tidge

That's Numberwang!

Afterburner would bother me a lot less if it had a shorter cool-down, like the START jump pack.

This sounds like a bug. I'm guessing the -1 setting is supposed to alter every players' levels by minus one in the mission?

I'm unconvinced that the Sally recipe ever drops. I did a LOT of testing upon release, and I never got it to drop... and I got all the other zone monsters to drop recipes (although never tried the Rikti Dropship solo). I think it is because Sally doesn't give rewards. I 'defeated' Sally easily 100+ times with no recipe drop.

What are you slotting in them now?

I remember it happening with Soldiers of Arachnos as well.

I slow-soloed the Dr. Aeon SF today, specifically to see how I'd do on even-level against the 5 Council AVs... I had 4 deaths total, at least three of them because I had sacrificed bodyguard mode. One death came in the Council fight. My character didn't feel any different in it, except that it seemed to take longer (probably by the 20%, but it has been years since I did that SF solo. This problem (specific to Robotics MMs) has existed for years. There are a handful of other primaries for other characters that this happens... each one I encountered was because of a hand weapon. I want to say that the renaming/renumbering of the "guns" is the issue.

This is me... on both counts: I prefer "even level" solo (not just for MMs) because I've done elevated difficulty as proof-of-concept, but I find it boring. I can also 'survive' whatever content.... although Lusca is now firmly in the category of difficult and boring to solo, so I'm not ashamed to admit that she was just boring to solo before. IPerhaps it was just my (lack of?) reading comprehension... but on Open Beta I didn't see many people posting time differences. I posted mine for GMs, for Tips @ 50 and some Incarnate content. And mine was only for a single MM. I'm not salty about the changes... but because of the level-less effects, they hit *me* in what I do most with my solo MM. I can believe that the Devs would prefer no one be able to solo a Giant Monster... but that appears to have simply pushed people towards multi-boxing them... with some irony is that it is both easier and more rewarding to multi-box GMs. The current round of changes don't seem particularly inspiring to get more people to play MMs... as @Maelwys notes... there is no shortage of suboptimal builds and playstyles, and eventually that catches up with the enjoyment. It will be new primaries that drive the real excitement.

My comments were NOT about the program "as is", my comments about the 3-piece architecture (so more than "just a database") were what was needed to fulfill the purpose of the software. In more detail: 1) Database This is needed for the ATs, power sets, the powers, the enhancement sets, etc. Think "stuff we can look up on City of Data" 2) The GUI This is needed to that users can make selections, and see options based on the selections... as well as the outputs of their selections 3) The 'rules enforcer' This is needed to validate (in presentation, in choice) what the user can select under different circumstances. Levels of selectable powers, enhancements are the obvious things... but there are a wide variety of odd 'rules' about powers (VEAT paths, new 'pick one' powers) and of course restrictions on enhancements. I forsee this module keeping track of the net bonuses as part of its 'enforcement' (basically: allow/disallow and track, apply the ED formulae, etc) <- but information in the database feeds a lot of this. Most of the work happens in #3, ideally a well-constructed database can make the logic in #3 more straightforward and simple. Bootloaders and autoupdaters aren't necessary to do what people want the program to do... those are fine to have as options, but a "check for updates" feature is often "good enough". With relatively few dependencies updates should be pretty smoothly. As for "why hasn't someone built something else?" ... Frankly... there are only a small handful of players and forum regulars I think might have both the motivation and talent to tackle this. It is human nature to simply stick with the old tools. I'd like to develop myself further with database design and rules enforcing... but I simply have no motivation to do this just to have near-infinite levers to shift for tiny percentages of whatever. For me... those tiny differences in numbers don't affect my enjoyment of the game. The number one thing I track when I am planning a character is the number of enhancement slots... after that, I typically have a very good feel for what works best... and if I want to try something else in-game... I do it in game.

There is no waiting, and it is just as close as the train (each direction).

This is true... except against leveless enemies, a level 50 MM had the T2 facing level 49s, and T1s were facing level 48s. Now the T1 and T2 are facing level 50s, but with lower base chances ToHit. The level-less have the same chance to hit as before, but now they hit like level 50s.

I always smile when I see a Numina TG PUGmate take the TUNNEL from Talos to Founders Falls during the hunt phase.

I have it on good authority that a significant number of players don't even know how to see the city map. Source: Every Numina TF ever.

I consider the current stuff on Live to be something of a wash... but you can't have it both ways: (a) It's not a big deal that solo +0x8 takes longer and (b) vs >+2x8 solo MMs do better. I didn't play MM solo against +3 content... not because my MM couldn't survive, it was because my MMs take too long to finish that content.... and not entirely due to the level shifts, The fact that the T1 and T2 need less net +Accuracy to fight >+2 enemies is true... but it isn't practical, at least not for me. I can't even bring myself to believe this without some sort of statement like "the game is balanced around +2 for solo play". I used to regularly take my MM through +3 content... just not solo. Maybe I'm the niche player by soloing GMs and content at +0/+1x8... but since that is the content I play all the time... It was easy for me to test in on Beta.... and it does take longer to do these things. It's not necessarily harder... just longer.

TBF, Cap'n Mako's alternate animation for Knockout Blow is pretty much right out of the TOS fight manual.