Ukase

I've been busting my head, trying to figure out how to walk a player through the IO conversion process in an AE mission...but that seems impossible to me, as there's no way to show what the AH interface looks like. I mean, no point in crafting that trash IO and turning it into an LotG 7.5% if you've no idea how to sell it, the various pricing strategies, etc. With streaming now being allowed, I've thought about just hosting a demo for my sg. But then, I asked myself how I would measure it's effectiveness. Price of PvP IOs dropping to 3M, with all the competition? A bunch of angry sg folks because they wasted all that money on salvage and recipes & crafting only to discover they were being undercut by another SG mate? It didn't seem politic - in that context. I still think it's a good idea for everyone to know these things - even if they choose to never do them. Same with procs. While some may choose to never use the damage procs, the information can only help them. At least, it certainly can't hurt them, other than the math-induced headaches that may occur.

Same way they do cutscenes, I imagine.

Surely, most of us have heard the clever marketing regarding a "Masters Class", often hosted by someone of reknown. Gordon Ramsay for culinary skills. Steve Martin for a masters class in comedy, and I think it's Gary Kasparov that has a master's class for chess. I was reading in the forums about how most of us players learn what we learn about what's behind the figurative curtain of CoH from other players. Like Procs. Bopper, MacSkull and others have done a good bit of research into procs, how they work and shared this information freely. Yomo has made numerous guides that have taught other players how to go from rags to riches as they level up. The descriptions for various incarnate powers are often a bit vague as to how they work, what they do, what they do for your pets and your teammates. The poor newer Mastermind players are almost always asking these types of questions. In the Twinshot arc, a solid effort is made to introduce various things to a newer player. Same for the invention tutorial. But, what about a Master's Class? We get the costume files for @yomo and have his avatar behind a room, and players can enter this room and literally watch a video of how to craft and convert an IO, how to boost an enhancement, how to attune a crafted IO. How to make an ATO or Winter-O "Superior". Bopper's avatar can be in another room and players can learn what a proc is, how it works, and the painglorious math behind it. I'm not smart enough to generate dialogue or a suggested syllabus beyond what I've mentioned already, but I think it would be useful for newer players to not be told "Go to the forums" all the time. It could be a really good thing for newer players (which we seem to have a lot of lately) to learn these things from the game, rather than from us players. And while I am quite grateful we have folks like Yomo, Bopper, UberGuy, AbovetheChemist (and many others), it would be fantastic for newer players to get these key points from the game itself. A brand new player isn't likely ready for Yomo's meandering guide to a billion inf. Nor are they ready for procs. But when they are, it would be great to refer them to a contact in the university. By doing it in this fashion, instead of letting the players continue to be helpful, we can avoid the controversy of "Shards vs threads" for the Alpha slot. Instead of the newer player getting confused about what's the optimal way, they can learn that it all depends on the content they run and what drops for them. And, it certainly would be preferable to someone trying to be helpful but missing the mark and giving the wrong answer. There'd always be a place for the help channel, but I think a master class would be a good thing to add.

CoH is the only online game I've ever played...outside of Chess. So, I don't have a frame of reference to expect such things from the game. There's a ton of things that most players will never learn about this game if they don't come to the forums. I was literally told by an SG member "Most people don't have time to go to the forums!" In context, they were a bit frustrated, as from the forums - I learned about vidiot maps, and the subsequent updates, the popmenu BadgeSetList, and Mids. The tutorial certainly doesn't cover any of those things. There are a few badges my characters get organically - not by hunting them. The HC devs have recently introduced the Exploration "tips" that reveal the locations of these. Unfortunately, you'd have to do an awful lot of street sweeping to catch all the tips. Makes me wonder if someone is actually doing just that to get all the explores in a zone. Still, it's certainly a step in the right direction, a fun way of introducing things to the player base that may not re-visit the forums after they make an account. But you raise an interesting thought - why not incorporate some "tribal knowledge" about the game into the game, along the lines of the invention tutorial?

In Bricks:

That has never, ever happened to me, and I craft hundreds of IOs a day, easily. Are you sure it wasn't some other recipe you crafted and misread? (have to ask)

First, thanks for updating the popmenu list so quickly, and making it available, and EASY to use! My method for tracking tends to involve a combination of using Badger https://n15g.github.io/badger/homecoming in conjunction with the pop menu. When I see in the pop menu a badge I'm missing, I'll type the name of that badge in Badger and see what details are there to determine the best method I can to get the badge. Unfortunately, I've made a mistake with at least one of my characters. In game, I have 1245 badges. And when I checked off the new Cim badges, I saw that I had 1289! Apparently, at some point in time, I've gotten confused and selected badges as collected that were collected on a different character - I think. Brainless, I opted to just delete the character and figured I'd re-enter it. Explorations, History, PVP, and a few other categories were pretty simple. Then someone mentioned the import/export function. I could be reading it wrong - but given how Pop Menu determines (with accuracy) what badges my character has, is there a way to export that to Badger?

What bugs me the most is I need to relearn reading comprehension. Words on screen: One plus one equals two. Brain interprets: Null pointer exception. The stress from real life has always been real, but when it impacts sleep, it's impacts my ability to process information properly. The information was there, I just processed it incorrectly. Kind of like being color blind, only instead of color it's words, lol.

"Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent". I should probably have remained silent. I have to recant my initial position, as I now have more information.

I'm sure it's been mentioned in this thread, and if not - for shame! Here's the truth about an IO "Proc" like the -res. How consistently it fires depends on a number of factors. To get it straight from the source, use the forums to search for @Bopper. Find his post about all his stuff here: PPM - the larger the value, the better odds of firing. Activation time - the larger, the better odds of firing. Base Recharge - the longer the recharge, the better the odds of firing. Recharge Slotting - the more recharge you have slotted in that power, the lower the odds of firing. The dilemma with all this math is it can be quite overwhelming! To get the recharge slotting value requires a solid understanding of basic math - but more importantly, how CoH calculates the buffs of each enhancement in a set, and accounts for enhancement diversification. (For newer players - this is a fairly deep rabbit hole. If I went into it here, it would take up quite a bit of space and likely bore you to tears, because I'm overly verbose, as I try to share ALL the details. Trying as best I can to be concise, but that's not a natural tendency of mine. Even though Mids may have errors in it here and there, I will open mids, and use it's math because those folks that built Mids are better at math than I am. See a pattern? A LOT of people are better at math than I am! So, you have options. You can do a lot of reading and master procs yourself, or you can look for boppers spreadsheet, pull up mids and fill in the blanks and let his calculator do the work for you. Or, you can look at from the long term view. Rumor has it that procs are going to be changed in a future issue. I don't know how, but odds are that whatever the changes are, you'll have to burn some unslotters at best, or perform a respec at worst. If you're like me and you have a lot of alts, you're thinking about this potential change and wondering if maybe a damage IO isn't a better option. Only you can answer that question for yourself. Also, keep in mind that your Alpha slot is basically an extra enhancement in every power you have that will take that kind of enhancement. So, if you have Agility - the percentages will vary with Core or Radial, but you'll have some recharge in it. So, that recharge is effectively slotted in that power with the proc, so it can effect the math, and as a result, impact the odds of the proc firing. And I'm not convinced Mids takes this into account, as I've never checked for it. I only use a proc if the odds of firing are 95% or higher, and figure Agility would change the odds from 95% to about 75%. I can live with that. There are other Alphas that will have no impact at all, but there are other alphas that could. Just depends on how much recharge they give. That's a lot to absorb, I get it. Short answer, like always..."It Depends!".

What I am wanting is something like...say the Experienced power that we get in packs. Let us buy that - the inf is spent, and nothing replenishes it - it's vaporized. It doesn't improve my character's abilities to do anything, other than get rid of debt and possibly get XP 50% faster. (which I like) The packs aren't really inf sinks. They're inf generators. When you buy them, either they make you influence by selling the stuff within, or they save you inf by using what's in them - brain storm ideas, catalysts, converters, etc. I do get what you're saying - it's a wash - one spends, the other gets it, less 10% fee. But, I would prefer they be used as intended - bought cheaply, and used. Not reposted. Granted, all that clicking gets tedious. And it's a smart, efficient way to get some easy inf, if you're patient. Probably a moot point. For whatever reason, word is - they may not ever go on sale again.

No worries. Rest is a weapon. Be well-armed!

I just noticed ..it looks like there are 218 different possible items to get.

Aldous Huxley: “You pays your money and you takes your choice.” or, as it has been morphed to, "You pay your money, you take your chances"

Confirmed. Just bought a dozen packs. Conf

That was back in live? I can't recall them ever locking XP gain at a certain rate.

I like the way you think, at least in this regard. Perhaps, they could be persuaded to simply not allow the packs to be relisted at all? If such a thing is possible. You buy 'em, you open 'em and resell the parts like a proper marketing genius, as opposed to the ...well, lazier marketing geniuses. Or give 'em away. That's not unheard of either. The idea is for them to be an inf sink, really. Not a money maker, right? Remember the reasoning behind the noXP, 2xinf removal; the bottom line between those who farmed and those who didn't was supposedly getting larger, not smaller. Citation below: Now, what I find super interesting is there must be some internal tracking to determine the influence between those who farm, and those who don't. (or it could be a fair assumption, just comparing the inf earned from running missions for an hour, and then farming for that same hour. ) Either way, given that's a concern of theirs, it makes sense if they can prevent them from being relisted, or better yet, to be relisted for the same price you bought it for, if that's possible. You know, in case someone makes 1000 mistakes, lol.

I completely understand the distinction. But, I have always considered the "Procs" to be a set bonus, it's just that only 1 is required for that bonus. Just Semantics. I finished Worthy Opponent just a bit ago. The leader was crazy enough to try for Master of at the same time, and lol, he died in the first minute of the first mission. I suffered two defeats in front of Kronos, when my end got drained, I got stunned...and for some reason, couldn't use a break free. I think I was dead already, but my monitor didn't show it..yet. Used a large wakie, and got clobbered in an instant. But then, I got up and remained up right for the rest of it. I'd gotten so used to that defensive amplifier!

I looked there. It stated "No enhancement set bonuses"... so it could be that Flea is correct and it's WAI. And I suppose that's the case. Just seemed odd to me.

Nope. I could see my defense drop from 42% to 11.15%, figured the limitation had taken effect already.

As long as it's optional, everyone will be fine with it. Well, most.

Figured I'd ask this here, rather than clumsily file a petition and possibly waste time for our hard-working dev team. One of my characters only needs Worthy Opponent and Legatus to be "complete". I'm not terribly into masochism (though being a badger might contradict that statement), so I'm going to wait until January for Legatus. At least, that's what I'm telling myself now. I was unclear how my character would fare without IO set bonuses, so I thought I would start the TF and take a look at my combat stats. But, I'm confused by what I see. Numina Regen/Recovery is active. Celerity: Stealth is active. Kismet 6% ToHit is active. I thought set bonuses were negated when you selected both "Old School Challenge" and "Master of Lord Recluse's Strike Force". Near as I can tell, my other set bonuses are negated. Am I missing something?

I should wait until I at least try it on Relentless before I talk about it. But, man, I hear those numbers and wonder how retoggling, etc. that many times can anyone be having fun. I'd be putting a hammer through my screen.

I've heard about these higher difficulty settings and numerous defeats. The problem is...for me, I can't accept being defeated an average of 9 to 20 times in a Strike Force as being "fun". Or even interesting. It's like some of my jokes. So stupid, you can't help but laugh. I don't comprehend why people are subjecting themselves to it - when it clearly surpasses "challenging", and enters into unreasonable. And the additional rewards for the greater difficulty is laughable. Toss a transcendent merit into the mix, then maybe you'll have something worthwhile. Had a friend yesterday who wanted to run it on relentless. A group of friends did not. We ran on Malicious, and after three missions, he was still recruiting. I wouldn't be able to state for sure, but I think the folks that are clamoring for the higher difficulty options are but a vocal minority. Thankfully, they're options, and not forced upon us.

I have a lot of feedback to give, but it's still incomplete, because I've yet to try it on Relentless mode. My very first take, soloing on Villainous, was a bittersweet reaction to Becky. It was amusing. But, I also knew that after a few times, it's going to get stale, pretty quickly. She'll soon be rated right up with Glacia and Infernia with her propensity for dialogue. Still, a good impression from the start. The dialogue in the mission with the security/bouncer guy, is interesting too. I like interactions like this, because you can always choose a different answer the next time, and perhaps get a different result. And my third time, I got the best result - but I'll keep quiet about that, cuz, you know, spoilers. On Malicious, I really only have one issue with it - and it seems to be more of an issue on my end. I can only tell the Brickernauts are counting down, with the words over their heads, and the yellow beam, from very far away. I've taken my tank in their twice, solo, and neither the numbers or the beam are visible to me. Pretty sure it's just on my end, because everyone I've teamed with sees it clearly. It's just me having this problem. But that doesn't stop it from being annoying. The count-down, from far away, looks a lot like the count-down over the Demolition Charges in the Underground Trial. It would be good to change the coloring of the lettering to red, or something more noticeable. It's not really apparent, or clear, that there are more than 10 Aeon Scientists. If you're not paying attention, you can end up waking up a sleeping scientist without having to do so. Although the dialogue that ensues is amusing, once you do wake him up. There are a couple of parts that are...well, annoying. Midas doing whatever it is he's doing where we get ported to what seems to be the second floor and can't target him - it's a bit annoying, because it always takes me a second to get my bearings and see where I am, where I'm supposed to be. The landing, after being "rifted" when fighting the car, is a bit disconcerting with all the "Rippled" wording in red. I'm never quite sure how my character will take the landing, so I use the jetpack to break my fall. One other thing - I noticed that medi-porters can get unlocked. But, it's not obvious from the start that you'd need or want to do this. The only way I learned is when the system message splashed across the screen. Otherwise, the only way you'd know is if you got defeated and didn't have a rez handy. The biggest issue, as far as the content of the story goes, is this idea that there's somebody in the car. I was thinking the car itself was the entity, not some punk driver. That really should be ret-conned in a future patch, as some kind of imposter, not the real high roller. But then, that would reek too much of Fake Nemesis, so another option, maybe. More of a minor issue is the Beast Within badge. You have to really want this badge to solo up to the car rifting you to the right place. Not that you have to solo it, It's just annoying to have to find folks that want to do just this badge in order to make quicker work of it. Sure, there are "some" of these Lycanthropes outside this SF, but hunting for those seem like it would be even more tedious. Hopefully, more content will be coming in the future that will allow an easier time of hunting these. As is, it's annoying. I think you'd have to run this 34 times to get the badge organically. And that's about 30 times more than I want. I get it. It's a badge, if you want it - prepare to grind. But, it's just my observation that it's annoying to have to do so.