Ultimo

Fourth mission is up, but I'm debating switching the map. One issue is the ally I included. His presence makes the fight with the boss far too easy, so I'm pondering how to include him. Anyway, it's there if anyone wants to give it a try. Also, all the ratings were reset, I couldn't republish the arc after editing it locally... so any ratings or reviews are welcome.

Much appreciation for the feedback. I realize the soldiers are all pretty easy, I kind of wanted that to allow the heroes to feel like Captain America beating up the hordes of bad guys... until they meet the actual superhumans, who are MUCH sturdier stuff. Most of the superhumans are Bosses, though, so I wouldn't want to upgrade the Officers to that level. I might make them Lieutenants, though. I should also say, much of the text is going to be overhauled, so don't worry too much about that side of it. The only thing I'm not sure of is how to change the size/colour of the text (such as in the title, and perhaps in the chat bubbles of certain bosses). The next mission is set to be during the attack on Berlin. The heroes will be called upon to attack the hideout of one of the more powerful of the German supers while the conventional troops are engaging the normal troops in Berlin proper.

Anyone finding them too easy? Too difficult? I've been debating upgrading all the actual villains to Elite Bosses, with certain ones to Arch Villain. Any thoughts?

Ok, it's up to three missions now, a little rough around the edges, but the basic stuff is there. First mission is in North Africa Second mission is in Southern Italy Third mission is in Europe Fourth mission is planned for Berlin Fifth will take us to the Pacific, Guadalcanal Any thoughts or feedback would be great.

Ok, I've published it as The World at War. Right now, there's two missions. I'd welcome any feedback. The first one is set in North Africa, using a Cimerora map. The second one is intended to be the THIRD in the series, but there is no #2 yet. That one will be in Sicily once I decide on a mission. Of note, I'm trying to decide what to do with the various superhuman enemies and allies you meet. I feel like they're just to easy as Boss level enemies, but I'm not sure about making them Elite Bosses, as there are occasions where there will be several wandering together as a patrol. What do you think, is it unreasonable to make them Elite Bosses?

Ya, I did consider doing separate arcs for each warzone... but I dislike doing that, I prefer my stories to be all in one arc (though, that does tend to make them rather long). I'll look over the Cimerora maps again, though.

So, I've been tinkering for a while now, trying to make a series of missions set during World War 2. I've made one mission now, it would actually be later in the series, being set in Europe after D-Day, but I'm struggling with some of the other theatres. I'd intended to have a mission from each significant area (North Africa, Sicily, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Berlin and the Pacific), but I don't know how many missions I can include in the arc, and I can't decide on maps. The difficult ones are North Africa and Sicily. I can use the St. Martial and Mercy Island maps for Europe, even Berlin, and Croatoa can stand in for parts of Eastern Europe and the Pacific. Anyone have any suggestions for maps I might use? Anyone know how many missions I can include?

Many times now, I've heard reference to issue this or issue that... and I am made to wonder, is there an actual STORY arc going on in this game? I've never really noticed one, just going from random one-off mission to mission. Many (even most) MMOs have some kind of story as a main plot, with numerous isolated stories scattered about that don't or only peripherally affect the main plot. Is that what we have here? If so, where does the main story begin? What missions are part of it, and in what order should they be played?

They might call it "Momentum."

I've often suggested that Rage be reworked (along with the rest of the Super Strength set). My thought was that it be a toggle, that increases damage output, but at greater endurance cost and reduced accuracy. The idea there would be that the character is usually holding back, and by turning on the toggle, they're "taking off the gloves," so to speak. I don't like that the power set is so dependent on one or two powers (ie. Rage and KO Blow), and that it lacks any real sense of STRENGTH. I mean, the defining thing about strength is that it allows you to lift and move heavy objects. Watch the fight between Superman and Captain Marvel in the JLA animated series (Clash), and you'll see what I'm on about. They do a lot of throwing things around, tons of collateral damage, they knock each other flying all the time. In this game, there's none of that. We can punch things, but LOTS of sets do that. We don't even knock things around reliably. I realize the engine doesn't support interacting with the environment in a meaningful way, but I feel like they could do some things to make the set feel like the character has STRENGTH. I would like to see some cosmetic collateral damage in the form of cracks on surrounding terrain, and debris being tossed around (where appropriate). I'd love to see more knockback, but a lot of people find that undesirable. I'd slot knockback enhancers for my own enjoyment, but then I'd lose the ability to slot other, more necessary things (like damage). So, I'd like to see them make knockback more desirable, perhaps by making it do some extra damage, relative to the distance knocked (this would even allow non-damaging powers like Force Bolt or Hand Clap to do some damage). Finally, I would love to see more AOE attacks. Martial artists like Batman or Captain America attack lots of foes by attacking quickly, one target at a time. Super strong characters hit lots of foes at once by attacking with sweeping attacks or hitting them with large objects (like the big rock in Hurl). Speaking of Hurl, I think it should come MUCH sooner in the set, as it's the only power in there that allows the character to lift a heavy object. The object in question should be even larger if Rage is active, and in either case should be an AOE. But, I don't want to derail things too much, so I'll stop here.

So, I started a Mastermind character based on the Red Skull. My original thinking was to make him Mercs/Poison, and supplement him with the Experimentation pool. However, I found Poison to be almost entirely useless (at least at lower levels). The debuffs don't seem to DO anything, and there's no way to protect MYSELF in combat. So, I changed over to Radiation. However, I'm finding Radiation rather underwhelming too. The debuffs again don't seem to do much of anything, and while he CAN heal himself, the heal is pretty weak. On top of all that, the Experimentation pool is striking me as really weak too. Toxic Dart recycles pretty quickly, but does almost no damage. Corrosive Vial is an AOE, but again does almost nothing and has a ridiculously long cooldown. Experimental Injection... does what, exactly? It seems to do almost nothing as well, and has an even LONGER cooldown. In short, I'm having a tough time figuring out how to build this character so he's in concept, so I thought I'd see what you all think. Am I out to lunch on these power sets? Are Poison and Radiation actually better sets than I'm seeing? The basis of the character is still Red Skull, but the one from the comics, not the movies. That means he's a normal guy in a mask, a brilliant scientist and leader. The plan was to give him the Field Master pool at the end to reference his control of the Cosmic Cube (probably his most iconic story arc). So, what do you all think, how would you build a Red Skull themed character?

You'll still autotaunt on a Tanker, so if you're in a group, keep punching even if you're doing no damage.

At least I know I'm not doing it wrong, thanks. I'll make a macro for them (and the shut up and wait macro for my bots MM will be a godsend too, as suggested in the linked thread!).

So, I have a Mastermind with Mercs. I wanted to bind a key to make them all stand at ease. I typed in the following: /petsayall <em atease> I expected they would all stand at ease, but instead they all SAID "<em atease>" I asked about it in chat, and someone typed out the same command, which I then copied and pasted into the chat bar, and THAT made them stand at ease. The text was IDENTICAL, so I have no idea why it wouldn't work when I typed the whole thing in. So, I pasted the command again, but added a bind command: /bind numpad3 petsayall <em atease> When I pressed Numpad 3, once again they didn't do the emote, they SAID the words "<em atease>" I can't figure out why this isn't working, everything I've read and done suggests it SHOULD work.

I see what you did there... 😎

I have a couple of Blasters now. One is Fire/Fire (based on Human Torch), the other is Beam Rifle/Atomic (based on Reed Richards).

Ya, Veles has been tough on some of my characters (Defenders and especially Controllers, since he's immune to controls, which are the Controller's only defense). My Tankers had no real trouble with him, and the Brutes did pretty well... but I've been playing Tankers since time immemorial, and know what I'm doing there. Blasters, not so much.

Ya, that came as kind of a rude shock to me, too.

I'm 25 and a few months. Ok, 331 months, but a few is 3 or more according to Oxford Dictionary, so I'm not lying.

Not that far. They conned yellow, so they would have been +1.

I use Hover on most of my ranged characters (Defenders and Sentinels, mainly), but it's not appropriate for this particular character (based on Reed Richards, who doesn't fly...). I do also have a Fire/Fire Blaster, but his healing aura makes everything better. He still takes damage like the new guy, but recovers fast enough to be able to stay in the fight. He does have Hover.

My usual strategy has been to use Combat Jumping to do flybys. I will start out of range, then leap past, firing as I go, and land out of range again. Trouble is, the enemy gets to shoot me as I pass, too. Bosses and the like will frequently do half or more of my health in one shot, so it makes it difficult to survive when my best shots will do only a tenth of theirs. I know I can use inspirations, but as I said before, I don't think it should be necessary to use them, as not every class has to. It suggests an imbalance to me (though, the game has been around a long, long time, so what do I know, lol). Anyway, I appreciate the advice and thoughts.

The Atomic Manipulation set has a toggle that provides protection against knocks and the like. I expect that will help. There wasn't anywhere to go, except back out of the mission. They were the first enemies, right inside the door. Of course, I didn't have any opportunity to interact with the door because of the repeated knockdowns. Just bad luck, it happens.

It's all I use. I can't afford all the bells and whistles. I've just been wondering. My Blaster is only L20 now, but he has GREAT difficulty even taking on three minions, let alone bosses. I'm supposed to take on Veles in that KR mission line, but I'm not even bothering to try at this point, he's just going to immediately obliterate me. I took on that previous boss (Chernobog?), but it required a full tray of purples and greens, and I STILL came out of it at about 2% health. It's why I wondered what people experienced with the class do.

In the past, I've usually played more sturdy characters... Tankers, mainly. I've never really played Blasters or Controllers much... and I'm finding them a bit mysterious. Blasters have NO defense to speak of, and rely on killing enemies before they can do much damage. Controllers (and the like) depend on locking down foes, so they don't take damage... because they also have no defense to speak of. So what do you do when you're facing foes you can't kill quickly, or lock down, like bosses or elite bosses? My Tankers have never really had a problem with those kinds of foes, but the Blasters and Controller types just get squashed before they can do much of anything. So, how do you Blaster/Controller pros deal with enemies like that? (And I know I can just use piles of purples, but I don't think that should be necessary... my Tanks and Brutes don't have to resort to that...)