience and stamina. Grind is about enduring boredom. Challenge is about problems that need to be overcome through skilled play. I want to play a potent character, with diverse powers and abilities (and here is the important part) ON A TEAM of characters of similar ability, and still have combat be an interesting challenge FOR THE TEAM. My own solution to this problem is to simply try to find players with similar tastes and place self-imposed restrictions on our characters. No incarnates, or no characters above X level. Or whatever. Presently, it's the only real solution to find my challenge comfort zone in group play. It is not, unfortunately, an ideal solution for regular, casual play, because when you LFT/LFM you're kind of just taking what you can get. It would be swell if you could always find people that share your play preferences but, sadly, that's just not the case. Also, I'd love to be able to enjoy those cool incarnate powers just like everyone else- but not if it makes group play a cake-walk. It's very easy to enjoy challenging play solo. You simply restrict your level/power/enhancement choices, fine-tune your difficulty level and you can pretty much get the exact experience you're looking for. Ideally? I would like some new end-game (Incarnate/veteran lvl) content that is sufficiently challenging to teams that each member of the team is a helpful- even vital- part of the whole. Content that can't be beaten, unless the team is reasonably diverse (as opposed to mostly the same AT's), works carefully together, and uses sensible tactics to overcome a difficult foe. How it feels to me now, on a team of fully kitted-out incarnates (or even just 50's with good IO sets): Run from one group of mobs to another. Spam random attacks at each group. Mobs die in a few seconds. Repeat until end boss. Wail on boss with random attacks until it falls down (takes noticeably longer, but requires no more thought or strategy). During this process, you might die once- or even twice. But probably not. If you do die, you get rezzed quickly, then you can randomly spam buttons until you win. I'm sounding like I'm bitching a lot more than I intend to. I really DO love this game and I think it's great fun, even with my various gripes. I just think a bit of more challenging end-game content for groups would be a welcome addition. I'd like AT choices and strategy to be more relevant to team play. There ought to be at least one mission/foe where you really NEED have a diverse team and good strategy to be victorious- not just a god-squad that can steamroll over everything. Also, my posts are always WAY too long. Sorry about that. Brevity has never been my strong point. 🙁
  19. I use Badge Titles fairly often, mostly when I gain one that is reflective of the nature/powers/personality of my character. I use the level-based titles if it fits the character but I somewhat resent having to choose from a prescribed list. Why can't I use my own adjectives? The English language is wonderfully descriptive and there are far more options than the ones that have been provided. Why shouldn't I be able to use them all?
  20. Great suggestion! I hope there's a way that this can be implemented.
  21. The mission where he sends you to charge the bands of Shu by killing all of the devouring earth in the cavern. I killed them all, but the mission didn't end.
  22. Yeah, that would be the ideal solution, really, assuming it's possible.
  23. Agreed. I +1,000 this suggestion. Power effects often obscure costume detail, which I find annoying. Additionally, I feel a lot of the effects simply look ridiculous (not all, mind you- there are some great power effects in the game. I just think we should have the option to turn off the ones that we find really annoying). I hope this suggestion can be implemented, eventually.
  24. I mean... FrauleinMental had the ACTUAL answer. I was just trying to lighten the mood with a bit of satire. 😛🤷‍♂️
  25. 😁👍
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