tidge

I can really only speak to the most recent round of MM changes, as that is what I tested. There was one proposed change that got rolled back (henchmen HP reductions) that was well-recognized as being a step too far. For even-level content, MMs take up to ~20% more time to accomplish what they used to. Everything else MM-related (general changes) is pretty much a wash(*1). The first would have been a brutal nerf to both the survival of MMs, and their damage output... so hopefully that is no longer under consideration. The second is one that we pretty much have to *shrug*, because of a promise of some future improvements <-- and I am only commenting in this thread because those improvements are supposed to roll out before 2026(!), so I hope we can test them in Open Beta. (*1) I didn't test content (solo +3 or higher) that justified the changes... basically, "address purple patch for henchmen"... stuff I wouldn't MM solo anyway,,, so I'm disappointed in the performance change right now, but I have an atom of hope because it was more-or-less recognized that MMs would have to get something more, it just wasn't announced what. I saw General comments in game (from a player that isn't well-known for play performance) that was ga-ga over the henchmen getting 40% of (most of) the set bonuses. I am not skeptical about their excitement, I skeptical that the 40% (while in Supremacy range) are doing much... MMs tend to have to franken-slot (my main appears to do far less franken-slotting than most) which means fewer bonuses... and most bonuses (that can be inhereted) are rather small even before the 0.40 factor). Of the items "on the table" for a future update: I suspect that henchmen will end up inheriting 100% of the same set bonuses, because the 20% performance reduction is real... and set bonuses won't affect that at all... except possibly those 15% +Accuracy bonuses that are possible from sets.

Where micro-transactions lose appeal to me is when they drive behavior (on the part of the seller) to either/or/all of: "nickel-and-dime" the customers at every possible opportunity directing effort to smaller and smaller efforts lazy, lottery-like reward schemes

Without a GUI, and and minimal rules-enfocing, I think it could be done in Excel. It would be HIGHLY painful, but possible... at least for something like a single AT. With an actual database, many programs run SQL under-the-hood, there can't possible be anything more complicated that have a GUI to present the possible choices (starting with ATs, then primary/secondary/pools/epics, then powers) enforced by rules. I almost started this as a proof-of-concept... what stopped me was that I simply don't use/need MIDS.... I am comfortable checking City of Data and/or in game for power details. I 'know' the ED scales. I know the sets and their bonuses... and then there is my personal iconoclasm,,, it is really hard to get me to care about 'set bonuses' and stats, especially once certain personal 'point of diminishing returns' is past. This point varies depending on AT (and power picks).

Also to expand: The threat powers from the Presence pool are not autohit (and at least one of those two must be taken to unlock the 4th/5th powers) Some (most?) aura toggles with a Threat component accept accuracy (and threat) slotting. There are a handful of powers in other sets that include pets/pseudopets that provide Threat, and pets/pseudopets typically also require Accuracy There are possibly more powers that accept both Threat and Accuracy than there are that accept both Defense and Resistance, or EndMod and Healing, or Defense and Healing. I mention this only because those combinations (of attribute enhancing) are occasionally mention as candidates for "HO/DS" treatment IMO the Provocations (Threat/Acc/Recharge) are in the same category as Cytoskeletons (End/+Def/+ToHit)... there are a LOT of powers that benefit from only two attributes, but relatively few that benefit from all three... but for those that benefit from all three, there aren't any pieces with those combinations, let alone pieces that exist at 50 that could be boosted. These pieces have something else in common: The powers that benefit from them typically don't need many slots to achieve maximum effectiveness, so missing out on set bonuses (when only 1 or 2 pieces will do) is an easy trade off for better enhancement values.

Since I don't use MIDS, my comments are more along the lines of wondering why spend the effort sustaining this and not refactoring it? I've worked with industrial solutions where the 'fear of $$ investment' that kept us supporting/maintaining/updating old code bases... but not to the extent it looks like is happening here. This is obviously a hobby software, but there are other pieces of software that fall into a similar category that have been maintained as 'one-person efforts' for long periods of time, and require far less overhead (in terms of external reliance, both in terms of software and network). I'm not unaware of the complications, but for what it does: it shouldn't need to be more complicated than a GUI, a database, and 'calculations/rules enforcing' module.

For Controllers, Mind/ is intentionally without pets... you can of course have a summonable creature from the Patron pools. or summons from the START vendor. If you simply want something floating beside you, the toggle Wisp pets exist.

While I recognize that some of the suggested methods to help @Snarky diagnose the issue... I've lost track of all the extra software pieces suggested along the way... on top of connecting to Discord for help and updates. I'm trying to recall the last time I encountered a 'user-level' piece of software that required as much effort... I don't recall setting up old USENET newservers taking up as much effort, and even things like MUD/MUSH weren't as complicated.

I can understand what might be getting in the way of HO/DS/Titans from being converted.... but that shouldn't prevent them from being crafted. I'd prefer the conversion of course, since that smooths out the economy, and makes some of the stinko drops (whup whup Damage/Recharge) more useful.

I suppose 'relisting' is another simpler description.

There are quite a few that are not; and Threat was reworked by Homecoming, so it isn't as if they don't know how the Threat powers work.

I know that the appeal of the Provocation is the Accuracy/Recharge, but let me say it is a real pisser that there isn't a Threat set that includes a Threat/Accuracy piece.

My lvl50 Bots don't have issues with Endurance, but I have different slotting. The T2 burned blue harder, up until I put the Cyto in them. I didn't used to include the LotG piece, until after a respec and shuffled powers. Seeker Drones are holding the other Aura pieces. T1: SMoS: Damage, Acc/Dam/End Blood Mandate 50+5 Acc/End %BuildUp %Smashing Exp Reinf: Aura T2: SMoS: Dam/End, Acc/End Call to Arms: Acc/Dam, Aura HO Cyto LotG Def/+Recharge T3 SMoS: Acc/Dam, End/Aura SCotM: Acc/Dam, Dam/End, Dam/End/Recharge, Recharge/Aura

@Snarky due to complexities, some batches of flammable materialshave been found in containers labeled 'inflammable' and some inflammable materials may have shipped in containers labeled 'flammable'. Do not be alarmed. Our quality assurance team is confident that your recent shipment was not among those impacted. -W.E.C. Operations Lead ACME Fulfillment Center

Have you played a /Kin before? There are a couple different ways to go with them... or at least, I always got bored with /Kinetics so I found a few other directions to go it.

This has always been my preferred slotting for the %BuildUp piece (on MMs). For my typical T1 slots, the +Damage ends up being somewhat significant, as I typically have at least on of the T1 slots dedicated to one of the other globals (so at least one-third of the six slots end up not directly enhancing any of the T1 henchmen attacks).

I think you are right. One big difference between now-and-then that is especially obvious at low levels is that there is no debt at low levels, and patrol XP makes debt practically irrelevant anyway.

As everything drops, and 98% of items on the market are fungible (directly through the market, or via other mechanism,s in-game), the HC market is highly resistant to such attempts. What you are describing is "flipping" which used to be a thing on Live, but won't work for most items because of the way the auction house bins items behind the scenes. There are primarily only two area where your "friend" can possibly effect the market, neither will make them any substantial amount of Inf: 1) Every so often, someone (probably a farmer) decides to buy up as much yellow salvage as they can... inflating the price to about 10K inf each. All salvage is seeded and fungible, but yellow is very widely used and has a slightly worse drop rate compared to how useful it is. However... it still drops, and it will be trivial for other players to make Inf off of your "friend". 2) It is possible to 'squeeze' the price of an item, such that almost everyone sells the item to you and buys the item from you. Because of alternate means of getting almost all items, and the vig, I don't see this as a particularly exciting or profitable compared to what others would make by just dumping stuff for your 'friend' to buy.

I really miss the option to disable XP and earn Inf, specifically because I would do this at low levels to get that at-launch feel. Sadly, this option made it too easy to earn ridiculous amounts of Influence with even less effort than it takes today... so I accept that I simply must disable XP.

I get ya both. I know I have a very different opinion about the Swarm Missiles (old v. new), and I think it is partially because I was trying some radically different things and partially because my builds and play style (for 3 tiers of bots) were (possibly) nearly perfectly aligned to slide into those changes.... so I saw no real reduction in performance in the latter case, and tremendous improvement in the previous, oddball choices case. It's not like I expect a lot of players to Ouro the first Montague arc with just one robot at x8. The only thing I couldn't (reliably) do any more after that round of robotic changes is solo Giant Monsters in Peregrine Island... but that is because I refuse to have a build with compromises for the purpose of keeping the GMs from running into each other. The Giant Monster ToHit Buffs has seriously crimped certain GM fights, noticeably Lusca, but that came later.

I knew I could get you two to make nice :)

I can only write for myself: I want to know why you insist on believe things that are actually not true. There are a handful of other posters, only a few of whom flood the suggestions forum, that post hard-to-believe comments... but FWIW, those users have demonstrated to the courtesy of explaining why(*) they post what they do. (*) For example: Some don't like to play above level 25. Some think the game was best at Issue 1. <- I disagree with these, but at least I know how to interpret their posts. In this case... the claim "level 49 powers cannot have 6 slots" is so specifically wrong, and was doubled down on, it had to come from somewhere.

Since this is the MM forum:...I don't think Robotics got nerfed when it was changed, minimally: Maintenance Drone is a godsend. Knockback was all but eliminated from henchmen attacks. Those two changes radically upped performance. One slot (KB->KD) was freed from each tier; Robots became less of a micro-management issue with the healing drone. Also at this time, the levels we could get the higher-tier powers was lowered. Who Will Die #1 went from 15 minutes on a MM to under 7 (like every other AT). I don't think the henchmen losing -regen or the change to Swarm Missiles was that big a deal. The biggest change I noticed was that I could no longer go AFK on a Giant Monster and find that the henches had defeated them without me pressing a single button. I already had 2 Rifle attacks in my build, and I'd "solved" all endurance issues (for the MM, for the Henchmen) so it isn't like I had to change my build or playstyle (except for that 'going AFK' option was off the table. My play in content with fewer henchmen improved.

On my full-kit build(*1), I didn't notice much of a performance reduction in Incarnate+3 content (so, 'even level'). Everything takes slightly longer, or the same. From my testing, the biggest performance change was against the level-less Giant Monsters. These will be harder solo; I don't expect multiboxers to have any issues, unless they are super lazy. (*1) Robotic/Traps MM, that I've basically tuned for "whatever" content. That is... it was built long ago to debuff enemies, keep aggro on the MM and to pour damage where needed. Put another way: I can change playstyle enough that this build works in a realtively wide variety of content. The other builds on teh same character are now "silly" ideas like having only one henchmen or no henchmen at all. I have other MMs I like less that have alternate builds for different content because they need them.

Based on the comments in another thread, I think what is happening is that the "player" is "playing MIDS" (or an old version of the character builder) that doesn't allow the level 49 power to get more than 3 slots added to it. I don't use MIDS, nor do I have it installed, so I can't tell if this is still the case. Needless to add: Even if MIDS has this behavior, there is no reason to not simply readjust the order of picked powers (in MIDS) to make the slotting work. Even taking all 5 epic powers and 6 slotting each of them should be possible. It is left as an exercise to the reader to come up with a realistic set of power choices that does that, and still requires more than 4 slots in the level 49 power. There should always be at least one power pick that can be delayed (for MIDS purposes) that has fewer than 5 slots.