Ultimo

My first question is, does anyone know of a map I might use to represent the site of a crashed spacecraft? A meteorite or some other such thing would work too... Second, is there a way to copy elements? For example, I have a collection already set up, with text and everything. Rather than making the next collection, which should use the same text and variables all manually, is there a way I can just duplicate the first one? I seem to remember reading somewhere that it's possible. Third, when in the mission, the two collections appear on the Nav bar as "Find 4 debris, find 5 technology." Is there a way to set it up so that text doesn't appear? I don't want it telling the players how much they have found or are supposed to find. Finally, not really AE related, is there an alternative to Mids? I'm using my old PC while my regular one is in the shop, and I find that the current version of Mids won't run on Windows 7. Thanks in advance for any help!

So, as a matter of curiosity, I wondered how a group of NPC villains would fare against a Giant Monster. I've spoken before about how I think the damage output of villians in general is over the top, and I wondered how a Giant Monster would stand up. So, I made an AE mission and put all the members of my Super Villain group into the mission as allies to rescue, then sent them up against Jack in Irons. It was eye opening. These supervillains, who can obliterate even my toughest characters in 1 or 2 attacks, couldn't do ANY damage to Jack, and he wiped them out in 3 or 4 hits. The whole thing took around 10-20 seconds. So... I've seen players fighting Giant Monsters, and I've seen them win. I'm curious why this is possible, when even AV level enemies couldn't make a dent. No criticism intended here, just curiosity.

Ugh, I was going to check the numbers in Mids, but my old PC uses Windows 7 (my regular one, the SSD crashed, and it's in the shop), and Mids won't install on Windows 7, alas.

DDR? RAM? SDRAM? What are we referring to here...? More seriously... 11.25 isn't bad... perhaps adding in the Maneuvers and Combat Jumping WOULD be worthwhile...?

A question... Defensive Sweep adds Defense. I wonder if it really DOES anything worthwhile? I mean, the amount of Defense provided has to be very small, and Defense is pretty much worthless in small doses. Would it be worthwhile to throw in some Defense powers, like Combat Jumping, Weave and Maneuvers?

This is true, and would definitely be satisfactory. However, it might be nice to be able to make a proper Giant Monster, too. I have a group of characters based on the Fantastic Four, and with the movie coming up, I thought it might be cool to make a homage villain based on Galactus... but there's not really any way to make a character that big or that powerful.

Perhaps a couple of variants of Giant Monsters... After some testing in the AE, I find Giant Monsters are pretty ridiculously overpowered, so their use in arcs would be severely limited. Perhaps an AV version of Giant Monsters could be created... basically, just a larger body type, but the enemy is still AV level. This doesn't mean creating AV versions of existing Giant Monsters, I wouldn't want to trivialize those. It would just be something for custom characters.

I don't know if it's been suggested before, but I was making a mission based on the Norse myth of Ragnarok for the AE the other day, and thought to myself how a certain character would be better represented as a Giant Monster (both Surt and Ymir). Being Man-Sized (ie. up to 7 or 8 feet tall) just doesn't work if you're making a character who is supposed to be a GIANT. Therefore, my suggestion is, let us make custom Giant Monsters!

Hm, then it's been around a while. As I say, this is the first character I've played that uses the set, so it's news to me.

Interestingly, I've had NO issues with endurance on the Brute, but the Tanker was in serious distress in that regard. So you get a sense of what I'm getting... here's the aftermath of a fight with ONE Luddite Crusader I happened across. I even used my HEAL in this fight. See how close to death I got?

Right now, the Brute is L16. I've slotted him with SOs, and usually focus on defenses first, so each armour has 3 slots assigned, one endurance redux, two resistance. I do the same on the Tanker. I usually try to build for survivability, I figure I can only do damage if I'm alive to do it. Actually, he just leveled, so here it is now.

Yes, that's the same on my Brute. It's in the general options for the set as a whole, but not the individual powers. However, setting it to no pulse at the top like that does NOT set the power itself to no pulse. It sets it to Color Tintable.

So, I created a new character the other day using power sets I've never used before. I find myself a bit torn about what to DO with him. The original character he's based on is one I made in the comics I used to make when I was a kid. Basically, he's an alien warrior, phenomenally strong and tough. wielding a powerful energy blade. In the comic, he was one of the most formidable villains we created. I wanted the same for the character here. So, I made him a Brute, Titan Weapon/Dark Armour. At first, I was very impressed. With Titan Weapon, he was a juggernaut, slaughtering foes with ease. However, as his level went up, I found he seemed more and more squishy, until I found I simply had no choice but to reduce the difficulty to -1. Even at that he's getting slaughtered constantly. Every fight, even against as few as 3 minions, he is forced to slug down a dozen inspirations to survive. It made me wonder what was wrong with Dark Armour. Is it just not any good? I had heard otherwise, but this experience was... disappointing. So, I remade him as a Tanker, Dark Armour/Titan Weapon. He's certainly tougher, but his damage output is laughable. As before, by the time he defeated even three minions, he was on death's door. Not so much because his defenses weren't good enough, but because his damage output was so weak he was taking more damage than he was as a Brute. So, I'm torn. I'm inclined to keep on as a Brute, he really ought to be doing terrific damage. That was one of his signature attributes in the comics. However, he's also supposed to be very durable, and he's just not. Is it the Dark Armour? Does it eventually provide some decent protection, or do I need to start finding ways to supplement it? I've been tinkering on Mids, and it's hard to fit everything he needs into the build in a timely manner. So... any thoughts? Suggestions? Is Dark Armour worth working with, or is it generally weak? Is there a better choice? I really wanted to try something a bit different, most of my sturdy characters are using Invulnerability or Willpower, and I can't deal with power sets with egregious effects, like Bio or Stone Armour. I was willing to give Dark Armour a try for this guy, because it IS kind of in character, with a bit of rationalization (I rationalized that the people of his world, which has 5 suns, needed to adapt to control light and shadow). The issue is the survivablity. Titan Weapon is taking some getting used to, but I'm kind of enjoying it. It requires a bit more attention to what you're doing, you can't just mash buttons as soon as they appear. It might make be better at other ATs once I get used to it. Any thoughts are welcome. I'm really just kind of looking for feedback.

He's a Brute, Titan Weapon/Dark Armour. Never tried either set before, thought I'd give it a go. You're correct, I meant Dark Embrace.

Strange then... you do see the pulsing in the video. Perhaps it's something client-side I don't know about...?

Dark Armour, set to No Pulse. There are very slight dark tendrils around him, and no pulsing. Dark Armour, set to Minimal FX, the tendrils go away, but now he pulses darkness (his whole body becomes black for a moment, every couple of seconds). Murky Cloud set to Minimal FX, he pulses as above. There IS no setting for No Fade/Pulse. Murky Cloud set to Tintable, there are sparkles and tendrils, and he pulses as above. Obsidian Shield, set to Minimal FX, he pulses darkness, as above. I'll make a video and edit it in. Here's a video. In this clip, the Dark Armour is set to No Fade/Pulse, Murky Cloud and Obsidian Shield are set to Minimal FX.

Ok, I went back in and looked again. Turns out there are two powers doing the pulsing. Murky Cloud does it and Obsidian Shield also does it, but only on Minimal FX. There IS a no pulse setting for Obsidian Shield, but then there's a bunch of effects surrounding the character's head. Seems I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't. This is why I suggested Minimal FX should include the No Fade/Pulse state.

Except it does. The character periodically turns dark when it's turned on, I assumed that was the Fade/Pulse the setting was referring to... I'll check it again, perhaps it's not what I thought it was.

It would also be easier if you read what was said before, but let me repeat myself. The "Momentum" text appears in the top right corner of the screen, somewhere players aren't going to be looking very often, and only remains briefly. This makes it easy to miss. Most of the time, players are going to be looking at the enemy or at their UI bar. If an indicator on the UI bar is so difficult, then perhaps an animation effect can be added, something similar to Domination, where the character gains a glow or other effect. The idea here is to put the indicator, whatever form it takes, somewhere players are usually looking, so it won't be so easily missed.

I'm aware of all that. The issue is that I can get rid of the pulsing on all the powers that have it, EXCEPT Murky Cloud, which results in the character pulsing dark all the time. There's no point in having a no fade/pulse option on ANY of them if one of them is still going to do it.

I'm fine with no fade meaning there is still some residual effect. The problem is that I can set the other powers to no fade/pulse, but there's still this ONE power I can't do it with, so I'm stuck with a fading/pulsing character regardless of my settings in the other powers... and Minimal FX doesn't solve it either.

Ah, I misunderstood. The thing is, powers that REQUIRE Momentum can't be used at all without it, so they're already greyed out and can't be used. Thus, you already know when not to use them, because you CAN'T use them. The thing with the other powers is that without Momentum they take a LONG time to fire, and there's no way to cancel (that I know of), so I could end up getting myself killed while sloooooooowly building up that Titan Sweep, having activated it, not knowing Momentum had expired.

I wasn't aware of this, though I have seen some extremely strong War Wolves pop out of bad guys.

Playing a Dark Armour character for the first time, I've noticed something peculiar... probably an oversight. I've set the powers on the character to be as minimally invasive as possible. That means Minimal FX where I can put it, and No Fade or Pulse where appropriate. The problem is that SOMETHING was still pulsing, covering the character with darkness periodically. I tracked it to Murky Cloud, which I have set to MINIMAL FX. This power, alone among the armours in the set, does not HAVE a No Fade or Pulse setting. This seems odd, because the other armours do. It's pointless setting the others to No Fade or Pulse if this one is going to do it anyway. Can we get the No Fade or Pulse setting added to Murky Cloud? Also, the Minimal FX setting should INCLUDE No Fade or Pulse by default.

That's basically what I'm looking for. Any power being enhanced by Momentum should get a ring around it to let us know. I mean, when I'm fighting bad guys, I'm usually looking at THEM or the toolbar, not up in the top corner where nothing is usually going on. With Momentum lasting only a couple of seconds, it's easy to miss. If it's on the toolbar, I'm not likely to miss it.