Xanatos

In 2001, aged 15, I logged onto the Internet, intending to check out a videogame called Star Wars Galaxies. As I did so, I noticed a web forum for a game called City of Heroes had just been set up. I decided to quickly check that out before looking into Star Wars Galaxies. I never checked out Star Wars Galaxies.

What would make you play old MMORPGs like Eve Online, Everquest II, World of Warcraft, and Matrix Online for the first time? That's the same thing that would make other people play City of Heroes. For my money, I'd say in-game events run by the Homecoming Team that look interesting to non-players/appealing to streamers/something news sites can write about would be the way to go. Give onlookers FOMO. Let them jump in. And a small % of them will remain after they discover they like the way the game plays. Look at all the dope stuff that's happened in Eve Online: https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/the-5-greatest-moments-in-eve-online-history/ https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/eve-online-stories/ Matrix Online had some really cool GM-led ongoing roleplay events: https://www.engadget.com/2009-08-03-what-you-missed-in-the-matrix-online.html?guccounter=1 Catnip.

It's a good idea! The most fun I ever had at PvP was back on live when the roleplayers on virtue would do big events in the PvP zones with stories behind them. Having to hunt down certain player characters as they trash-talked in broadcast. Good times. (I tried 8v8 right before shut down but was terrible at it. Silit /Vinnie/Lib/and some of the more experienced PvPers managed to carry me to a tourney win though. Mostly for the lulz of having an RPer on their team I imagine.) Didn't mean to criticize the discord. These things always happen when a crowd gets small enough. Nature of the beast. Good on you for trying to breath some life into it, though. If I wasn't a filthy euro I'd come try join in the fun. If you want to find out more about those two changes, check out the "Golden Standard Testers" Discord. The chatlogs around the changes should all still be there. This thread should also have more details for you re: the crey pistol nerf.

The blaster buff had nothing to do with the PvP community. The only thing the PvP community has asked the devs for is nerfs and maps. Neither of those things are going to push players away from PvP. I think the decline of PvPers in this game is likely due to a combination of: The novelty of City of Heroes being back wearing off. The Indom server dying. The Homecoming population decreasing in general. A lack of PvP knowledge on the dev team. (There was a crey pistol accolade nerf last year by a PvE dev which caused a bunch of PvPers to quit. Before that there was a blaster /TA nerf by the same dev that had a similar impact.). No Homecoming-run PvP events. The above points making hardcore PvPers apathetic, which caused them to quit. Those that remain end up using the official Homecoming PvP discord as a frat house. (Unwelcoming to newbies.) With less hardcore PvPers around, less chance for casual players to get involved in PvP. More and more people saying "PvP is dead". With a population this small, saying something enough times can make it a self-fulfilling prophecy. Why bother getting involved with something if everyone says it's dead, ya know? So it's a mixed bag of the nature of time, lack of PvP interest in the dev team, and the PvP community becoming less friendly. I don't think it's fair to blame any one thing. Best way to get more people involved in PvP would be to have an in-game vendor who sells free IOs that only work in PvP zones/on PvP maps. I'm sure a lot more people would test the waters if there was zero-cost.

Two big thumbs up. This and the other P2W power pretty much cover me, now. (Plus Ouroboros and jumping to base portals.) Thanks for sticking with it.

I don't agree with the Zoner/Arena dichotomy. These changes will benefit all PVPers equally. For example: I never 8v8. All I do is zone PVP and 1v1. All of these changes are things I've wanted since forever. (And every other PVPer I know.) Do the people criticizing these changes actually pvp in zones? I don't mean to be rude, but everyone against this change so far seems to be PVEers who love arguing on forums. I've not seen a single critical post start with "So I was on brainstorm testing out these changes and my feedback is...".

I said the harder stuff.

2088 maximum hit points means you're not tanking the hard stuff.

@macskull @Faultline +1 for making Recluse's Victory alpha-only. There's a reason all PVP tournaments do this: it's balanced. Vast majority of PVPers will adore this. A small handful might not. (But they will be the 0 posts, single-run-on-paragraph, never-posts-again types.) You won't get a 500+ page epic with people arguing back and fourth. There simply aren't enough zone PVPers to fuel the flames of such a thread. I'd avoid adding a level 44 zone. You'll just end up splitting an already small sub community (zoners) of a small community (pvpers). You want them all in one place IMO. Removing all incarnates except alpha is a better approach IMO. Also, if you're looking to do more than just this, @Silent Method2 and @M3z's suggestions are on the money.

Ah it was probably running at 60FPS before and you didn't realise. I'm running The same CPU as you but with a GTX1070. The performance I get is pretty much the same as you've described here. CoH is a pretty poorly optimised game by 2020 standards.

Did CoH run at higher FPS for you in the past?

Don't understand the tone thing, but fair enough. I'll duck out of the thread now. Best of luck with it. Appreciate the work you folks do even if I disagree sometimes.

What did you think about the rest of the stuff I wrote in that post?

Appreciate the reply @GM Tahquitz, but I was talking about the P2W powers, not LRT. (It's unfortunate LRT is being tweaked at the same time as everything else. Most of the feedback I've seen in the various discords/in game channels I've seen seem to think LRT is the sole replacement for /enterbasefrompasscode.) Where did I ask to dismiss these changes? Where in this thread have I said "delete the new powers, keep /enterbasefrompasscode as it is"? This is exactly what I'm talking about - you folks are not paying attention to negative feedback, even if it's constructive. My post on page 1 is me trying to work with you folks by suggesting tweaks to the new stuff. (And it's the one suggestion that even the naysayers in this thread seem to agree with.) Actually paying attention to what your testers are saying in a focused feedback thread doesn't stop other feedback channels from happening. It just improves this one. Sorry this has gone a little off topic. This is a big change to player QoL. And I want to do as much as I can to help.

You are wrong. It's not equivalent. If players could kill all the characters on the map with one button, you would patch that out overnight. You left /enterbasefrompasscode in the game for over a year. The development team have this weird, and completely incorrect, idea that being able to instantly access SG bases somehow makes travel powers useless, or makes content skippable. (It does neither of those things, and thinking this shows a fundamental lack of knowledge about how the game plays.) Please listen to feedback. The P2W powers need their recharge lowering. I don't understand why you folks are so against even discussing this. I said in closed beta that they should have lower recharge and was told "we don't want to discuss recharge times until it's in live testing". Now it's in live testing you're...ignoring everyone asking for the recharge times to be lowered? Even people, like myself, who are actively testing these powers? Please listen. By all means disagree and do your own thing. Your house your rules. But please listen. The feedback you're arguing against isn't the feedback you're being given.

Incorrect. What is going to happen is that everyone will just get used to logging out at base portals and thereafter rely on dayjob portals due to their quicker recharge. Players always take the path of least resistance. The dayjob portals are going to see MUCH more use than the P2W options. Also, I tested collecting exploration badges/plaques/doing long TFs/doing mission trees without the dayjob portals. I found using ouroboros in the big zones, and jumping to the base portal and using /enterbasefrompasscode in the large zones is still the optimal way to travel without the dayjob portals. The cooldowns on the P2W stuff was too long to have any impact on my play. This is why I suggested removing charges from dayjob portals. (I'm sure nobody will mind if you leave the other dayjob powers until later, lol).

Having actually playtested the powerset, my overall feedback is positive. I like it. But have one slight concern. I feel like only being able to get Energy Focus from Total Focus is a bit limiting. It makes the set feel like a one-trick pony whilst playing it. It's good on paper, but it feels a bit railroaded in practice. My feedback would be to take a leaf out of Rad Melee's book. Specifically: give the other powers in the set a small chance to generate Energy Focus. Here is Rad Melee's powers, plus a list of the "percentage change to make the enemy irradiated" Contaminated Strike - 12% Radioactive Smash - 23% Proton Sweep - 21% Fusion - 100% Radiation Siphon - 32% Irradiated Ground - ??% Devastating Blow - 100% Atom Smasher - 35% Based on these numbers, I suggest the following Energy Melee powers be given the percentage chances to generate 1 unit of Energy Focus: Barrage - 12% Energy Punch - 23% Bone Smasher - 21% Build Up - 100% Whirling Hands - 35% Total Focus - 100% Power Crash - 21% This change would help make the set feel less of a one-trick pony. Curious to hear what @Bill Z Bubba @Troo @Vanden @ScarySai @Super Atom @AerialAssault and everyone else currently playtesting Energy Melee on beta think of the above. (Sorry for tagging. Thread is super busy and don't want this to vanish in the stampede of posts.)

I've been testing this on my DP/Elec. It's a good change IMO. My DPS is higher for not having to pause and click a sustain button. I can just keep shooting. Try it out, you might like it.

[Power Feedback] /Tactical Arrow Electrified Net Arrow / Ice Arrow: I actually like the lowered range. There's no reason they should have higher ranged CC than every other blaster secondary. Having tested it in closed beta, 50ft/60ft is still plenty of range for engaging enemies at range. Just my perspective, though. Imagine other people currently testing the power on beta might have different POV. Gymnastics The only change I'm not so keen on is the movement control being taken away from Gymnastics. I'd suggest adding it back in. Increased mobility was one of the main appeals of the set. Specifically: 4000% movement control to self for 0.75s 20% MovementFriction to self for 0.75s

[PVP Power Tweak] Darkness Manipulation: Soul Drain Suggestion: Change it to work even on a miss. Provide 100% +dam, 20% +tohit. Remove the ability to get buffed by hitting enemies. Reasoning: It's a PBAOE that requires multiple enemies to be within 10ft of you to get a +dam and +tohit buff, whilst rooting you for 2.37 seconds. This is just not feasible in PVP. It's a thoroughly useless power, and is massively underperforming vs build ups/build up alternatives (targeting drone, etc) in other sets in PVP. This change would alleviate that.

While this would also make the TP powers balanced in and of themselves, I'm not so sure from a wider game perspective. This was like the one PVP change I actually agreed with. Teleport Target into: mastermind pets, trip mines, -jump powers in dumpsters, into guard towers with placate and assassin strikes, hurricane in dumpsters...all hilarious for the attacker, but not fun to play against. On the one hand the change your suggesting would give a lot of utility to powers which are currently useless in PVP. (A good thing!) But on the other hand...it's instantly gibbing/trapping people. Which is not fun. But, as you said, experienced players will know how to counter it, so most players won't bother with it as a strategy, which in turn means most players won't bother with the counters to it, so a few people WILL bother with it, and those people in turn will just get farmed, so...maybe the whole thing does balance itself out? TP Foe would become another Power Bolt - everyone knows how to counter it, most don't with their builds, people who try it get farmed so much it becomes a poor strategy. Plus the sheer lulz of the zone pvpers who have been relying on /enterbasefrompassword for evasion, now finding themselves trapped in a dumpster they don't know how to get out of though...so good...imagine the broadcast rage...*chefkiss* I'm split. Overall I'm probably against your suggestion, as it would push people even further into needing Speed of Sound in smaller matches in the same way they do in zones/8v8s. But I definitely see an argument for what you're saying. @everyone not mac - please stop arguing with me about PVP lol.

[Bug Fix] Fold Space needs the following added to it for PVP: 3.00 magnitude intangible for 0.87s(0.75s) on target after x.xxs delay unresistable 3.00 magnitude untouchable for 0.87s(0.75s) on target after x.xxs delay unresistable 3.00 magnitude only affect self for 0.87s(0.75s) on target after x.xxs delay unresistable This is so that it matches Teleport Target. (Switch out the "x.xx" for whatever number duration is right for Fold Space. Teleport Target uses "1.17".) If you don't do this. People will be able to fold space>glue arrow an entire team into a dumpster they cannot get out of, fold space>trip mine pile to instakill an enemy team, etc. While this is hilarious, it would be pretty unbalanced.

Yeah some of the newer pool powers are mutually exclusive. So there's a precedent for it. And uh, sorry to hear you don't like the game being designed around Hasten. I've got some bad news for you... Oh yeah I completely agree with you. Was just posting the above because you asked why is has +tohit in the first place. I think it should have a +def component and should be balanced against Combat Jumping/Hover. But if the homecoming team are massively against that, then I'd suggest giving it +rech and have it balanced against Hasten. (With Hasten being left alone, of course.) 3%

The reason given in closed beta was that a lot of power pool options already provide +def, and that the homecoming team wanted people to pick Combat Teleport "based on its own merits" rather than as yet another source for IO slotting or as a means towards defense softcapping. Unfortunately, not giving Combat Teleport defense means it is handicapped against identical builds that take Combat Jumping or Hover. (Meaning the power cannot be judged on its own merits.) Having tested it, I think it giving some sort of temporary recharge boost ala Crosspunch is the way to go. (So that it can compete with Hasten, rather than Combat Jumping or Hover.) Somewhere in the 40-50% region. (And make it mutually exclusive with hasten so you cannot have both on the same build.)