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tidge

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Posts posted by tidge

    Get rid of minimum level on most (non 50) IO requirements

    in Suggestions & Feedback

    Posted

    7 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

     

    I'm not following how having an increased to-hit bonus increase the damage of an attack.

     

    This is a special feature of Snipes. Currently, on HC:

    • "Slow Snipes" have longer range, and base damage is increased by 22%. They are interruptable, and the interrupt time eats into time for other attacks.
    • "Fast Snipes" are not interruptable, have reduced range, but every amount of +ToHit increases the damage of the attack, up to +22% (equivalent of the "Slow")

    In terms of performance... the nearest equivalent I can think of is the Stalkers' Assassin Strike from Hidden. Those do more damage, but multiple uses of them slows down attack chains, and when used as the opener takes longer.

     

    To repeat what I wrote earlier: If a Blaster can take a snipe at low level (e.g. Moonbeam at level 8), slotting the fast snipe piece makes it behave like a 'regular' attack with a predictable cycle time. I find this to be most convenient when I don't want to take both the T1 and T2 blasts to have a regularize attack chain. Personally: I never feel the need to play 'far away blaster' except on certain Master of ____ runs, so I don't plan on opening at Slow Snipe range as most of my attacks are not at that long range. I *do* miss the original (HC) fast Snipe range, because runners.

     

    It isn't particularly hard to have a solo level 50 Blaster sitting at/near +22% ToHit. Kismet can get +6, there are Build Ups, Aims, Tactics... and for certain builds (I've done this with Temporal Manipulation) a Build Up like Chronos can be auto-fired every 22ish seconds, with a ~90% of having the Gaussian's %BuildUp proc activate.

     

    For Scrappers/Stalkers who get Snipes in an Epic/Patron pool in the 30s... they shouldn't need the snipe for a realistic attack chain... so the Slow snipe (as an option) makes more sense for them IMO. Depending on the primary, those ATs may not have another ranged attack, so Sniper enhancement sets may not even be an optimal choice for them.  Blasters usually have lots of different options for various damage enhancement sets, and IMO the Experienced Marksman set offers attractive set bonuses for Blasters.

    Any ATOs not worth it?

    in Archetypes

    Posted

    @Uun identified the ones that I will skip (unless I specifically need one or more set bonuses). Energy Font/Fiery Orb can be cute, but there is almost always a better use for that slot.

     

    The best are the Scrapper ATOs, after thos... probably the Stalkers, VEATs and Tankers... but generally they are good.

     

    As for set bonuses: I will share one trick relating to Dominator ATOs and set bonuses. I have one (perma)Dominator that already has five +10% recharge bonuses from purple sets, so I use the non-superior Ascendency of the Dominator set to get +8.75, since the superior set's bonus of +10% would be wasted.

    Get rid of minimum level on most (non 50) IO requirements

    in Suggestions & Feedback

    Posted

    4 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

    Yeah, when I first started playing on Homecoming I slotted thinking "Oh, Fast Snipe is cool", but then when I realized what it was an that snipe powers automatically turn into "fast snipe" during combat I was like "That enhancement is useless". They really need to change that enhancement from "fast snipe" to something else ... I think there is a suggestion thread about that ...maybe there is more than one.

     

    I find the Fast Snipe (and range!) enhancement from Experienced Marksman to be a very sneakily good option. It is also the 6th piece, so it isn't by any means necessary... the rest of the set offers good enhancements (including Interrupt times, Recharge) what I like about this piece:

    • There are a few blast sets that get a Snipe at low level, so having the Fast Snipe gives the character a 'regular' attack... I know this can feel like 'but I lost my infini-range attack!', but for most content this isn't really necessary.

    The Mechanics of the Fast Snipe are such that building for +ToHit (up to +22%) adds damage to the Fast Snipe. We did lose range on the Fast Snipes, but the range enhancement helps to mitigate that. This is the purpose IMO to slot that piece even though in-combat the Snipe powers all become 'fast'. IIRC, +22% damage is what the Slow Snipe does... so a Kismet piece and power choices can have Blasters pretty much almost always at +22% ToHit.

     

    I typically don't use Fast Snipe pieces on Scrappers/Stalkers... I like them to have the option for very long range attacks, and when in combat they will always have Fast Snipes anyway (as noted above).

     

    • Confused 1

    Auction House Question

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Re: Winter ATOs. I almost never use those in builds. The Entomb %+Absorb is probably the most likely to be used, as Absorb is somewhat hard to come by, and many powers that can take it tolerate improved Recharge and still maintain good %proc rates with the Superior version.

     

    Occasionally, I'll slot two pieces for more Slow Resist, but that it about it. I can understand why old school Fire Farmers used them in builds, and they can appeal to folks chasing "Defense Caps" but I almost always see better choices for my builds.

     

    For a while, I was using Winter ATO only while leveling up... and recycling... but I eventually found enough characters where I wanted them in the final build so they got taken out of circulation. I now use attuned PVP pieces or Universal Damage  pieces for that purpose.

    Auction House Question

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Influence is always being created... pretty much whatever a player is doing (ignoring players only playing 1-49 with 2XP)... so this model doesn't really make sense to me, except in this context: Almost everything on the AH is easily available, much of it is trivially available... so there isn't IMO much holding up prices except demand. We used to have incredibly high demand... I'm not sure that the demand is at previously high levels. This could be fewer new characters, fewer players, a higher percentage of players who don't need to use the market... any combination really.

     

    There absolutely are players who "hoard inf"... or rather "accumulate Inf for the sake of Inf"... that is pretty much the casual definition of an Ebil Marketeer (and to some, AEternal Farmers). It's not much different than collecting badges IMO, just one more part of the game. Without the AH, massive Inf accumulation/time really only takes off above level 45... and even then only with increased spawn sizes... so eventually every player (minus the "I only play to level N" crowd) is going to get there.

    So long -1

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Hedgefund said:

    No, difficulty setting affects mob level, not player level.  If a player (and mission) is level 30 and set to -1 they should see 29 and 30 level enemies.  The player will be 30 and sidekicks will be 29 just as for any difficulty level.

     

    That's Numberwang!

    • Haha 1

    Random pet recipe option removed

    in Suggestions & Feedback

    Posted

    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.

    • Thumbs Up 1

    What's your plan when Page 3 goes Live?

    in Mastermind

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Jacke said:

    I've found that on Assault Rifle Blasters, my Robotics Mastermind, and some other ATs while I can't remember at the moment.  And like other things, the Costume System is rather complex and fixing the issue is very non-trivial.

     

    I remember it happening with Soldiers of Arachnos as well.

    • Like 1

    What's your plan when Page 3 goes Live?

    in Mastermind

    Posted

    On 11/25/2025 at 11:02 AM, Arbegla said:

    The LRSF only has 1 giant monster in it that I can remember (the kronos titan) and I've solo'ed it before. The hardest part will be the end I think, with all of the AVs pounding on my facebones.

     

    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.

     

    49 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

    Oddly enough, the first one I logged into ... I went to a tailor to do one-thing-or-another and had a costume part error message. For whatever reason, it didn't like the weapon I had picked on that robotics mastermind. No idea when that started. I haven't tried to do anything to their costume for a longtime.

     

    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.

    • Thumbs Up 1

    +0

    in Mastermind

    Posted

    1 minute ago, Maelwys said:

    Therefore in my mind it's really only the players who have the capability to play at higher difficulties but choose to run at +0 (especially if they're built well enough to never be in any danger of their henchmen dying) who are actually going to be inconvenienced by the changes... but even then, we've had multiple examples of people simply not seeing any noteworthy difference in clear times. So I'm definitely leaning towards the Devs having found a reasonable balance for establishing the new baseline performance.

     

    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.

     

    8 minutes ago, Maelwys said:

    Soloing GMs though, I'll 100% accept that's taken a noteworthy performance hit. However those characters tend to not really be hurting for performance in the first place (AFAIK MMs were and still are the strongest AT for soloing GMs. Illusion Controllers and Crabberminds can dish out a lot of damage too, but they both have issues focusing their pets attention onto a specific target and the latter has a much harder time keeping their pets alive).

     

    And as mentioned previously... there are further changes due shortly. Not SoonTM but soon.

     

    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.

    • Thumbs Up 1

    MiDs continues it's years long downhill slide

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    1 minute ago, Derek Icelord said:

     

    Given what Zed has gone through to keep the existing program up-to-date and (mostly) accurate, I feel rather confident in saying it's more than "just a database". At the very least that glosses over a lot of complexity. Otherwise, I have to imagine someone would have built an alternative already.

     

    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.

    +0

    in Mastermind

    Posted

    29 minutes ago, Arbegla said:

    One thing to consider is that +0 to you USED to be +2 to your T1s, and +1 to your T2s, but now its even level across the board. So, +0 to you is now +0 to all your pets.

    This makes the math kind of finicky but as others have stated, its about the same damage wise, and BETTER survivability.  

     

    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.

     

    Dumpster🔥Kings Row ↔ Perez Park Connection

    in Suggestions & Feedback

    Posted

    19 minutes ago, Arbegla said:

    You mean there are those who don't have every connection memorized by heart and hated the muscle memory change when the trams go merged together?

    Basically if it isn't reachable by tram or O-zone, does the zone even exist?

     

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

    • Like 1
    • Moose 1

    +0

    in Mastermind

    Posted

    10 minutes ago, Maelwys said:

    If you don't have heals/regeneration/etc to top up their health bars, there's an argument to be made that reducing their damage output reduces their survivability (because they can't kill stuff faster than stuff can kill them!) but given that's not true vs +2s and above, IMO it's hardly a huge issue.

     

    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.

    • Like 1

    +0

    in Mastermind

    Posted

    18 hours ago, ElectricKnight said:

    Yeah, I think the "considerably more survivable" is getting overlooked.  I mean, I'll find out when I log in, but I suspect my MM will be better than before.  Those -2 and -1 levels really have an affect, so even level pets should be nice.  And if the tweaks to damage feel too bad, I'd hope they'll tweak it.

     

    I have some comments on "considerably more survivable".

     

    Because of the (previous, negative) level shift outside of Incarnate content... T1 and T2 henchmen were more likely to be hit by enemies that were even level with the MM (and T3). If the player had previously accounted for the level shift and had capped the henchmen defenses for certain content, the new changes haven't really improved survivability.

     

    Imagine if we gave all blasters a +3 bump in all defenses, but cut back damage by 3%... all Blasters would become "more survivable", but some wouldn't become "considerably more survivable."

     

    The sky isn't falling... but +0x8 content does take longer, per my tests. 

     

    Against level-less enemies... the T3 and T2 don't have a net change in how often they get hit, but when they are hit they are hit harder, and they hit back less often then before. Against this sort of content, it is more fair to say that they are "less survivable"... but this might be considered niche enough that TPTB don't care. I doubt most players would even notice, I expect when zone Invasions start up folks may notice their henchmen dying sooner but maybe not.

     

     

    Dumpster🔥Kings Row ↔ Perez Park Connection

    in Suggestions & Feedback

    Posted

    Just now, Acroyear said:

    I guess the main question I have is, was there a high demand for a connection between Kings Row and Perez Park? I've been playing the game since 2004, and I've never felt that it was needed, so I guess I'm just surprised one was added all these years later. 

     

    there was a long-ago public suggestion to establish the connection; that proposal had the gate in KR at the same spot but was going to recycle the connection point to Galaxy City in PP.

    • Like 1
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