Jump to content

FoxyPrime

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    30

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by FoxyPrime

    Settings Crash (Resolved)

    in Bug Reports

    Posted · Edited by FoxyPrime
    Problem resolved itself.

    Logged in today to find out I can't access the Settings menu without the game crashing. Not sure what's going on.

    Edit: Nevermind. Problem seems to have resolved itself, but now I got some troubleshooting to do.

    If you could customize your Mastermind minions, what would you make?

    in Mastermind

    Posted · Edited by FoxyPrime

    Robots: The ability to recolor them and their attacks.
    Thugs, Mercs, and Ninjas: Female variants and maybe style variants (like more armored mercs and different gang themes for thugs like Resistance or Cyberpunk and maybe medieval highway men look for ninjas)
    Demons: The ability to recolor their flames because I really want them to match better.
    Beasts: The option to replace the dire wolf with a bear or something different, or the option to replace the lions with more wolves.
    Necromancy: A sword for the MM themselves for that Death Knight look, but maybe also Vahzilok-like zombies for a mad-scientist approach.

    Btw, has anyone ever been on an all Thug Mastermind team and everyone used Gang War at the same time? I've always wanted to see what kind of chaos would ensue from that.

    • Like 1

    The Pretty Good AE Debate

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by FoxyPrime

    Having options was always City of Heroes' main appeal to me. WoW always felt annoyingly restrictive in various ways, but it always came down to what looked like creative build options would often turn out to be a big fat lie, and they gradually took those options away.

    Also, for the longest time, my biggest gripe with "required" multiplayer is how unreliable it ultimately is. People have conflicting schedules, people come and go, and my experience with randos in PuGs is often terrible*. To depend solely on multiplayer to even play means being unable to play whenever one of the myriad reasons comes up that a group is either not available or not working out. Therefore, I've always felt a solo option should always be available to provide the necessary flexibility to prevent people getting stalled out. This was especially bad back when we had to pay a subscription to play: paying 15 bucks a month just to have time wasted because of random happenstance and scheduling conflicts is horrid. MMOs make grouping more readily available (that's the whole point), but despite that it's still not something that can be taken for granted.

    * Most of my PuG experience across various games is I often run into people who are pushy, bossy, rude, or just plain griefers. Not worth the headache of dealing with. CoH Homecoming has been something of a noteworthy exception...some of the time. For the majority of Task Force Commander, I've actually had decent groups and no issues. Posi 1 is sometimes problematic so I find it's easier to just solo that one. Maria Jenkins runs for the Praetorians is another bad one because people's high tendency to be rush happy results in me not getting credit for the Praetorian KOs, which makes it another one I prefer to solo...which is admittedly a bit hard when I'm playing a squishy character.

    The Pretty Good AE Debate

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    1 minute ago, Lines said:

     

    If the only incentive to play content is for its narrative (and I'm not dismissing that as a valuable incentive, it is, just bear with me), and not for any reward/character development/game mechanics reason, then it indicates that there is a dissonance between the game design and the narrative. The two should be working neatly in tandem, but in CoH I believe that they don't. Where CoH is a game that encourages multiple playthroughs, but the content is underplayed, that to me indicates a colossal design issue (one which I think has existed in the game more or less from the start, gradually getting worse).

     

    Again, I don't think that AE/Farming is the root of the issue here, but it does play a role in making the rewards obsolete. As biostem pointed out, a lot of the stories are inconvenient and irritating anyway, so replayability may be laborious for other reasons too. 

    I really don't think there's any dissonance at all. You go through the quest to see the story. In order to do so, you play the game, using the mechanics to overcome the challenge in the quest in order to advance the story. How is that not game design and narrative literally working in tandem?

    • Thumbs Up 1

    The Pretty Good AE Debate

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by FoxyPrime

    23 minutes ago, biostem said:

    There is definitely a curve regarding how long people are willing to work toward unlocking something in-game.  For instance, I didn't realize at first that you could use threads to progress your Alpha slot ability, and on my first incarnate, it was frustratingly slow-going, and when I finally got to T3, I all but gave up.  It's also why I almost never bother looking at the T9 of my primary, as it'll probably be the least used ability, and if the rest of the set is "meh", then I'm not gonna put in the time, (excepting things like MM T9s or controller pets).

    When I was younger, I had more of a determined, persistent attitude, but also still a sense of frustration and feeling something was amiss. Massive grinds went from absurd bonus quests in a select few games to widely prevalent and a core aspect of game design. World of Warcraft was my first major exposure to it and after twice having spent literal months to get an armor set only for it to be worthless almost immediately after was an enormous wake up call and pretty much killed what was left of that youthful determination. All that time, effort, and money (subscriptions) for literally nothing but the expectation that I'd do it all over again instead of quitting. 

    After having seen this sort of thing only get worse and worse over the years, I am firmly against having my time wasted since the entire point of playing a game is to be entertained.

    • Thumbs Up 3

    The Pretty Good AE Debate

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    8 minutes ago, Lines said:

     

    Agreed that as things are now, there seem to be no issues. What I'm saying is that, if you could infinitely accelerate the speed you can farm at, then at a certain threshold we'll start seeing issues. So farming as fast as it is may be fine, but farming faster may end up with issues. 

     

     

    Take the Freaklok arcs as an example. They're designed for (iirc) the 20-30 level range, so targeted towards characters who are levelling. At it stands, there's a big reward rift between choosing to level through the arc or choosing to level through AE farming. If that rift were smaller, we might* see the content being played more regularly as people can effectively mix their playstyles up during the levelling process.

    (*BIG EMPHASIS ON MIGHT, I HAVE ZERO DATA, THIS IS PURE SPECULATION)

     

    I do think that there are some much deeper, structural issues in CoH that contribute here than just reward balance though, particularly around the disparity between narrative and levelling, something which I would like to see totally separated.. But those would be thoughts for CoH2.

     

    I'm not really trying to make any argument here, just positing observations as I see them. I also have no solutions that I think are practical.

    I'm afraid I'm not understanding where the problem is. Something level 20-30 doesn't sound like anything people would linger on either way. What does it mean to play it more regularly and why is that necessary to begin with?

    The Pretty Good AE Debate

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by FoxyPrime

    19 minutes ago, Lines said:

     

    There are a couple of things I can think of:

     

    Inflation is a big and constant risk, when the playerbase generates a lot of influence very fast. The live servers reached a point where farming was more or less the only viable way for new players to reliably engage with the market. Fortunately, there are other safeguards against this on Homecoming, so it's hard to say how fast is too fast nowadays. Apparently, we're not there, but it is worth being vigilant.

     

    Balance and obsolescence may also be an issue. If a dev designs new content, how do they reward/incentivise it, knowing that there exists a loophole that will give players a multitude of that reward? How large is the difference between optimised farming and any other content before players will try it once for the novelty, and then never again because it's so inefficient? A developer in that position may quickly lose much incentive to develop.

     

    (I've seen arguments for increasing other content to the same reward rate as AE farms, but I'm personally very much against this - I do think that rewards need to keep being looked at, and I do think the much older content needs a bit of an incentivisation pass in more ways than one, but the game does need to function as a game and offer some resistance, which is exactly what AE farming circumvents. Else it practically becomes a sandbox, which some people may love, but eh, not for me.)

     

     

    This isn't to say I'm against AE farming. I'm just saying that there are some possible issues that may arise if farming gets faster.

    As things are now, I keep seeing consistent prices for everything, so I'm not sure if inflation is an issue. If it does become one, however, I also don't think trying to delay it will fix it, or if it's worth combating it at the expense of the rest of the game. 

     

    I'm not really sure what rewards you speak of as I've seen none that aren't acquirable over time alone. None are attached to specific quests or content so the only motivation I've ever had to do content is simply for its own sake. And as a player, content is far more enjoyable when I can play it for its own sake rather than having to repeat it over and over as part of a tedious farm. I think good game content should be able to stand on its own as being worth playing because it's good, not something you have to repeat because it's required for a reward. The best games I've ever played are often of a "short and sweet" nature, were as the worst were full of grind as a substitute for content. Short and sweet > tedious and empty.

    In my experience, the longer a reward takes to get, the more likely something new and better will come along before you ever get it. Plus the sheer frustration and tediousness takes away any joy I could have ever derived so I think mandatory repetition and delays are more toxic than anything else.

    Any *old old* game things you kinda miss?

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by FoxyPrime

    I never felt any sense of accomplishment from "earning" anything when it was really just waiting for the game to let me have it due to arbitrary time gates, RNG, or grinding. I've only grown to detest time wasting game design more and more over the years and I do not agree with any argument that supports such designs.

     

    The game honestly feels better now than it did back in the day, with quests that feel engaging, stories that draw me in, and wrapped up with a boss fight that feels epic, all with a character set up the way I like it attained in a reasonable time. That actually feels like a triumph and it isn't undermined by frustration and boredom from tedious padding. I can go in and enjoy things at my own pace. MUCH better than street sweeping, cleaning out substations, and putting up with an unreliable mess of a team full of selfish elitists. I feel like my time is well spent and respected, not wasted.

    The Pretty Good AE Debate

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by FoxyPrime

    I'm probably missing a lot here, but one thing that always confused me is why farming faster is bad, but essentially farming slower is good. The only difference between PI council runs and AE farming that I've ever noticed is AE is faster.

    Also what about the fire/kin controller warrior farms of the past? Are those any different than the AE? It's still one guy going around farming xp for a group of other people. It even still involves a specific build vs a specific type of opponent.

     

    I don't think this discussion, or this community, benefits from anyone copping an elitist "play my way or play something else" attitude.

    • Like 1
    • Thumbs Up 3

    AE Farms -vs- Account Locked Rewards

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I think leveling taking longer has never equated to more skill. The longer things take, the more boring things are, the more sloppy I get because I'm bored from the tedium. I derive more enjoyment, and develop my playing skills far better, by actually having my powers to use and practice against worthwhile opponents, not taking an eternity to acquire them.

    So I am against anything that makes the grind longer. 

    • Thanks 1
    • Haha 1

    Shield Against all Odds detoggling

    in Scrapper

    Posted

    On 6/16/2019 at 5:11 PM, Papaschtroumpf said:

    yeah I remember the days when shields (all toggles) were detoggled. I didn't know they still do if they have some kind of offensive component.

    time to make Active Defense perma

    But Assault from the Leadership pool doesn't. It's only Against All Odds that seems to behave this way for some reason.

    Perma-Dom

    in Dominator

    Posted

    I'm working towards a perma-dom build and was wondering if I'm doing something wrong or has something changed and I missed the train on perma-dom?

     

    At the moment my dominator has 6 sets that should be providing 10% recharge reduction, but my combat stats only list 5. If I remove Superior Ascendency of the Dominator, my combat stats don't change. So even though it says it provides another 10%, it seems that is not the case.

    Cox Recharge Total 1.jpg

    Cox Recharge Total 2.jpg

    Cox Recharge Total 3.jpg

    Cox Recharge Total 4.jpg

    "Best Community"

    in Excelsior

    Posted

    Logged in the morning for a little leveling and the first thing I see is a bunch of guys making fun of Korean by spamming $@%!#$%!^!@!#%^&* in the LFG chat in response to a mistell in Korean.

    • Confused 1

    Dark Water Colors Messed Up (SOLVED)

    in Bug Reports

    Posted · Edited by FoxyPrime

    I noticed my dark water colors went from different shades of red to just completely black now. The colors on my customizations have not changed. They just display as completely black when in use on the field. 

     

    EDIT: I figured out the problem. For some reason one of my power customization saves had all my water power settings to a weird blank state, resulting in black water. Clicking on the individual powers to edit them instantly restored their saved colors. Resaving the customization afterwards eliminated the problem.

    Remembered one of the things I hate about CoH... its RNG.

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    On 11/5/2020 at 4:13 PM, macskull said:

    This is why the beginner's luck mechanic exists. There's also a huge difference between "feels like" and "is like," especially when the ability exists to prove one or the other. When people say they have issues like that ("I always pop Aim/BU/a tray of yellows and miss every attack!") I will ask for combat logs and inevitably find one of a few things is happening:

    • The player is unable to produce the combat logs, making their claim unable to be tested
    • The player produces combat logs, and after further examination everything checks out - this one can be tricky because there are some powers that do not show every hit roll in the combat logs so it can seem like you are missing twice in a row with 95% chance to hit but that is not what is actually happening
    • The player produces combat logs that show an odd scenario which I'm unable to replicate
    • The player has found a bug

    The first two options happen far more often, the third option happens extremely rarely (I think maybe once in the last year and a half), and the fourth option almost never happens. There was a thread several months back about how the game's hit roll RNG was biasing numbers >95 for players only and not NPCs, but the end result of that thread was "many powers only show a hit roll on misses and not hits so it would naturally bias numbers >95 if you're only looking at combat logs."

     

    EDIT: Another couple things go into this discussion. Perception bias is probably the biggest one, because you don't notice those 95% of times you hit a target, but you definitely notice the 5% of times you don't. The next one is simple probability and accepting that just because something is extremely unlikely doesn't mean it won't happen. For example, there's an 0.25% chance I will miss two attacks with 95% hit rolls in a row (not counting the one in between where streakbreaker forced a hit) which means it is unlikely to happen but not impossible.

    None of this really addresses my point: that possibility of that bad scenario is, in of itself, just a waste of the player's time. It being statistically rare is completely irrelevant. 

     

    What is the purpose of low level missing? How does it enhance the player experience? How does missing on a dice roll teach the player anything about playing the game? Is it fun for a mission to be dragged out even more because you arbitrarily lost a fight that you will later win with no problem and then repeated ad infinitum? The fact this discussion happened at all suggests it is not, in fact, universally fun. Since enhancements and such exists specifically to try and help solve this problem, then it stands to reason that itself is evidence the problem exists by design to give a sense of purpose to progression, but I think that sense of progression can be maintained without needing to make the low levels pointlessly irritating. Just tweak it so it's not so damaging for the player to arbitrarily miss or buff the inspirations.

    Remembered one of the things I hate about CoH... its RNG.

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by FoxyPrime

    A common scenario for me was to pop accuracy inspirations, turn on "aim" and fire off a power that supposedly has a buff to accuracy only to miss pretty much all the time. Like the more invested into accuracy, the more likely I'll miss.

     

    It doesn't matter how the missing is justified, math, code, or whatever. Like I said before, at higher levels, when equipped up with stuff, I am not missing much at all and still being challenged so early game missing is just a waste of the player's time.

×
×
  • Create New...