scottocamp

Many games seem to have a tension between different factions. The tension in CoH seems to be between those who "Actually Play the Game" and those who "Create Characters". As one who creates characters - I don't much care about the addition of extra hard content or reward vs risk calculations or AE allowing easier progression and better rewards than non-AE content or whether or not veteran level rewards are over-tuned. I spend my time working out costumes, working on connected back-stories, re-working Mids builds over and over to get the right mix of powers and then getting that character up to level 50 and through incarnate progression any way I can. I run the exact same content over and over just because it is familiar to me and it gives me a benchmark to better understand how well-constructed a new character is compared to past characters. I don't happen to run AE content but the end result is roughly the same. I'm not really playing the game as intended. The one part of Page 4 that thrills me is the new Symphonic Control set. That is fantastic. A lot of the rest seems a bit worrisome to me. Folks who "Actually Play the Game" usually don't want easy progression to be allowed. Makes playing the game kind of pointless. And they want the game to be challenging. Folks who "Make Characters" just want to make characters and they don't want that process to become more daunting and perhaps more tedious than necessary. And they want lots and lots of crazy, wonderful and magnificently over-powered options. So this tightening of the screws doesn't really make the experience "better" or "more fun" for someone like me. Though I can certainly understand why many are delighted by the changes. Bottom line - I think the negative feedback you are getting is from all the "Create Character" players. There is a concern the game is shifting away from accommodating those who just want to make alts. Trying to push us toward playing new content, teaming up, making progression a bit more difficult - that sort of stuff. Which is of course fine - this is a game of course. But for a great many of us, our "jam" (as Krimson puts it so well) is just to hang out and bring character concepts to life in this wonderful sandbox. There are lots of games out there where I can join teams to defeat challenging foes. There really isn't anything else like CoH for making characters. At least not that I have found. Just my two cents.

I can't tell if you are ribbing me or if you are serious. :) It takes me roughly a month to get a toon up to 50 with all the enhancements I want and all level 4 incarnates. 2800 toons would take me roughly 233 years. <lol> Amazing. Kudos!

Oddly - that makes perfect sense. If Ukase enjoys the "game within a game" - then more power to him I think. I can see where it might be just like badging. And to Ukase - wasn't trying to be critical. Just honestly did not understand the motivation to play multiple accounts at one time. Ironblade's response is enlightening. You should become as insanely rich as possible. 🙂

For what it is worth - I play the game one toon at a time. Each new toon is seeded with 50 emps and all the needed enhancements as generated by the toon I was playing prior. I craft all the yellow recipes the prior toon collected and use converters to acquire nearly all the enhancements needed for the new toon. I don't sell all that many enhancements. I will use reward merits accumulated by the prior toon to fill in purple and winter enhancements. I have never converted an emp to merits, don't run AE missions, don't have any idea how to AFK farm and still have no problem acquiring everything I need. So my question to you is - why do you feel the need to acquire such a vast amount of influence? It seems wildly unnecessary. Almost borderline ridiculous. Perhaps you are a "Dragon" as Omega suggests. But you seem like a dragon hoarding a mountain of wealth that you will never be able to use. What am I missing?

RoP was a selectable power similar in effectiveness to Primary/Secondary powers that less than 5% actually selected. It is not logical to reduce the effectiveness of a power players already don't feel is worthy of selecting. Regarding farming Empyreans - I'm trying to imagine how much work is involved in setting up 8 computers using 8 different accounts and getting all those toons logged into the same map. I don't doubt that it would generate crazy amounts of wealth. But for what purpose? This is not real money. You can't sell CoH influence for real money. It only has one value - allowing you to buy stuff for your CoH toons. Presumably for toons that you want to actually play. I have 40+ level 50 toons completely tricked out with never once doing an AE farm. And I barely have time to play those 40 toons. It is not hard to generate influence in this game. I don't understand the point of generating billions upon billions in influence. It seems like pointless madness to me. But I also have this vision of Ukase swimming happily in his billions like Scrooge McDuck. If that brings him joy - fine by me. It doesn't seem to have *any* impact on how I play the game. And it doesn't seem to have *any* impact on the game at large. The only possible concern would be market manipulation as Omega-202 wisely points out. But this is an artificial market. The developers can do anything they want with the market. The developers can just lock in prices for everything if they so wish - as they have done with Super Packs. So even that seems like a non-issue. If the developers want to change the conversion rate so that converters cost more merits - they can just do that. So, like others have stated, I just don't understand what problem really exists that requires a solution. Players with hundreds of billions of completely fake money are not causing any harm that I can see. It seems like a complete waste of time to create such meaningless wealth - but I don't really care what others do with their time. Again - it seems more like an aesthetic sensibilities issue. It just "feels" wrong that someone can generate billions with 8 computers and 8 accounts. But really - what difference does it truly make?

What you are saying is likely true. But it also seems likely the developers have even more power to control the market and could re-balance any malicious actions if so needed. But I don't blame them for trying to establish a marketplace that does not require regular intervention.

It is an odd argument that a power hardly anyone felt worthy of selecting (yourself included) could be providing a disproportionate benefit. Folks tend to love disproportionate benefits. My point was only that some changes don't seem based on logic so much as aesthetics. The RoP power seemed to bother the sensibilities of the developers in the same way grinding out emps seems to bother them. Personally I prefer the game be constrained as little as possible. Buff the pool powers rather than nerf them, let folks play the game in the manner that brings them joy, that sort of thing. But I'm not doing any work on the game so the decision is not really mine to make. 🙂

In an earlier Page, the Rune of Protection power was nerfed despite the power being used on less than 5% of level 50 toons (as stated by the development team). It seems difficult to imagine that the Rune of Protection power was breaking the game if 19 of 20 toons did not even feel the power was worth taking. In comparison to a power like Hasten which is probably taken by 19 of 20 toons. The power was nerfed it appears because it bothered the sensibilities of the developers in some manner. Seems like the same situation here. I play the game every evening and never set foot in the AE Building except to get Day Job badges. I've never felt the slightest impact from other players door-sitting or power-leveling or setting up advantageous AE missions or farming AFK or whatever. None of that diminishes my joy of playing CoH. Perhaps there is some effect on the Auction House that I don't perceive, but the AH seems remarkably stable under the guidance of this development team. Door sitting, AFK farming and certain AE missions just don't "feel proper" to a number of people. And it is hard to debate feelings. Based on past actions I expect the development team to adjust the game to better reflect their shared aesthetic and sensibilities. I don't believe the development team has the metrics or a particularly convincing argument to justify choking off the conversion of emps to merits. If they did - they would have probably stated it by now. They just "feel" it is the right thing to do. For better or worse I largely agree with the vision and sensibilities of this development team. Which is why I play on Homecoming. I did not agree with the Rune of Protection change and I'm not sure I really understand why the conversion of emps to merits is something to necessarily worry about - but I can accept these changes given the amazing job this Homecoming team has done.

Here would be my Pool Guy. Would pick a scrapper so that I could jam the scrapper ATO sets with the critical bonuses in my one scrapper attack. Survivability seems like it would be good. Would pick the Nerve Alpha Incarnate for the Accuracy & Defense Buff. My only heartburn would be not taking Hasten - so that everything recharges painfully slow. But this would certainly be playable. https://www.midsreborn.com/builds/download.php?uc=1443&c=697&a=1394&f=HEX&dc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

None of this is new ground.... 1. Would love to see a purple enhancement set for fear powers. Something like a "contagious fear" proc would be wonderful. 2. Would love to see completely ignored pool powers like Jump Kick, Misdirection, Flurry and such re-vamped to be more interesting and worthwhile. I really like how the fighting pool was re-worked to make Cross Punch more powerful the more invested you are in the fighting pool. That seems like a great approach for pool powers. 3. Allow Sentinels to hit more targets. 4. A Clown Mastermind set. If this ever happened *everyone* would roll a clown mastermind and Paragon City would be overrun with malicious clowns. That would be glorious. 5. It would be cool to see more incarnate powers even if they were not especially impactful. Like a bunch of weird self-ressurect options. Maybe gate them behind very high vet levels. Obviously our characters don't need to be even more powerful but it is always fun to have something to work toward. 6. For Snarky - a Super Strength Yoga Power Set where you get more powerful by being calm and introspective. 😉

Timing the new Meteor strike to hit at the same time as Mighty Radial Final Judgement. It is beautiful.

I agree with everything you are saying. But I think an often over-looked factor is the ability to rather easily fill a build (every build) with nothing but purple, winter and PvP set bonuses. Easy access to influence and merits and converters and such make it possible to have nothing but the most outstanding set bonuses. That being the case - nothing is going to really move the power creep needle at this point unless a new uber-purple class of enhancements are added to the game. (Which would be a terrible idea.) Adding purple level travel set bonuses or purple level fear bonuses or purple level slow bonuses or whatever would not make a build that already has nothing but purple level set bonuses any better. But it might actually encourage players to experiment with builds that did not necessarily focus on just defense, resistance, recharge and sufficient endurance. Which I think is what Booper is trying to accomplish. An attempt to make "speed" a relevant component of the game. Which is cool and I honestly think a worthy effort. But it just isn't going to happen unless there is an incentive to, for example, swap out a purple quality immobilize set with one of these new travel sets. The incentive just isn't there at present.

More over-powered has already happened. I can quite easily completely fill any build with nothing but amazing set bonuses from Winter sets, PvP sets, purple sets, etc. The question at hand is why slot these new travel power sets instead of say a purple set I already have in my build? Especially since that purple set is probably in an attack and these sets will be in a jump or teleport power. These sets are not going to make my builds any more powerful than they already are. And I'm not hoping for that to happen.

It is an odd argument / observation to make - you believe the new travel enhancements will be "cheap as hell" (presumably because no one will want to buy or use them). But please don't make them attractive enough to actually use because I'm a curmudgeon. The great thing about CoH is that there is a cap on powers and a cap on slots. So I can't just add a bunch of great bonuses from four-slotting a travel power without also sacrificing great bonuses from not four-slotting something else. The value of other sets might be lessened by adding great travel power set bonuses but it is not clear to me that there will be any power creep. It would just be a shift from using great ranged bonuses or great hold bonuses to instead using great travel power bonuses. The reality is that players are only going to use set bonuses that are decent to excellent. Adding "uninspiring" set bonuses is simply wasted effort in my opinion. They will be ignored and as you note - will simply "make converting more annoying". Why add enhancements just to add annoyance to the game? The extra hitch with adding travel power bonuses is that many players, myself included, don't value speed or jump height or teleportation range all that much. I'm clumsy enough moving slowly. So I'm even less inclined to move slots and excellent bonuses from a ranged power or a hold to a travel power. Which means the bonuses have to be even more tempting. Moving four slots from a ranged power to a travel power is likely to make my build less powerful - even if the travel power bonuses are better. As the bonuses currently stand I doubt I will ever make use of them. I'm not saying that because I'm trying to make the game easier to play. I'm just trying to offer honest feedback about what would motivate me to actually ever use these travel enhancement sets.

I see several fixes for fiery embrace. I've noticed that fiery embrace does not affect boxing, kick & cross punch from the fighting pool. Is this working as intended or perhaps yet another fiery embrace bug? Thanks!

You need a budget increase. 🙂 Honestly I would say go for the T2/T2/T6 if there is no option to sweeten the offering. I think the T6 offers the best chance folks will use all 4 pieces of the set. But it sure would be nice to make the decision to not use these sets more painful.

Thanks for the laugh! 🙂 Just trying to be honest about what it would take for me to four slot a travel power.

Booper - this looks *much* more appealing to slot. But as someone with minimal interest in slotting a travel power, I would still argue if you want folks to use these sets it will be counter-productive to make the first two bonuses "uninspiring". CoH already has a lot of uninspiring set bonuses for powers much more in need of slotting. T2 Resist / T4 Sustain / T6 Move/Sustain would however be extremely tempting. I would certainly want to find a way to work those set bonuses into my build. A T2/T4/T6 offering has the potential to change how people look at and use travel powers.

Wow. Okay. That also seems unnecessary. But not really very consequential either way I suppose.

I would agree with this feedback. You can't pause the 90 minute base empowerment temp powers. You can't pause inspirations. I'm not sure why the amplifiers need a pause option. Compared to the cost and benefit of inspirations and empowerment temp powers the amplifiers are not anything amazing. But they are very convenient and very helpful in some circumstances.

I'm just adding some context. If you can point out how this context is "ridiculous" - have at it. Compared to inspirations amplifiers are not that impactful dollar for dollar. I'm not arguing for amplifiers to be reduced in cost. I'm not actually making any argument - ridiculous or otherwise.

Not ridiculous at all. I can hold more than enough inspirations to get through any mission and then can easily buy more inspirations between missions. And achieve better defense and resistance than an amplifier for considerably less money. Don't need to use mail in any way.

The grumpy old men talking about power creep and how amplifiers unbalance the game all seems kind of silly to me. For 2.5 million I can buy 60 large purple inspirations and 60 large orange inspirations that both last 60 seconds each (total of one hour) and have 33% extra defense and 20% extra resistance to everything any time I need it. In addition to all the inspirations normally raining down on me. Which kind of dwarfs the 5% defense and 7% resistance I would get from one hour of a defense amplifier. The amplifiers are not that big of a deal.

I think DreadShinobi has presented the best reasons why these new travel powers enhancement sets are flawed and will be completely ignored. Speaking only for myself, I don't need my travel powers to be "better". They are already sufficiently good for my purposes. To encourage me to use travel powers during combat *and* to encourage me to 4 slot these powers would require something rather amazing. The uniques would have to be something that would make me better at combat - like a boost to damage, range, recharge, to hit, etc. Making these combat uniques only function while the travel power is active would be fine if the combat boosts were decent. Making the uniques simply enhance the travel powers themselves does nothing for me. I couldn't care less if the unique makes me jump 8 feet higher. But a large boost to range or damage while the travel power is active would be extremely appealing. And the set bonuses also need to be much better than normal set bonuses - because I don't really need to put slots in a travel power. Because again - one slotted travel powers already function perfectly fine. So the set bonuses need to be purple level quality to have any appeal at all. Very large boosts to endurance, defense or range or whatever you feel is thematically consistent. I actually really like the idea of encouraging folks to use travel powers during combat. But these enhancement sets are certainly not going to accomplish that.

The slow set looks great. Thank you!! But I can't imagine ever using any of the travel sets. The unique enhancements and the set bonuses would have to be *much* better to even tempt me. I don't even see the need for more travel sets. Would be much cooler to get a purple fear set or better stun sets or better ranged sets. Or pretty much anything else besides more travel power sets. That said - if the set bonuses offered something like DDR or a 15% range bonus or 10% resistance to everything or something equally extraordinary then perhaps I would seriously ponder four slotting Super Jump. But the sets as presented I fear will be completely ignored. Which is kind of heart-breaking given the obvious effort put into them.