Ukase

This is feedback. I'm playing an electric/electric dominator. I took Voltaic Sentinel. It's too soon to say if the power is good or bad...but I can't target it to even find it some cases. I know it lasts for 60 seconds - but what if I want to dismiss it? I can't. I think this is a mistake. Right now, it seems like a useless power. I can at least see the gremlins and what they're doing - and even though they're uncontrollable, I can dismiss them if they start wandering the wrong way. Since I can't even see the Voltaic Sentinel most of the time, I don't know what it's doing, how hard it's hitting, or if in fact it's hitting anything. For all I know, it's still trying to catch up with me after the last fight. Let's make this thing targetable so I can see it when I spawn it and see it when it despawns, and find it if I'm curious as to where it is.

The only issue I'd have with this is there are some players who'd turn off XP until right before the ding, and then turn it on right before what should be a challenging battle. Ultimately, what you're asking for is completely harmless and won't hurt anyone. But then again, what do I know about what impact a level buff might have on the price of prismatics? (or anything else) Maybe Rudra has some Ultimates for sale on the AH and hopes you'd buy them.

I'm not into math. And you can trust that I've lost in-game friends over my position on some of the things that were never even suggested and made it into Beta. Some made it to the game, and some, thankfully, did not. This is what little I do know: I know that there are suggestions that might look positive but be impossible to implement because of limited resources or knowledge on the part of the current volunteer team. I know that me, along with a number of other people, think of a suggestion, post it - and then suddenly we're swamped with "you forgot/didn't think about X, Y and Z". (and that's probably more polite than some folks will put it) The X, Y and Z, regardless of what they are, are sometimes valid points, and sometimes conjecture that came from the farts of the opposing poster. I know there are some suggestions that are fairly harmless and we think wouldn't have any impact on anything, like some new costume element. Let's say a horse's head. I'm ignorant, but for all I know, a horse's head would cause some powersets to not work properly. Or something else. I really don't know. I think that's the boat most suggestions fall into. On the surface they seem like decent QoL additions that would add some fun to maybe 3 to 5% of the players, but it isn't feasible for technical reasons, or coder ignorance of how to implement it where it doesn't cause Ms. Liberty's liberty belt to fall off. I do think the HC Devs read this stuff. They're volunteer and they're not likely to work on a given suggestion because they'll want/need to be interested in it. The longer/harder it is to implement, the more interested in it they'd have to be. It's amazing the additions we've gotten over the past 5-6 years! What we don't know is how many suggestions have been attempted, but were not accomplished due to it being technically impossible/improbable. And I think if our devs were to say, "We tried Okie's idea, but it fell like a cow patty on a hot day" for even a few of the arguably better suggestions, that would be a good thing. Or conversely, we tried Okie's idea, and if it passes the smell test on Beta, we should see it next patch.

You raise a good point. But, I am fine with the way things are now, but I am open to some change. I liked the lower SO cost. (for everyone, not just new players) But I certainly don't want things free. And I do want every player to at least know how to use a converter and a catalyst, even if they would rather not. After all, nobody's forcing me to get an accolade. That's torture (of sorts) I put myself through. Kudos to you for explaining your position constructively and not just telling me I'm a jerk.

Obviously, this isn't true for everyone. But I can't count on both hands and both sets of toes the number of people I've given a billion inf to that no longer play the game. They're gone. And now - it could be anything that kept them from returning, but I blame myself for removing the same challenge that kept me interested. Now, that's obviously false reasoning, and frankly egotistical of me to think that way. As if I would have that kind of control over another person's choice to play or not play. This is a really interesting take, and honestly, I don't know how I feel about it. For me - this talk of "this game is 20 years old" is irrelevant. But the last sentence about what other experiences are available is relevant. But let's not lose sight of the fact: this is free to play, made possible by consistent donations of a very small minority of passionate players who generate stories, new factions, new powersets, all on their own time. And, to a lesser, but every bit as important, financial donations by another minority of passionate players. I can only express my opinion, which you disagree with - and that's perfectly okay. You have a perspective that far beyond my narrow view. I've only tried maybe 10 other MMOs, and for whatever reason, uninstalled them within 10 minutes or so, except Champions Online, which I uninstalled after a few days. So, my views about those other experiences that are available are non-existent, really. But in the vacuum that is CoH - I think it's more than fair to let the players that don't find marketing fun to suck it up, and do it anyway. I didn't find defeating 200 vamps and 200 council wolves fun either - but I did it. So why can't they suck it up and just do it? It's part of the game. We don't have recipe storage for a reason - because marketing is part of the game. For me - it's a sometimes tedious, but other times endorphin releasing fun. I fully get that we don't see this the same way, which is fair enough. This is actually a fair idea. At level 2, they should cost like 200 inf. Level 10, 1000 inf. Etc. Resale value should be 1/2. That's just a suggestion, but as I see it, that's very cheap, but not so cheap that they can't sell the trash drops and get what they need/want. And as they level up, even though the prices creep up, they should still be able to keep up.

I have never shared I played this game with anyone. I'd be too embarrassed. They all think I row and lift in my free time.

I'm kind of on the same page as you, but I'm not going to presume that more than a few of these players don't need to learn it now. They've already learned it, and it's in their knowledge base. At least, given what I've seen, and picked up during the chat when teaming with some of them, that's what my take away is. After having slept on this topic, knowing that my first task today was to grind out the defeats necessary for Atlas Medallion. I enjoy this about as much as the folks that don't like to craft enjoy crafting. Now, I can choose to do a tf and have a team help me with the heavy lifting. And really, that's what I should do. But then I can't enjoy my coffee. I can only sip between missions and it gets cold (if I'm playing to contribute, rather than just ease back and let other folks do the work my alt tank would do.) So, my new position is, if we are to remove an obstacle/challenge for players that is part of what this game offers, then we should totally allow me to buy the accolade powers with influence and remove those obstacle/challenges for me. That seems fair to me, but just typing it out, I know there are going to be a lot of "Are you nuts?" and "You are nuts!" kind of responses. In their minds, if not typed out to needlessly have me question my sanity and intellect. (Both are probably fair game to question, tbh) My heart goes out to the newer player, it does. I want to help them. But - I know if you help a new player too much, there's no more challenge for them, and they just get bored and stop playing. That's a real thing. I like the sentiment as I said in my first post. But in practice, gifting influence and other goods doesn't work in the long run. (I'm sure there are exceptions) A new player needs to figure these things out by reading the forums - since the information isn't easily digestible in the game, (if it's even available) unless a player like myself takes the time to explain things in detail (sometimes excruciating if they're young, or really don't know the terminology at all). Even then, I'm careful to not reveal too much behind the curtain, lest they get overwhelmed trying to run before they can walk. The best thing I do for any player asking about inf is to either send them my old, obsolete guide from 4 years ago, or have them read Yomo's guide that's far more up to date than mine. I haven't shared mine because it is obsolete, and as you can tell - I'm terribly bad at being concise. I tend to explain things in great detail - because that's what I would want.

I do this after a respec. But when leveling, they go in the order that will do the power the most good. So, currently, if I take a level 20 IO (for example) that's the Preventative Medicine absorb proc, and place it over a level 25 Heal SO, the game will ask me if I'm sure I want to replace the stronger enhancements with the weaker one. I can't remember the terms used. It might have been "replace a higher enhancement with a lower one". So, the warning is there, but if they're both level 50 enhancements, the system doesn't ask. Sorry about your loss. DM me your global, I'll reimburse you.

I've just now taken to changing the default color for certain characters. I don't know that I'd want them changed now, even if it were temporarily. But, if it's optional, fine by me.

I feel bad for you on this. I guess what I don't get is there was a time a month or so ago, when on Excelsior our league leader would have 6 teams, and I'd hear about this lag. Now, I play with minimum settings, even though my card can handle the ultra graphics. I frankly don't see much of a difference between the two. And the only time I get noticeable lag is during the mapserver event. I might rubber band now and then, but generally, I mash a button, I see the recharge time, and it's ready when it's supposed to be. I'm not at all clear why everyone else has lag and I don't. But I do feel like the labyrinth is a lot of fun, and I disconnected due to my isp having a hiccup a week or so ago, and I couldn't get into the league either. So, I have felt that disappointment. On one hand, it's truly amazing that people across the world can all meet digitally to tackle various npcs. There's so many places for those bits and bytes to bottle neck. Each player's individual system could have a bottleneck from their ISP, or even their own memory, particularly if they're using some of the more bloated software applications in the background. And it is painfully true that some players are playing on machines that are just woefully obsolete. But, they continue to function so buying a nice new one is not on their agenda. I'm not smart enough to know the solution. I don't know if they paid more money for stronger servers if that would address this lag issue so many people have. I don't know if they all had U-verse if that would fix it - probably not. I hear the internet in Europe makes the internet in the US look like turtles racing. I don't know if it's literally this old code and the old graphic engine that runs the game that is the culprit. If so, I don't know that there's a solution that isn't time consuming and cost prohibitive in terms of time and money. What I do think is perhaps there's an opportunity for someone to run another lab event either several hours before or after the one that's normally run.

I like the sentiment behind the idea. If there were a way (for me) to know with certainty which characters were actually a new account, rather than an alt, or an alt account, I would be giving away inf more often. There are a lot of players who already have big stacks of inf who have no problem putting their hand out for free loot to get more - just to hoard it. But, there's no way for us to know who's brand new, aside from asking them. And given my experience with more than a few players - they'll lie to you to get your inf. I guess they feel like if I have enough to give it away, and they only have 20 billion to my trillion larger stack, then I won't miss it. And while that's true, I'd rather give it away to someone who only has 200M or less. And really, if someone has a level 50 and 200M, that's really all the inf they'll ever need - unless they start making alts. It's the alts that sap the stacks of influence. And there are players who make a ton of alts. Some folks make a new 50 every day. No idea how they get a real feel for the character that quickly, but they're gonna do what they're gonna do. I'm just glad I don't have to fund them. Now, if the HC gms want to mark new players with some kind of burlap cloth, or barrel held up by suspenders, I'll be able to recognize who could use a donation, and gladly make it. But, I imagine for the same reason they ridiculously hid the "date of creation" date, making me have to toggle that on, instead of the other way around, they'll never make a new account stand out like that. And, heck, even if they did, given Snarky's affinity for panhandling, who's to say he wouldn't make a new account just to see what might end up being donated. Well, I'm saying he wouldn't...but the option would be there, and I know there are players that would do just this - make a new account and hope they get some free influence.

So, I replied like crazy. I wrote about 200 lines, and then I said, "Self, nobody cares about this." So, I deleted it. You're welcome.

I think it's worth saying that a lot of players are looking for "best". And that term requires follow up questions, like "best for what"? Best for Nemu, Maelwys and Snarky isn't always going to be best for me. The idea that DPS is going to solve most of the game for a given player is true to a point. But - let's all keep in mind the attacks have to land before they do dps. The character has to remain upright to keep laying out that damage. There's a balance to all of it, and where that bubble is on the figurative level is going to be a little different for most of us, especially since the buffs we get, and the debuffs on the npcs are very likely going to be different, because while we may play a lot of the same content, the buffs, the timing of those buffs, the strength of those buffs - they're different.

I'm pretty sure I'm not the first one to consider this question, particularly with a lot of the better "signature" powers being available to take earlier in the build. I often use an alt to assist with the defeat requirements for the atlas medallion - specifically the vampyri and the wolves, or more commonly referred to as vamps and pups. Moonfire tf has the first two missions which are filled with these specifically, and respectfully - first one vamps, 2nd one pups. Any of my tanks can get in there and handle this at 0/8. But - obviously, some are going to be better at one or the other, and certainly some will be faster. Right now, I've got a fire/ice tank that generally does this. But, in some cases, those vamps load the -toHit to the point where I've got to gobble multiple yellows to overcome it. So, I got to thinking. And I'm still thinking. I thought, dark or psionic armor would certainly be better suited for this task. And Moonfire caps at 28, so footstomp at level 30 would be available. But, the resisting of damage isn't the issue, but the -tohit that is bugging me. Tactics is a thought, but that's just a 15% boost. All those vamps floor my tohit to about 60%. I read all the time about DDR, but that's usually in reference to defense reductions, not toHit reduction. Granted, if my defense stays high, I'm not as likely to get hit by the -toHit. I can certainly respec the fire/ice tank to load up on more accuracy set bonuses, and more defense, etc..but what would you folks suggest would be a more suitable armor to deal with the -tohit, given the character is exemplared to 28, and can't use any powers chosen after level 33? I can always just continue to use yellows; it works. Just annoying to deal with. I'd rather think my way out of this. I'm thinking dark/SS or psionic/SS at the moment.

There was a player I met in the Hive back when HC opened the doors called @Profit and that's where I got this preconception from. If the IO isn't cooperating by converting to what you want after 7 tries - stop. Find something else to do for a couple of minutes. Then return. There's nothing scientific about this. It's all perception bias. And like you, MC, I used to just slot the def or def/end and lose the extra million or whatever. Despite what many people say, I know that influence in this game is harder to make now through marketing than it was a couple of years ago. And each of us is to credit/blame for that, for revealing what goes on behind the curtain - even though we haven't shown all of it. There's so much competition in the various niches, that it's just harder. Sure, I can easily amass influence by marketing, but I'm not getting the margins I used to. It's wise of you to ask the question. When I do the PvP niche, with the shield walls and the panaceas, it's never worth it to me to spend converters looking for the procs. Other marketers and otherwise savvy customers are looking for the non-procs to convert into procs to save themselves a million inf or so. More in some cases. I sometimes found my pvp marketing character with 40-50 glad armor recipes. Spend 3 converters to pursue the proc...or convert out of set? It's just about a 30% chance converting out of the glad armor set. I could painstakingly go over the potential outcomes, but if you assume I want any of the panaceas and shield walls or any of the other "procs" of each set, the odds are getting any of those are better than 1/5. In summary, I think you have to the math for each time this question comes up. After a time, you kind of know what's the best play. Just anecdotally, I am recently inclined to not market. The margins aren't as good as they used to be. If I still were hungry for inf, I'd keep at it. But I'm not, so there's no real motivation to spend the time for the slim margins. Now, I'm sure there are some larger margins, and I think they're in the HO/D-Sync area. And that's why I'm trying to be a better player, to get in on that action. It's certainly bound to be more fun than clicking and converting ad nauseum.

I was just regurgitating what the HC wiki said.

And you're 100% correct. I've had the RNG tell me to go kick rocks many times. I once spent 58 converters trying to get what I wanted. And it wasn't even to sell something, but to slot a proc! I just didn't want to give any of you my influence so you can use that to make things even harder for me to "wet my beak". (Godfather tribute) I ended up making shy of 200 of those miracle's. Most of them sold for 2,500,000. Strangely, a few began to sell for 2,505,000. Or maybe it was 2,550,000. There was a 2nd 5 in there somewhere. I figured somebody wanted one and couldn't get in less than 2.5, so they had to bid creep. Not sure why they bought the odd few they did, instead of just one. But, didn't matter to me. My challenge character was delighted. The hitch was earning the merits to get the converters. I don't mind opportunity cost, but as mentioned, I don't like to put money in the AH - only taking it out is my goal. So, instead of buying the converters from the AH, I had it buy them from one of my hami corruptors that hold hundreds of Hero merits. And it paid the full 60K, not the patient lower price of 52,500. All said and done, I made about 125M. (paying an alt 90m for converters..gross. But it beats paying the market.) I'm sure there's much better opportunities, but for a level 12 brute, there's only so many merits you can earn, and I didn't want to wait for the more profitable recipe bids to be accepted. Soon, though. Soon.

It actually happened again - same recipe. Thinking about leaving this niche, as it became apparent someone was obviously flipping, as the last 30 or so have sold for the exact same price - and cheaper than the price I'd originally been getting of 4M, to just a dinky 2.5M. Still profitable, but I don't like to contribute folks who are just too lazy to craft their own loot. But, I thought ...you know, I'm still making inf, they're making inf - but my inf is faster. Theirs is slower. And if I keep pushing it - perhaps I end up filling all their bids - leaving them with a ton of miracles they'll have to unload at a higher price to recoup their investment...and then if I never leave the niche - they are a bit stuck. The silly thing is anyone that wants a miracle unique can just get one easily and far more cheaply by just doing what I'm doing. We share how to do it - and because it's fake money, they can't be bothered.

Didn't want to post this until I'd sold what I'd made...never can tell how folks will respond when they see what someone is dabbling in. Ever have this kind of good fortune when converting? Three in a row. My challenge character is delighted. Delighted enough to dip back into the same recipe, and even raise the bid to get more because they all sold instantly for at least 2x the investment of materials and the opportunity cost of the converters. Some days, it pays to get up early.

Oh, Snarky. So many opinions of Mystic Flight, and the Sorcery pool. Have you not forgotten the changes they made to sorcery pool about 4 years ago? Nobody should ever take sorcery pool as a travel power as a matter of solidarity. The people must let the tyrants that let us play for donations know that making it necessary for me to respec dozens of characters because of the change of Rune of Protection to Prune of Protection...wait...you didn't ask about that did you? Sorry. Got carried away. But let me try to be helpful, even though I consider fly to be woefully slow and cumbersome having to make a key bind to use the afterburner, (with standard fly, not Mystic Flight) and even that is too short of duration to be very useful in the shard. Flight Speed Cap since issue 18 is 58.63 mph. I know from discord that you would likely be familiar with a rev limiter - something in IC engines to limit rpms. Essentially, Afterburner is like taking the rev limiter out. With Afterburner, the misnomer speed cap of 58.63 is tossed out, and you have a new flight speed cap of 73mph. Now, technically, per the HC Wiki - it's very interesting. So, with Afterburner, technically, there is no cap. But - there is a limit, in that with diminishing returns, movement set bonuses, etc (all described above in the copied snip) that's essentially the cap with Afterburner. At least, that's my takeaway after reading it. Please read it yourself, because I'm obtuse and could have missed something. So, here's the link: Click here. After reading it, it further justifies my choice of SS and TP (if I can fit the pool in) as a better choice. But, I hold a grudge and cannot ever take Sorcery pool, just as a matter of rebellion against "the man" who changed Rune to be unable to be recharged faster than the new default hour and a half recharge time (yeah, it's not 90 minutes, I know, lol) So take what I say with a very large grain of salt.

I could never do that. I slot SS at 4 and CJ at 6 on probably 90% of my characters - mainly because with DFB or a posi, or heck, even soloing the hollows, I'm way past those levels to be concerned about my attack chain needing a filler. And, if I exemp with the character to 20, I'll still have CJ and all the nifty stuff I slot in it - like the reactive defenses and lotg. The kismet and Shield wall are level 10, so those would work anyway, but the other two, I want them in a power that's available when I exemp. Of course, below 20, they're not, but other than the positrons, they are. But yeah, I see what you're saying about the "good" powers being available earlier, and if it's a case of taking something like Rage or CJ, I'd take Rage, too.

How fast ya gonna be with no travel power? I guess you're relying on Lightning Reflexes to get you around? We all have our play styles, and I've yet to figure out how to get TW to work to suit mine, so glad you found something to work. The way I play, using 6 slots to squeeze out the extra defense (in brawl and boxing) is interesting, but I couldn't leave it on the table. Maybe if you took cross punch, leave brawl empty, and put the slots in kick...but then there's another power that's got to go. And since I'd insist on SS, that's two powers I'd have to sacrifice. Yeah, an interesting build, but by the time I put in what I'd insist on having, it'd be fairly different. Still, I think I'm going to make one, and try to make it work. I thought about TW/Bio scrapper, but all that silly math to play a scrapper well, eh, I'm just a button masher at heart, I guess.

Yeah, made a new character and poof, just like that, a tray full of macros for the gms I hunt, and my combat attributes on display.

For those that do know that they do not know what the Dunning-Kruger effect is, (and would like to know without looking it up) it's essentially someone having with limited competence in an area without being aware that they're lacking competence in the area. When HC first opened up, my first character was a fire/rad Sentinel. It could be argued I was suffering from the Dunning-Kruger effect because I had no idea at the time Sentinels were doing sub-par DPS. (I was having fun with it, and just really never noticed. Probably because I was teaming a lot back then and things were getting dropped pretty quickly - just not by me, I guess. I dunno.) And really, the only reason I know about this at all is because of John Cleese.

The disappointing reality for those who level organically is that some of the more interesting builds seen posted are by players who farm to 50, and then began to play the character all kitted out. It always tickles me when I see Hasten or Combat Jumping taken at level 49 in Mids. Like, seriously? No, lol. They're just slapping the powers and the slots in the build. When you'd take those powers is entirely up to whomever is going to try that build.