Redlynne

Destruction can be done quickly and relatively easily. Creation is a long and arduous process that can often times take way longer than you might assume at the outset. As proof of my statement, I would offer the multitude of examples found in the Show Off! thread in the Base Construction forum. While there are numerous examples of what it is possible to make ... the sheer investment of TIME ought to be rather obvious just at a cursory glance. For a lot of those bases, I would put the time investment at 100+ man-hours MINIMUM, with the majority of them likely taking WELL in excess of that amount of time to finalize (especially on the larger plots). That's a decidedly non-trivial amount of time investment by those individual creators. Now take that same expectation and apply it to the job of creating map modules for instances. Even if there's some degree of modularity involved that allows you to copy/paste in replacements, the amount of TIME needed to create those spaces and get them thoroughly proofed out and tested and vetted is going to be decidedly non-trivial for what ought to be obvious reasons. These aren't the kinds of things you can just whip up in 5 minutes (although @Dacy might be able to do them in 10... and that's a joke, just in case anyone wants to deliberately misinterpret what I'm saying here) and I shouldn't have to point that out because of how obvious the obvious is in this regard. Creating environments, sometimes called World Building in this context, is a remarkably time intensive process ... and that isn't a point of contention that ought to be up for debate. The entire point, purpose and context of this topic thread is to CHANGE MAPS. Doing ANYTHING in that direction is going to be a remarkably time intensive process. There shouldn't be any contention or debate about the validity of that statement, for that reason, in this specific context. CAN the charge of unnecessary demands on dev time be made while the validity of the charge is ... somewhat shaky ...? Of course! But in this context, for the purposes of this discussion, I sincerely doubt that the assertion that there is plenty of dev time to edit maps (not just one of them, but dozens of them!) holds the necessary degree of validity to it. Editing maps is NOT a cheap or easy "quick fix" thing to do ... just ask any Base Builder ... when it comes to time investment.

Yeah. They do that.

Try Rularuu Overseers (eyeballs) and/or Devouring Earth Quartz that drop the emanators that will negate your Super Reflexes powerset. I figure that they'll be able to hurt you (sufficiently) to pierce the complacency.

That's kinda the feeling I got with my v3.1.0 SR/MA Tanker build when I got done with it, especially since I found a use for Thunder Kick (which most people think of as being a "garbage power" when it actually isn't).

That's simply a function of the fact that Dev Time™ is not only a precious resource but also a by definition a demonstrably FINITE one. There simply isn't a nigh infinity of man hours of Dev Time™ lying around sadly unused. It's a logistical consideration that even professionally paid developers lament, and they're making "the big bucks" compared to what our staff of volunteers is getting paid to do what they do. I had THAT lesson imprinted on my consciousness by no less a person than Cuppa Jo at the Tabula Rasa War College event, where a few select high profile Players were brought to the NC$oft offices in Austin, Texas for 2 days of meetings and conversations with the Tabula Rasa Devs (I also got to meet Manticore, Cricket and Avatea while I was there, among other former City of Heroes staffers). The Tyranny Of The Almighty Schedule they called it. AND THEY WERE RIGHT. So yeah, it would be great if there was vastly more Dev Time™ available to be expended on all kinds of things ... but since there isn't, we make do with what we have ... and that means setting priorities. And when you have to budget your priorities, how much of the demonstrably FINITE resource of Dev Time™ can be expended on an effort (any effort) becomes a major consideration (if not the controlling consideration in a lot of cases) as to whether it is "worth it" to pursue that particular endeavor on the menu. This is why whenever I make suggestions in the forums, I try to demonstrate the requisite expenditure of Dev Time™ that the suggestion would likely consume ... with an eye towards making it as simple as possible to execute with the least disturbance to the Almighty Schedule that controls the work that they're allowed to do. So you're right ... it's NOT fun to be told your great idea will take "too much dev time" to implement. The problem is, in a lot of cases ... it's very very VERY TRUE. Which is sad ... but it's still true.

Would this be the same Trick Arrow powerset that only has 1 power with a base recharge time of under 15 seconds? Trick Arrow Lvl Acc Dmg Act Int Cast Rch End Rng Radius Arc Area Entangling Arrow 1 1.2 - - - 1s 4s 6.5 80ft - - Character Flash Arrow 2 1 - - - 1s 15s 9.75 80ft 35ft - Sphere Glue Arrow 4 1 - - - 1.16s 60s 9.75 60ft - - Character Ice Arrow 10 1 - - - 1.67s 18s 10.66 80ft - - Character Poison Gas Arrow 16 1 - - - 1.16s 45s 13 70ft - - Character Acid Arrow 20 1 0.21 - - 1.83s 20s 9.75 80ft 8ft - Sphere Disruption Arrow 28 1 - - - 1.16s 60s 18.2 70ft - - Location Oil Slick Arrow 35 1 - - - 1.16s 180s 19.5 70ft - - Location EMP Arrow 38 1 - - - 1.83s 300s 29.25 70ft 35ft - Sphere

Super Reflexes matures LATE ... as in my experience with Super Reflexes is that the powerset matures all the way to 50. It doesn't peak early and then plateau, it just keeps getting stronger and stronger. That's a symptom of needing more slots ... meaning that you need to keep adding levels (and therefore slots) to your build. Once you get to 40+ it's all about "filling out" as well as "rounding out" the build and putting the capstones on everything and you'll be able to FEEL the changes as it all starts coming together and you get REALLY powerful with full slotting in all of your powers. I know that my long march to 50 as an MA/SR Scrapper on Virtue felt like my character didn't even start(!) to mature into her true strength until Levels 40+ ... mainly because I slotted up defenses first and left the slotting for the attacks for the 40+ stretch when I was playing back then, so the leaps and bounds improvements were incredibly noticeable. Now with set bonuses in the mix, a lot of the "finishing" of sets and builds still happens in the 40+ stretch and your build won't feel "complete" until you get to 50 and have EVERYTHING slotted up the way you want them to be. Moral of the story is to stick with it. It's blood, sweat and tears on the way up to 50 ... but once you're there, it's all gravy.

You are incorrect ... as others have already pointed out so I won't have to. Having played on too many task forces/strike forces where I had to guide people through the wedding cake and pools rooms successfully when no one else on the team had any idea of how to "attack" the rooms safely ... I've had to educate groups of Players on multiple (multiple...) occasions. So I have personal experience with this phenomenon in actual gameplay on a recurring basis over multiple years with a wide variety of groups. Some people have a problem with them. Some people don't. The people who don't have a problem with those map modules aren't calling for the maps to be removed from circulation. Why? Because they LEARNED how to deal with the unique challenges and environment(s) that those map modules created. They LEARNED how to fight ... successfully ... through those map modules. THEY LEARNED THE MAPS. If you want to accuse me of being dismissive of people who would rather edit the world than LEARN and adapt how they play ... well ... yeah, guilty as charged. I am kind of dismissive of the militantly intellectually lazy who think the world ought to change for their comfort, rather than adapting and growing themselves to better advantage themselves in the world they actually live in. You can lead a man to water, but you cannot make him THINK ... It's not inherently hard, no ... but as soon as somebody gets frustrated by something, you had better believe that they're going to complain about it on the forums and Work The Refs in an effort to make a mountain out of their personal molehill. Meanwhile, at the same time, you've got other people pulling in the opposite direction complaining that the game is "too easy" and they want to make it harder. These two counterweighted views can both be true at the same time for individual people, but extrapolating one person's problem (or even a superminority percentage of the server population's) problem into being one that is universally shared and which therefore MUST be FIXED is just vainglorious self-aggrandizement (that can turn into soapbox preaching like we see the Council doing on the streets of Steel Canyon in an effort to add Recruits To The Cause). So the game isn't inherently hard ... and the few things that present even minimal difficulty/challenge to the Players should not be sacrificed on the altar of convenience. You're welcome to believe whatever you want ... but your belief does not inherently make what you believe to be TRUE. And if this is only the third thread you've seen that I'm in ... there's a Bugs Bunny saying for that.

NO.

The "wedding cake" module of the cave maps, which is also reskinned into the "pools room" module in Council maps ... is a CHALLENGE to Players. Heaven forbid Players ever be challenged by anything in the game! Any source of frustration must be eliminated with extreme prejudice! Seriously people, the "wedding cake"/"pools room" modules of the cave/Council maps is a multi-layer 3D space to clear, instead of a 2D space like every other part of those maps, and it's honestly pathetic to see people STILL complaining that they're "hard" to deal with ... when all that is needed is for the Player(s) to go to the effort(!) of LEARNING how to clear them. I know ... heresy ... LEARNING The way that I deal with these "annoying" map modules is: For the "wedding cake" module in caves ... I move to the bottom level, circle the bottom level to clear it ... move up one level, circle that level to clear it ... move up one level, circle that level to clear it ... wash, rinse, repeat. For the "pools room" module in Council bases ... I move to the bottom level, circle the bottom level to clear it ... move up one level, circle that level to clear it ... move up one level, circle that level to clear it ... wash, rinse, repeat. The whole point of doing that is that if you fall through any of the gaps into the lower levels, you fall into a space that you've already cleared so you don't get extra added aggro on top of what you've already got on you. So all you have to do is methodically clear the map module from bottom to top. Apparently that's too hard to do for the people like some of the posters in this thread (who know who they are...) to either do or learn how to do, despite repeated exposure to the challenge of dealing with a multi-layer 3D space instead of the usual configuration of a 2D space with a high ceiling.

I think that Lord Recluse did a pretty good job of explaining what being a Villain means to him.

Pssst ... Ninja/Time ...

If you think Giant Monsters are "easy mode" for your character, try to destroy a Rikti Dropship on a bombing run ...

Considering that the Mercenaries pets themselves don't have that many attack powers, it wouldn't be an absurdly labor intensive process to convert/port over the way that Swap Ammo works into their attack powers on the game mechanical level. There might be some problems with the visual and sound FX, but that's an art assets issue, and some of that could presumably be cobbled together from Dual Pistols as well. The key feature change would be that rather than the different ammo types being something which is a Self Only effect would instead need to be run via PBAoE toggle (presumably Supremacy range radius of 60ft) ... which then runs into a very interesting problem. What happens when you have two Mercenaries Masterminds and they're each running different ammo types and their Supremacy auras overlap? Do all of the Mercenaries start shooting "dual ammo" types because of the overlap in Swap Ammo auras? Now, mind you, I'd argue that Mercenaries are "so far behind the curve" that allowing them to "multi-type" their ammo via overlapping Swap Ammo auras from multiple Masterminds would be a "fair" (needed?) multiplayer buff to the powerset ... but not everyone would be quite so forgiving of the implications. Still, it IS an extra layer of possibility that needs to be accounted for and dealt with before proceeding to any kind of coding process (because if you can't "explain it" to the computer, the computer is unlikely to do what you actually want it to do).

We call that Boomtown Drive in Movie Night. Over in The Hollows, they only play disaster movies that involve meteors from space hitting the center of the zone as the theatrical excuse for the crater.

Because ALL OR NOTHING One Size Fits All Whether You Like It Or Not "answers" are really pretty terrible. What's really needed is for the Player to have the means to CONTROL how much Knockback they do (none, a little, a lot) and be able to vary that as situations and circumstances warrant. This is the only solution that makes any sense because it puts the control/management of Knockback into the Player's hands and makes it the Player's responsibility to know and DECIDE what to do (and when, and WHY). That way it's there when you need it, and moderated when you don't need it (or when it's counterproductive).

That's ... an expansively broad over interpretation of what is being said. Getting things to explode is easy. Getting things to implode in a controlled way ... that's hard ...

You bring passion to the topics you post on. That's hard to quantify with number systems.

To be maximally clarifying the Thanks, HaHa and Like reactions add +1 to forum reputation. The Confused ans Sad reactions add +0 to forum reputation. Allowing a Facepalm reaction to also add +0 to forum reputation would be in keeping with the Confused and Sad reactions. Note that there is no -1 to forum reputation option. Forum reputation is a one way ratchet. The Confused and Sad reactions still get recorded, they just don't "move the needle" at all on forum reputations.

Since the damage procs will have a chance to proc every ~10s you want to cross compare with the damage produced over 5 activations or damage ticks for a proper honeycrisp to jazz apples comparison. Since Orbiting Death is a toggle, the proc chances will typically be low (3.5 PPM = 17.95% chance every ~10s per $Target). For a stock and standard 71.75 damage proc, that translates to an average of 12.88 damage every ~10s when factoring in the 17.95% proc chance average. That then translates to an equivalent to an increase of 2.576 damage per activation/tick when averaged out over an infinite time horizon (which isn't a "fair" comparison, but it's a starting point) if you're wanting to break even on damage over time. The thing is, those damage procs deliver all of their damage at once, which tends to front load the damage production, so in actual practice it feels more like a critical hit spike in damage up front ... meaning fewer DoT ticks are needed to reach $Target defeat after the proc, so the benefit(s) of the damage procs isn't exactly symmetrical with the DoT equivalency that I just provided the calculations for above. So the way you really want to figure things is more a matter of taking the non-proc damage and multiplying it by 5 (for activations every 2s over 10s) and then try and "load balance" the non-proc damage to be at or above 71.75 per 10s ... which is a 14.35 damage per DoT tick threshold ... and then tack on a damage proc (or few) on top of that. That way, if the proc goes off, you're basically doing "double damage" over that 10s to the $Target the proc happened on, but if there's no proc you still do "single damage" to it ... just like a critical hit chance yea/nay opportunity chance. That kind of load balancing will wind up being the best in actual gameplay since it prevents you from falling into the All Eggs In One Basket problem of having low damage tick damage and putting all your bets on scoring one or more damage procs to deliver the damage from Orbiting Death, which will wind up with a very uneven performance profile. My thoughts on the matter are to have a good (high) baseline of damage performance per DoT tick and treat the damage proc(s) as "bonus" damage that is nice when it happens but not "necessary" for usefulness of the power. That way, the power is consistent with occasional boosts in performance that are opportunistic. The alternative is to go all in on damage procs instead and wind up with a power that is just really chaotic and unpredictable in its damage production that you can't rely on to finish off the final slivers of HP in a timely fashion. So good constant pressure damage with random spike damage boosting is better (in my opinion) than purely random spike damage production that you can't rely on with a mediocre pressure damage afterthought that isn't doing much for you while it's happening. And the reason why I say that is because a LOT of the attacking you'll be doing as a Human form Warshade is going to be single target, most of the time (you have a few AoE attack options, but they aren't rapidly repeatable for the most part). That means that Orbiting Death becomes (by default) your means of whittling down everything ELSE around you while you sequentially single target your way through a pile of $Targets. Under those circumstances, you're using Orbiting Death as a ... tenderizer ... for the pile before turning to each individual in turn to deliver their beatdown(s) and in that context having a decent aura of pressure DoT ticking away on them is very helpful since it means you need to use fewer heavy/single target attacks to defeat each in turn AND can rely on a strong pressure DoT to shave off the last slivers of HP so as to "waste" less damage production on overkills. That combination of factors then results in a faster overall time to defeat each $Target when their turn for single target attention comes up and the entire process becomes more "efficient" at converting endurance into damage in a shorter span of time relative to the alternative. The thing is, you need to have your powers fully slotted out in order to realize that transformation, so it's really something that is most applicable once you've got your build finished out and fully slotted ... even if you're needing to Exemplar. As I've said before, there's a curious kind of tension with Orbiting Death ... the power is kind of terrible until it suddenly isn't, once you've got all your enhancements slotted in, and THEN Orbiting Death becomes pretty decently powerful ... especially if you've got an aggro magnet around to keep attention off yourself while using Orbiting Death.

And yet, strangely, you can also get the whip attacks WITH demons you can summon ... who knew?

Level locked at 19 in Neutropolis with 3.2 Alignment Arcs remaining to complete before advancing to Level 20 ...