SupaFreak

On the second door mission in which Marauder as a pure Arch-Villain ambushes at the end, I have had 2 instances in which I was not teleported out by Savage Noble. I do not know if this is attributed to having Hide and/or Super Speed active, but I could run around for hours and never have the mission complete itself. Standard Settings +0 / x1 / No Bosses / No AVs I tried after the ambush to turn off both Hide and Super Speed AND Zoning Out / Zoning In to no avail. Had to log out / in and restart mission to get the teleport to take on second attempt. This happened on 2 attempts of the arc. Thanks in advance

I personally like everything but the "Merciful Plea" on this. Always considered Empathy to be a set to NOT affect enemies, instead all about taking care of self and teammates/others. Personally, some sort of equivalent to "Soothing Aura" from Pain Domination but with a pulsing minor Heal + Absorb. Even if the pulse took longer but Heal & Absorb were better. Dunno, just off the top of my head without deep thought into it. But yea, the Revitalizing Aura combining the 2 Auras would be sweet and not out of the concept of Empathy by any means.

Milestone 2 - Level 25 Okay, number crunchers - here's the data for each alignment up to level 25 as performed by Stalker character mentioned in OP Hero (- old Posi TF) Villain Praetorian Total Arcs 36 48 52 Total Merits 525 470 368 Total Minutes 445 476 582 Avg Merits per Arc 14.58 9.79 7.07 Avg Merits per Min & Hour 1.18 / 70.8 0.99 / 58.8 0.63 / 37.8 So, not only do Heroes have a lot more teaming options for TFs, etc but they're already way ahead in Merit acquisition for their time spent doing Story Arcs. 1 Merit buys 2 Enhancement Unslotters which currently sells for @100k each on the AH - therefore each Merit is technically worth @200k AH value According to my math, that would mean Heroes doing exclusively Story Arcs at this point have an average of: 2.4 million INF per hour advantage over Villains 6.6 million INF per hour advantage over Praetorians. Am I doing my math wrong? Is it past time to re-evaluate Merit Distribution to help spread out the player population some? *shrug* I'll keep on pumping the speed Arcs out in the meantime and see how the second half goes. PEACE!

This whole project is just me trying to showcase the imbalance of Merit distribution in today's City of Heroes using 1 Stalker character doing them all solo on minimum settings. Went with minimum settings since Merit rewards don't change due to difficulty settings. Ultimately, I would like to see the Story Arcs balanced better using some sort of guideline - be it in-game method or raw focused feedback method such as this. There are soooo many factors to determine the time put into playing through any given arc. Time it takes to travel to mission or "fed ex / talk to", the size of the map, the types and amount of objectives required, cut-scenes, etc. Can't really go off enemy difficulty too much because some builds are going to have no trouble surviving their damage while others are. As of right now, no encounter in a mission I've done has been able to drop me below 50% health - so none of the AVs I'm fighting as EBs are all that challenging to warrant being a factor in Reward Merits... YET. And to be honest, at minimum settings... I doubt any will be.

Milestone 1 - 100 Story Arcs Completed TOPIC: When did Paragon Studios stop balancing Merits properly back on Live? OBSERVATION: Issue 13 (Power and Responsibility) is when Reward Merits were introduced. I'm about 1/3 through 20-24 and it still appears the target was 60 M/H with modern day "teleporter" abilities. At least for Heroes. For Villains it appears to be down to @35 or so and for Praetorians it's even worse. I have yet to do numbers tracking for Villains or Praetorians 20-24, but hopefully will have those done over the weekend. After Issue 13, it seems that any research into how fast a Story Arc could be done went out the window and a flat "6 for all arcs" - "9 for all arcs" - "3 for all arcs" approach was taken. Got to thinking after posting this reply.... the Villain numbers on Reward Merits pre-Going Rogue are likely skewed due to the fact Stalkers weren't present on Hero-side at the time and the Hero arcs were actually closer to Villain numbers before then. Most likely Scrapper / Blaster capabilities to speed Stealth/Kill Arcs aren't on par with Stalkers and their numbers were comparable. Of course, there's been the introduction of LRT and TT since Live to help speed up the legacy Hero arcs as well. CONCERN: As a player of almost exclusively Hero characters, I can't help but wonder if Villain & Praetorian players know subconsciously that something is off on their ability to "fund their builds" there by doing Story Arcs or not. The numbers aren't lying and both are disadvantaged in the Story Arc category compared to Heroes. I gladly welcome any player to see if the ratio of Merits/Hour when comparing the Moralities that I've posted are off or are pretty close to accurate. FEEDBACK: It seems a partial guideline for Merit distribution was done back in Issue 13 and quickly abandoned. The blanket "X merits for all arcs this Issue" is a flawed approach. Taking the "average time players do this arc in" IMO would also be flawed. An arc's numbers could be greatly skewed by players taking the time to read the story details or AFK making pineapple pizza while playing, etc, Then you set the Merits too high and along come the speedsters raking in the Merits. If an in-game system can't be created easily or just isn't possible - you may have to fall back on a consistent AT built for speed/stealth/DPS such as I'm doing to set the standard per arc. That way when I log on my pokey Controller who can only earn 40/hr vs Stalker's 60/hr - at least my Controller's 40/hr should stay reliable. It's not that different than what the A/E Fire Def/Res builds do and the advantage those characters have over other builds in "fire farms".

It's just a suggestion for 4 to be the baseline. I mean... why bother showering every day when you're just gonna get dirty again? So many puzzling questions. If Role Diversity can be fulfilled with 2, then why not make Archetype Duplication only require 2? Just asking. Maybe it's a dumb question but mama always said questions are like a box of chocolates. You never know what answer you're gonna get.

Right on. Well there's always the option to make a team of 4 a requirement: Role Diversity: Complete the content on a team of 4 or more with Archetypes that fulfill all five roles listed below: I mean, I'm fine with people being able to get away with only 2 person teams but I'd also be cool with it if a team of 4 was the minimum.

How about the possibly a Role Duplication in addition to the other 2? Like 4x from Tank Role, 4x from Support Role, etc? <--- team would have to consist of at least 2, possibly 3 different ATs in that scenario though ---and / or--- Archetype Diversity - meaning 5 ( preferably 8 ) different Archetypes ( yea, very commonplace - but IMO so is 5 different roles from my experience ) That would bring Team Badges up to 8 - giving more options and sending a message to newcomers to "Play What You Enjoy!" ALSO: If the Role Diversity requires 5 - shouldn't Archetype (and Role if considered) Duplication also require 5? Just food (or snack) for thought. I ALSO SECOND THE MOTION Of awarding 1 (or 2) Prismatic Aether being tied to acquiring a Team Badge.

TOPIC: Hero Arcs 21.09 thru 21.12 & Villain Arcs 21.12 thru 21.14 OBSERVATION: Both "The Shining Stars" & "The Hearts of Darkness" arcs are both severely imbalanced in regard to the time required to playthrough vs. Reward Merits compared to a vast majority of other arcs. The argument can be made you get 20 Bonus Merits for completing all 3, but I counter-argue that with a comparison to The Hollows which also awards 20 for completing all 4 of its arcs in approximately the same 60-70 minute time-frame if they are sped through. The Hollows (@65 mins) The Shining Stars (@63 mins) The Hearts of Darkness (@67 mins) 7 3 3 18 3 3 10 3 3 30 Total = 65 Total = 9 Total = 9 Then, I came across this over the weekend of a player returning to the game and casually playing through some of the arcs/missions mentioned up to this point... Observed at the following Timestamps of the video: Timestamp Merits 43 mins - enters game 1 hr 14 min - finishes "What Was Lost" 3 1 hr 47 min - finishes "No More Fears" 0 1 hr 49 min - introduced to Twinshot 1 hr 56 min - finishes first mission of "A New Day Dawning" So after 1 hour and 13 minutes of casually playing, he has a total of 3 Reward Merits. Will he return back to finish the trilogy to get those Bonus Merits from first arc that awarded 0 Merits? He'll likely reach level 9 before receiving the 3 Merits from "A New Day Dawning" if he finishes that. At that point, he's eligible for Positron Task Force with 6 Reward Merits (my guess). CONCERN: As stated in my original posting of main list - the argument be HC Devs for "Role Diversity Challenge" and the Prismatic Aether in Issue 27, Page 7 was hopefully to help new & returning players in funding their builds. I would think if Reward Merits were more balanced across all levels, that challenge wouldn't be necessary. FEEDBACK: A loose example of what a balanced Merit Reward system IF Story Arcs based on a 60/hr (on speed runs) would look like in the above scenario: Timestamp Merits 43 mins - enters game 1 hr 14 min - finishes "What Was Lost" 7 1 hr 47 min - finishes "No More Fears" 6 1 hr 49 min - introduced to Twinshot 1 hr 56 min - finishes first mission of "A New Day Dawning" So after 1 hour and 13 minutes of casually playing, he would have a total of 13 Reward Merits. It would not matter as much if he did not return to get the Bonus Merits from the first arc over three contacts. If he were to receive @22 Merits for "A New Day Dawning", he would then be at 39 Merits and well on his way to funding his build with the ability to purchase 1 (nearly 2) of the 20 Reward Merit Recipes. And if Reward Merits are ever rebalanced in this manner, I would think the cost for Recipes, etc would need to increase to offset the new influx with the first Recipe tier costing @30-40 instead. Anyways, there's no real suggestion from me with this Topic - mainly showcasing the disparity in Reward Merits for story arcs. I don't blame the disparity on HC & what (if anything) is ever done about this huge endeavor is not in my hands. I'll continue updating the main post as time allows. PEACE!

Then you buy the one you want first (after careful bidding) and list yours for about same price... right? May be out that money for a while but should come close to nearly evening out.

Yea, was fighting against Legacy Chain this evening and was thinking - jeez, that sure is a lot like Energy attacks just recolored differently. I guess if ever there were to be a set the only real difference would be in mechanics of the Status Effect. Meaning instead of KB on Energy Blast it may be -Perception or -ToHit Debuff. Still Energy/Smashing damage for the most part. Unless there's some creative way to differentiate it besides just hueing existing sets and adding a different sound effect, guess not really worth it.

To the best of my knowledge, the AH doesn't know the difference between Attuned and un-Attuned or the enhancement's level. Just sell the one you have and buy it back unAttuned for near the same price you sold it for. It's like AH provides the service for a small fee. Example: Cacophony: Accuracy / Recharge has the same amount for sale in Crafted: All level ranges & Attuned

I'm totally down for Light-Based powerset

Condensed intro information to be pure bullet-point Updated layout of main post to have 1 Spoiler per Morality/Range instead of per Story Arc

TOPIC: Villain Arcs 21.05 & 21.06 OBSERVATION: The two arcs appear to be linked to an overall arc that's broken up through 2 contacts - still culminating to @14 minutes+ for 3 Merits. I do not recall being awarded any bonus upon completion of the two as Hero arcs 21.02 -> 21.04 did. CONCERN: The need to do 21.06 to be rewarded for 21.05, especially this early in the game for a new player. FEEDBACK: Same as feedback for Hero arcs 21.02 -> 21.04. Merits should be awarded at the end of each segment of the 2-part arc.

TOPIC: Villain Arc 21.12 OBSERVATION: The amount of travel time required within this arc. CONCERN: Sure, travel powers are available at level 4 now but having played all Hero & Villain 1-9 Arc in 48 hours, the travel time commitment required this early in the game is likely not very pleasant for a newcomer. FEEDBACK: I really feel the doors for missions 6 & 12 should have no chance of being on the opposite side of the Mercy Island map.

TOPIC: Hero Arcs 21.02 -> 21.04 OBSERVATION: The three arcs appear to all be linked to an overall arc that's broken up through 3 contacts - still culminating to @25 minutes+ for 3 Merits. I do believe there's a 20 Reward Merit bonus at the end for first time doing it which through normal gameplay is good but makes all 3 terrible for Ouroboros replay value. As intended? *shrug* CONCERN: Is it possible for the player to out level the 2nd or 3rd contact through doing other contacts? If so, then player is to never receive any Merits from first contact unless they finish the arc via Ouroboros. FEEDBACK: I think it would be better to award 21.02 with 6 Merits / 21.03 with 6 Merits / 21.04 with 12 Merits if the target max M/H is to be @60. Whether or not the bonus was to stay is irrelevant, because it's only awarded once. Dream Doctor's arc (50) is broken into two sections with a Reward Table at the mid-point, so it's not like this is unheard of.

Highest Rewarding Arcs as of 08/01/2024 CHARACTER USED & SETTINGS IN TEST RESULTS (BELOW) Level 50 (+3) Claws/Super Reflexes Stalker - finished IO & Incarnate build +0/x1 - No Bosses - No AV Super Speed available after Level 15 Flashbacks KEYMAP <C> = Able to call Contact once mission acquired Zone Changes marked in Orange >BASE< = Used Zone's Base Portal >MONO< = Used Monorail >FERRY< = Used Ferry >SUB< = Used Submarine >GATE< = Used Zone Gate <O> = Ouroboros Portal used to access Pillar of Ice & Flame for Contact's Location - often within mission upon completion <B> = Base Transport / Supergroup Portal / Monitor Duty Teleporter / Rapid Response Portal used <O> or <B> or >BASE< = Ouroboros or Base used to access Pillar of Ice & Flame for Contact's Location <MT> = Mission Transporter used <TT> = Team Transport used <LRT> = Long Range Teleporter used M/H = Merits/Hour NOTES All Story Arcs started from SG Base using Pillar for ease of getting to 1st mission in different zone than Contact Rescues in Defeat Alls are not listed due to the fact they will be rescued fulfilling the Defeat All requirement. Enemies that spawn as Boss are counted as Elite Boss - may not be the case on teams or increased difficulty. Enemies that spawn as Elite Boss are counted as Archvillains - may not be the case on teams or increased difficulty. Dark Astoria & Personal Story Arcs will not be tracked since they do NOT award Reward Merits. LEVELS 1 - 9 HERO (6 Arcs) VILLAIN (13 Arcs) LEVELS 10 - 14 HERO (6 Arcs) VILLAIN (13 Arcs) EITHER (16 Arcs) LEVELS 15 - 19 HERO (10 Arcs) VILLAIN (8 Arcs) EITHER (20 Arcs) LEVELS 20 - 24 HERO (13 Arcs) VILLAIN (16 Arcs) EITHER (16 Arcs) LEVELS 25 - 29 HERO (20 Arcs) VILLAIN (17 Arcs) EITHER (8 Arcs) LEVELS 30 - 34 HERO (13 Arcs) VILLAIN (14 Arcs) LEVELS 35 - 39 HERO (10 Arcs) VILLAIN (16 Arcs) EITHER (6 Arcs) LEVELS 40 - 49 HERO (9 Arcs) VILLAIN (17 Arcs) LEVEL 50 HERO (14 Arcs) VILLAIN (39 Arcs) EITHER (7 Arcs) *** SPECIAL ARCS *** HERO (11 Arcs) VILLAIN (11 Arcs) EITHER (1 Arcs) ***** ARCHIVED ARCS ***** HERO (12 Arcs)

Yea, I'd venture to say the code would break my brain. Aside from Null the Gull following you around vouching for you - I got nothing else at this time.

I guess I've been fortunate on teams to not have this happen yet but... Yea, I have no idea how the code for any of the alignment checks work but seems to me a system similar to SK/EX could be applied to teams somehow. Experience Levels temporarily get changed to "Combat Level" in team situations based on the leader or the task's top level, whichever is lower. Can't something like "True Alignment" and "Combat Alignment" be applied here to leader's alignment for the duration of team of whatever the contact's required morality is for the duration of a TF, SF, Trial? -with new Prompt to Auto-Accept and Hide option, of course.

Okay, I've read through just about all of this thread and that quote from Rudra is the best I can summarize my feeling on this. "Prestige" is like a sinister old friend that was taken behind the proverbial Homecoming shed and put down,... and yet somehow here he is again, knocking at our City door begging to come in out of the cold and rejoin the party. Sure, he might be offering badge candy, but there's valid reason for concern that if we let that vagrant back in... we'd quickly be reminded that stranger was secretly a vampire the whole time! Heck, I can see him now. He's back to sucking the fun out of the community's veins and pointing to the leaderboard, like the junkie he was all those years ago. Once a vampire is let through that door, he's a real pain to evict. Earth Dragon - I can tell you're passionate about the good parts of the old system but in all honesty, as a whole it truly was a system that at its core encouraged "elitist" behavior on a level bad enough to drive some players (or paying subscribers on Live) away from the game. Your passion for it is admirable, but if you were to enter "Prestige" into a love compatibility test... the results would come back "World of Warcraft". And as much as I would love to have their subscriber numbers here... I'd rather not have to deal with that "Elitist" lovechild again.

That's why in my suggestion I went with a mystic portal to a remote island on Mercy Island near where Villains start off. I knew a gate or submarine or anything along those lines wouldn't work. Again, as someone who has barely a teaspoon of CoH Lore in their spice rack of knowledge - that part of the reasoning for possible interest in the Igneous in an arc isn't up to me - it's the challenge for someone on how to get them involved. Something related to them the Circle wishes to use in a ritual? Is there a relic the Circle want that's surrounded by Igneous? Etc, etc. Are people asking for this with the Villain access expansion into Striga that I'm not aware of? I personally don't see it as a full-fledged Co-Op zone in the sense of RWZ and DA of what's being added in Page 7. I don't even like that pure Villains or Rogues can start Moonfire TF as they're capable of on Brainstorm - but as one not real privy to Lore, who am I to complain? And to give justification as to why PvP in proposed selection of Hazard Zones will ALWAYS BE A NO-GO there ---> No real organization has your back there, at least not in the PvP zone aspect of the word. To both Heroes and Villain ----> No one there fully trusts either of you, so best just keep your heads cool and leave each other TF alone. TF being a metaphor for challenging moral Task Force, right? And hey - it's all just a Suggestion and Feedback on what it would take within reason to get someone like me to delve more into playing RedSide. If that's not the point of this Topic - I'll shut up now - otherwise - there's my 3 cents (I found an extra one on the way to this reply so now you've been granted a bonus penny on any mission to discredit the credibility of this thought- your lucky day!)

So, on my original response I made no suggestions on what I think *may* or *may not* help grow the villain population... but it's got me thinking the last few days. I like what you're doing with Striga... and I think it would be wise to continue to moving in that direction for Redside by "expanding their reach" to Hazard Zones. I mean, they are 'hazard' zones for a reason. Maybe next step, let them step into "The Hollows"? (Note the following should probably go to it's own Topic, but I'll leave it here for now) How would that be feasible you didn't ask? Well, I'm quite the ignorant on Lore in CoH but I know what love is.... I mean, I know how to read the text of a Badge and observe things. "Backwoodsman" from The Hollows mentions the area being saturated with mystical residue from the Circle's spells. What if some aspiring Mage of theirs found a way to connect from a location in Mercy Island such as the remote island located in Screenshot snippet attached below at the /loc shown in top right corner? What if all the sudden a contact sends you to a Circle mage in the Hollows and there's a mystic portal there surrounded by CoT mystics that will take you to a 2-way portal in the wooded area of The Hollows? You step through the portal into 'The Hollows" and quickly find your Circle contact awaiting you? He leads you on an arc of 4-5 missions, followed by 4 other mystics or something that give you level 5-15 content away from the Rogue Isles in a familiar setting. It could be related to Igneous. It could be related to Legacy Chain. (I noticed they're present in that back area of Hollows now.) It could be tied somehow to Karsis and the Cavern of Transcendence. But all the sudden you have 5 new arcs and a new Trial ONLY for Villains/Rogues to start (Vig can join?) to counter the Karsis one ONLY for Heroes/Vigilantes (Rogues can join?). How that could tie into the whole story arc there, I have no idea because I'm seriously an idiot who doesn't pay attention to Lore - no, seriously - I don't! PLUS this a more visually pleasant setting for those that have a distaste for the Rogue Isles and would ease that bitterness some. And then in upcoming Issues, you start slowly expanding Red-side's reach into Perez, Boomtown, Terra Volta, Crey's Folley and basically any Hazard Zone not mentioned... creating 1 or more new story arcs for both sides in zones currently without contacts? Or maybe Villains get new SFs in those Hazard Zones and the Heroes stay as is? Yea, that sounds better. Villains can't do Hero Missions in any of the Hazard Zones & vice versa for Heroes inability to do Villain missions but Rogues & Vigilantes could join any. Then people playing Red Side start feeling more like the Best Side because the "zone-count" superiority Heroes used to have over Villains has begun leveling out. But this doesn't populate Rogue Isle zones, Supa... which is the goal. Not directly... but indirectly it might. They gotta have somewhere to go after completing the new bad-ass content & SFs they can't do as Heroes. Y'all gonna keep crawling on all fours to Null the Gull and beg that bird to make you a pansy again or you gonna suck it up and stay put in the Isles for a whiles? *shrug* It's a thought. Good or bad? Who am I to say?

That suggestion was a jest for someone thinking it would be cool if all of Praetoria were level 50 Co-Op, I believe. Not a bad idea, but Paragon Studios should have done that before releasing Going Rogue with a new threat keeping it high stakes instead of low-stakes shambles. I know it's far-fetched in real life for a power (or country to the east) to be overthrown by a local power only to have a resurgence of the old power come back and reclaim their power and oppress their people. 😎 Sorry with disrupting - but did not want that joke reply taken serious earlier. STAY ON TOPIC!

My feedback (as shared by others): It's not inconsequential at all. The AH value of PAs is nothing to sneeze at... I'm very much a Rewards-focused guy - but one who loves the CoH community more than the Rewards, so unless that day I'm after PAs - I won't exclude anyone from my team. Not every Rewards-focused type is going to be like me though and I would venture to say this is *very likely* going to encourage a behavior we don't typically see here in CoH - despite its good intentions. If this does make it out of Open Beta, I'll do everything in my power not to let it affect my approach to the game... but I won't be surprised if it ends up being detrimental to what it was hoping to accomplish in the first place. PSA: If you do sneeze at Prismatic Aether AH values, please wipe it down with a soft cloth afterwards... soiled, if need be.