Llewellyn Blackwell

Ok I could write a thesis worthy of a doctorate trying to cover all the talking points in this thread. But I shall do me very best to focus on the bullet points. The number one issue imo with AE farming is that it became a reason to significantly reduce AE rewards. The main reason, the main vocal part of the community wanted AE came from the RPG community of Virtue. A fair few of the devs actually spent a good bit of their personal game time on that server as was well known to the community. This is one reason why we among the many MMO have so many emotes, so much flavor that really is just fat needing to be cut in the eyes of the meta gamers. This was the first real rift imo in the coh community because up till then RPGers on virtue had no real issue playing with the non RPers on the server. When I think back it was after this division that many RPers myself included tended to be less tolerant of non RPers, This is when I really started to see the more hard line use of OOC(( )) and many refusing to talk OOC at all basically forcing non RPers to either go lite RP or go to another server. It was a line in the sand made against those who because of a lack of self control and a need for personal gratification basically broke a toy made first and foremost for the RPers. No other MM ever came anywhere close to what we got with AE. Any of us with a minimal amount of experience can make content to expand our game world. In fact the makers themselves cryptic failed to do half as well in the next generation with their foundry on NWN and STO. The worst part is the PL meta gamers dont even need custom AE farms to PL in a timely manner. I mean sure a day or two isnt an hour or two, but you could do a sewer team or two, then go knock out posi 1-2, then go doa few fast easy arcs like the hollows and faultline arcs for some massive easy merit rewards. then a peny yin, a citadel, a moonfire, your going to be at least into the 30s by then in a day or two of pretty mellow and varied play. By then you will know if the power sets/AT are rigth for you or you need to shelve and reroll. And all them lovely merits can easily be liquidated into inf and mailed on to a future alt. Now for the 30+ just go do a few MSR. They are practically dailys now and you will def fly to 50 doing them. and likely faster then any AE farm could. Honestly if stopping PLers is a goal HC team cares about a bigger fix would be putting the level lock back on the RWZ. Not something I am suggesting nor endorsing fyi. Honestly I think at this point the only real way to give AE back to content creators and be able to roll back the many nerfs to AE rewards would be the introduction of instant lvl 50 at the P2W. Understand I doubt Id ever use this feature myself, I doubt many RPers or content players would, but if that is what the PLer meta game crowd want I am done trying to put them on the other side. So I ask all fellow gamers of every walk, would it not be better to just give auto 50 to those who want it, if in return we could have AE once again give meaningful rewards comparable to the merit rewards of story arcs?

Im going to endeavor to not come across as rude nor dismissive but frankly a post like this one of yours is making that a real challenge. Let me make a simple analogue. Would you rather use your hand when your horny or put in the time and effort to woo a lover? Because a lack of patience, a need for instant gratification, apparently no interest in being master of your feelings and instead being mastered by them. What I would suggest, a solo retreat into the wilderness ideally mountains for at least 2 weeks with zero tech or contact with others. And books on spiritual and martial philosophy. Perhaps start with the Art of War. Honestly I have a hard time not thinking or one of these anti youth conservative types intent in trying to portray the most common negative aspects of a young person. Because in all my years I dont think Ive ever met one human being that actually seems to think a lack of self control is anything but a major character flaw. AE babies as most of virtue tended to call the handfuls of meta gamers on the server who tended to just power farm builds to cap for the lolz are never the norm in the coh population. Most of us who loved the game then and now tend to love it first and foremost for the setting and content. You know if you want a real fast power fantasy gratification game I suggest Warframe. And thats not some insult Warframe is the game that filled my super power game itch and still give it plenty of time since CoH came back. No stalker in this game competes with the feel of Ash Prime. No nuker compares to the feel of any of the nuke frames. No tank or brute etc can match the feel of Gara or valkyr etc. If your first and foremost after a power fantasy than that game does it way better.

On the subject of time investment to perfect a build etc, it may surprise you to learn it does not really demand a player to farm nor spend hours in thought or on a build planner to develop a character. Maybe Im an idiot savant, maybe Im on the spectrum and can rain man this game for some reason but I think it really was just playing it. You see it was around year 3 I began to notice in this games lifespan, tha I could take any AT, any power set combo, and by simply playing it, and doing the old respec trials at usually around lvls 25,35, and 45 Id typically have a build fine tuned to my personal wants and needs. Because I love leading TFs when not soloing story arcs and once reward merits came into play I never had any trouble taking every character to a pretty high end build set wise. Hell on HC when i came to it I found my old instincts coming back so quickly it was crazy. I have not had any need to look at builders, I can look at a new power set or the new AT sentinal and again could in my mind see more or less the end game build already laid out. Nor is it just about obvious numbers, but more knowing the power sets and their inherent strengths and weaknesses. A lot of the number cruncher players Ive known then and now while on paper can meta the hell out of a build, rarely can actually play it well enough to make it seem all that great compared to builds born of active in game play. So sure if you struggle with seeing and bringing a true super hero build to life and tend to stay more at the street level that is no crime. Some people prefer harry dresden to doctor strange, or super boy vs superman. Some of us like staying in smalleville forever, some of us want to soar among the cosmos.

This is basically the answer to the basic Q, Id suggest maybe Manley Stanley? And maybe go for a Young Stan? You know give his hair back his color, peel off a few decades, maybe give him some abs? It could be the praetorian dimensions stan lee that became a super soldier or something?

Task FOrces have been a bit of a contentious beast in this game since year one. I still grimly recall my first posi so many years ago. more then 6 hours, only 3 of us still left from the full team that began, and then just as the boss at the end was about to die I get DCd and didnt even get the damn SO that was so special for low lvls back then. Such was not an uncommon first TF experience I came to learn, and a great majority of the population learned to ignore them entirely. I seem to recall a post on the old forums by the devs admitting that so few of the total population played the original TFs that every time they wanted to do a new one it would lead to weeks of debate among the devs if it was even worth bothering. You can see how later TFs like Penny Yin replaced old long drawn out ones with faster frenetic stories. Hence how basically anyone who being a stubborn and defiant sod like meself and chose to keep doing TFs, also very quickly adapted builds to them. My very next character adopted what I called the TF leader pool kit. stealth, SS, and recall friend by lvl 14 on any toon I meant to lead TFs with. While no hard speed runner I then and now strove to keep TFs timely, because every hour there at the computer, is another hour someone may have to leave due to RL and miss out on the end reward. Ive had TF teams where due to RL emergency someone has had to leave a few missions before the end, and I always feel as if I have failed them. My goal when I begin a tf is to see everyone who begins it finish it and have a fun time, while also not wasting time. When it comes to XP and drops, I put that burden on each individual. I dont join a tf team and expect them to wipe out the masses so I benefit. I bring the aoe and kill just as fast alone as in a team for the most part. So even when leading a TF I always say you do you, stay together if you need it, but I dont hold back, I dont corner pull etc. I go to the heart of the threat and cut it out and eat it with a grin of madness upon my lips. Even if there is a tankr etc on point, I dont follow, I use the map and go where I deem it. Follow, fall, but do not presume to think you know better then I about the 5Ws of my character. Followers follow, leaders lead, and gods walk where they will on a whim with no concern for what is trod under foot.

Due to Stan Lee portraying himself in the movie Mall Rats, and Him appearing in so many of the MCU films, it is entirely possible that disney owns the image rights to Stan Lee in film and games. Now I dont think you really cross any lines, but with the goal of making a deal with NC Soft its hard to say what hoops they are prepared to go through and bars they are willing to limbo under to make it work. Honestly, I am right there with you OP. My Lore Based characters all drawn from the lore of coh once were safe because of Paragon Studios and and the games admin deeming such perfectly fine. Now technically since HC has put their foot down on copy right, its hard to say for sure if using names drawn from lore in the game is safe or not. Now if not, I wont fight it, if I must set aside the identity of Bentley Berkeley, the Invisible Falcon, T'Keron Valmaz, Demetrios Vasilikos and more I recognize that due to no longer being under NC Soft directly the HC team cant give me the same permission so I can only wait and see what the HC team will do.

This isnt the first game Ive seen the debate of risk vs reward vs time vs reward debate come up. DDO aka dungeons and dragons online has seen this very debate pop up over and over through the years. I think on DDO its a more heated topic because of the many years of PnP table top play we have under our belts and the constant of a DM to regulate the challenge and rewards based on a given group. But both boil down to the same basic thing. If I am doing something of greater risk do I not deserve more? A good example of this is in CoH when you solo set to X8 you are getting every bit of XP that would normally be split up among a full 8 man party. In DDO due to xp being awarded at the end of completion and killing not mattering all that much, people zerg there to no end because every extra fight is a waste not more xp. So on one hand CoH has already handled one aspect of the situation. When we take on greater personal risk we see a direct rise in our XP earned, so if we can kill at a very high rate then we end up earning more then slower killers against fewer foes. The idea some others have put forth in this thread about certain mob factions giving more XP imo actually has merit based on CoH already rewarding based on difficulty. We all know why people are farming council over just about every other faction. We know why folks are complaining about the threat the debuffing mobs of ToT to lower lvl characters represent. Because we know which groups are easier and which are nastier to the average build and player. We could easily double the XP rates for groups like malta and the carnival for example, hell could likely triple or quadruple the xp given by the Ruluruu and 99% of players would still avoid the shadow shard like a pool filled with the contents of an outhouse. Heck I think we could all agree this wouldnt be only high end factions, the Vahz, the various praetorian mobs, all could give about double the normal xp, and have higher drop rates for rare goods. IMO anything that would encourage players to push the boundaries of their comfort zone would be a good thing. Now if we could only get an update to the dif scale system to allow us to pick what type of mobs, add random buffed mobs, or add abilities to mobs like granting them all flight would be imo a great addition letting us fine tune the content we play.

Oh dont try to make up some BS, the issue with praetoria just like rogue isle is that people tended to already be too invested into paragon city and most didnt want to leave their comfort zone. Because yeah the early levels tend to be abit rougher on everyone and hence why most just PL through them anyways. Mobs being more formidable due to better power choices for them is a good thing and if I had it my way the city of paragon would of eventually been over run with praetorian foes replacing the old gangs as well. I not long ago duoed through the resistance arcs with a friend he was on a blaster I on a stalker. We mainly did content while lowbie leveling set to 6 man team size for more XP and challenge. The fact you are QQing so much about being unable to just face tank and steam roll all content tells me you likely are a path of least resistance type of gamer. The moment content dims your power fantasy from an 11 down to a 9 you start tossing around the this is bad content design hyperbole. Did I mention that in that praetorian content we rarely struggled at all even set to 6 man as a duo? Yes we used smart tactics, he took stealth asap and with a stealth IO could ghost around with my stalker we didnt foolishly try to fight overwhelming forces head on which is a large part of the praetorian setting, especially as a rebel your supposed to always feel out gunned and on the run. If you dont like taht fine dont play it, but dont act like its a terrible thing to give us the option. IMO those who avoid praetoria are really no different then those who PL and avoid all early content, they simply dont have the grit to play through the levels when even the best builds can be beaten if you push them too hard pre IO sets.

While not about city of, I recall a former dev for turbine leaked a lot of in house drama when they left after WB took it over. Basically these days in the mmo field most young programmers are basically out for themselves, they joina project, do their own things to add to their future resume, often keep it as mysterious and arcane as an ancient alchemist seeking the formula for lead to gold, then move on as soon as possible. Though never confirmed in as dramatic a fashion many a rumor swirled around the parting of ways of cryptic from NC Soft, and an active intent to sabotage the faction that stayed behind and became paragon studios. Thus many a story about code changes being shredded and vital documents concerning this game lost due to spiteful and secretive employees on their way out . Its not just a case of the left hand not knowing the actions of the right, it seems to be more a case of the left hand jumping into a blender to spite the whole body.

What I think a lot of of people keep forgetting is that the vast majority of homecoming players are the most die hard of the old city of hero community. Your dealing with a community that has basically very few who dont understand how to build a toon well, They are often remaking old faves who had been fine tuned. Likewise once you have a single character to 50 your able to make sure all later characters are decked out in top IO sets for leveling. The playerbase has changed because now its basically only the best of the best and most committed of players left. When we are running new power combos we never used before we usually do so alone to test out their strengths and weaknesses. Most of us are leveling up with double XP because inf while leveling is too low to matter once you have a 50. We would rather do TFs with all the extra power we can muster. Regular TF leader builds usually incorporate stealth and recall friend and have since year one. Most older TFs are such time sinks asking anyone to spend one more minute in them then needed is terribly rude. People have lives outside of the game and most do not want to sit at their computer for an hour or more at a time these days. Hence the popularity of TFs like penny Yin which routinely takes a half hour for most teams.

Sounds like a lot of work for the HC team with no real reason beyond pleasing meta gamers that want less immersion. Also there are not bosses so big and bad as to make any good player go oh shit we need to debuff this guy asap or run away. Considering Offenders have had no issues over powering GMs for years, and never seem to have trouble keeping the buff and debuffs stacked up tells me they dont really need much help on that end. You have to remember this isa non paid volunteer dev team now, and asking them to devote that kind of energy to something I doubt all that many would care about in the end compared to new arcs and ATs and power sets.

Yeah sorry but this comes off far more as QQ to me then anything resembling constructive feedback. There is nothing wrong with content that favors some more then others. The fact the Melee ATs all tend to be the most easy to level up and survive with through out most of the content means there should be content they have to really bring their A game to to feel even mildly effective. I play mostly melee ATs and have no few brutes under my belt, and have never found this TF even mildly more difficult on my melee ATs. nor does a brute need to always be at high fury nor should content make that always an easy task. TFs and Raids are not normal content, they should use creative mechanics that force a more dynamic approach rather then tank and spank, dog pile etc. If your having trouble, its entirely optional as you dont NEED it for any reason beyond a badge. There are plenty of players that avoid all sorts of aspects or content because they find it less then fun, while others love that same content. changing it to cater to some will only make others find it less enjoyable more often then not. Let me guess your not a big fan of some of the more infamous hard core skill games out there.

as some one who has had stealth on almost every toon Ive ever made and still do, you are as far as I can tell entirely mistaken. Even stalker stealth, the strongest in the game has never kept you from being noticed once you are engaged. all visibility reduction drops when in combat and as far as I recall always has.

You seem very confused. Stealth was never more then a modest speed debuff, your movement speed in no way impacted your visibility to mobs aside from super speed with its stealth aspect and the ability to zip past mobs before they could register you and react. You have never been able to have both stealth and invisibility on at the same time. Stealth plus SS has been a go to way to fully avoid mobs and zip through TFs with the addition of recall friend since year one. As long as there are not snipers, drones, or giant eyeballs around that combo will prevent the vast majority of mobs from ever noticing you until you choose to engage them. So I have no idea what game you were or are playing but your statement does not seem to equate to any version of the game I ever played.

You guys know the War Walls are entirely for the Rikti right? And based on the arcs in the RWZ its not entirely unreasonable to think that eventually the walls themselves would be deactivated, not torn down but turned off, to if nothing else facilitate heroes flying around the city to reach crimes quicker. I mean maybe with the dark astoria arcs they might still be needed, but you end up defeating Mot in those so really even that threat is largely quelled by the arcs wrap up. And groups like Crey and Arachnos love them walls, because they breed fear and create a sense of being under constant threat. Divide and conquer, confuse and quell dissent.

I dont think we need to take down nor remove the war walls entirely, as such massive structures would in RL be simply too costly to completely demolish, However turning off the upper force field part, and making the entire border a doorway transition zone would be awesome so we wouldnt need to go to specific gates to transition. Not sure if that would be less difficult but imo would be the more thematic way to approach such a massive change. No need to do one giant world with no borders etc.

I was going to just shake my head and move on, this thread highlights exactly why I am losing more and more interest in the homecoming of CoH. People who want to basically rebuild it from the ground up by knocking out the corner stones that people built their characters around. For starters Id point out that a great many people who do take hasten take it either in the 12-20 range or as their last power choice. The first because for a great many builds there is usually at least one of those teen lvls where the power choices even in primary and 2ndaries are just meh and offer very little to the over all build. Enter hasten, of all the pools its one that in itself doesnt impact thematic concepts, can have its graphics turned off to not be a visual conflict, It can just be fit into so many builds for some MODEST gain. I say MODEST because on a great many of those builds hasten is not really that great. This is the case for every build heavy in toggles or has an excess of attacks so as to not really need to tighten up an attack chain. For example lets look at a street justice/ willpower scrapper vs a claw/regen scrapper. For the SJ/WP global recharge is of very modest benefit compared to all sorts of other options, and it will likely be better off with another useful toggle then a click that doesnt do all that much for most of its power choices. Meanwhile over on the Claw/Regen global recharge is the biggest buff it can ask to all of its major power choices. Lets not forget how powerful an unarmed melee power set can be when adding in things like Air Superiority and cross punch. Additional attacks that weapon based sets must forgo entirely as to use them is to gimp oneself. Hasten is good. But then again enhanced speed/reflexes are also some of the most common abilities in comics. Most mutants in marvel for example used to be described as having at least an above human average when it came to physical attributes. Speedsters in DC on top of kryptonians and the like are all super speedsters. Super speed and being able to react in the nick of time is a staple of the entire genre. So honestly the fact that its not more widely used due to concept alone shows me its not nearly OP nor game breaking. IMO Swift being given a 10% would be fine, Same with Super Speed, and could be done without needing to nerf hasten as ways for those who dont want hasten to get a bit of extra recharge. Perhaps a new special recharge speed IO that goes in the same universal travel set slots that currently get used for KB protection would allow those seeking more speed alternatives an option without outright power creep as it would create competition for the set mule powers slots. I never take hasten on toggle heavy characters just like I never take an unarmed attack from a pool on a weapon power user. Or like I always take recall friend on my stalkers typically. Some powers share a synergy, and some do not. IMO nothing in this long winded thread comes anywhere near making me buy into the hasten is a must have power anymore then it does to paint it as an OP power that needs to be broken and have some of its power diverted elsewhere. My gut tells me a lot in this thread is fueled by people who typically build differently wanting to take a nerf bat to those that they see as rivals on forum and in game play style.

Old man brain got a touch fuzzy for some reason I was thinking you couldnt start the vanguard arcs till the same lvl range as the lady grey TF.

This may blow your mind but there are among the role play community those that park characters at certain level ranges forever for RP purposes. I have one such player in my SG who has a toon in it that is forever locked in such a manner because RPwise its just a child with little real control over their powers. Now their concept is a psychic so no travel powers at all isnt a big issue beyond trying to get around the city for RP. However what about someone wanting to make a character like the kid speedster from the incredibles movies, That kid basically only has speed and brawl. I ask again what real harm would be done to game balance to give a free travel power at lvl 1?

I frankly dont disagree with this proposal at all. A speedster should be able to start with super speed. and if you want to start with flying having to be an obsolete and in dire need of buffing PB which I know of no few who have done just that to start with fly even if they otherwise hate PB because their RP concept demands flight at first level to feel right. Having to give up an entire pool slot when only 1 single power in it is appealing, and needed for a thematic concept is indeed a needless restriction imo. I mean lets be honest even if we do this to free up a power slot and maybe give access to a useful 4th pool not wasted entirely on a single travel power, its not going to lead to some major new height of build power vastly surpassing what is currently possible. And more meta game flyer types will still likely prefer taking the fly pool for hover in combat and air superiority to nail foes to the ground so they can barrage them from the sky safely. Same with teleport. Meta gamers will still take it for the meta uses of recall friend to speed up content. Super speed, yeah only true RPers would want SS without hasten. Super Jump? Again meta gamers will want combat jump for an lotg mule at the least more often then not. So this proposal really can only help RPers and really wont hurt anyone else. I suspect its meta gamers nay saying because they hate it when energy is spent on something only RPers really use like emotes and social zones etc.

I do agree the guys so called friendly advice came off as more of a your playing wrong rant imo, and coming from me that says a lot. However he did make a good point, an already established 50 is going to earn, a leveling character evena farmer will not. And its true that after the AE farming era many a player developed a very bad taste when it came to 50s that didnt even know the zones and how to reach them. My advice is even while leveling, run story arcs, and TFs for merits. DO not stress if on a TF team you feel more like a sidekick, most regular TF leaders are vets who build to solo the TF and are bringing others along more as a civil service. For example until the end of today moonfire is the weekly strike target, a very easy lvl 23+ TF that runs around an hour usually. Id hop on every toon you have that can run it and knock it out on everyone, advertise and likely the team will fill, or stand by moonfire and wait till the next gathering shows up. Either way after a few toons have run through it you will have tons of merits to liquidate into inf. I dont play the market nor craft myself anymore, just sell off what I dont use, and buy what I need. Merits are my income. Story arcs solo are my go to way to kill time when not in the mood to build teams and lead TFs. Almost everything in coh awards reward merits and are all you really need to make plenty for a solid build. If you really want to PL and just hit 50 look for a mothership raid, join at around 35+ usually and a couple raids will see you to 50. Then go do the join a vanguard mish and do a few more for easy merits. Seen as less offensive by the majority of the community then asking for a team to let you door sit.

Your actually on my ignore list for your typical trash talking attitude, but in my limited experience using game mods etc and now and then needing to rip into their code to tweak something, zone to zone connections are actually pretty easy typically, least wise they seem so in games from old never winter nights to the elder scroll games all zone connections are basically just a couple tags and pretty easy to change. Id imagine just adding everything to the monorail, ferry, oportal, and long range teleport might be a tad time consuming but I doubt it would be hard. I suspect the basically opening up the whole game world to all players aspect would be the bigger challenge but then again it kind of is for rogue and vigilante players. at least travel wise if not npc access wise.

My single biggest use for rest, one that keeps it being used no matter build or level range is as an RP emote. Admittedly its not for everyone, but Ive used it for everything from praying at a tombstone in the graveyards, to stumbling and exhausted after a rough mission, to examining something on the ground. For its more conventional use, I tend to use it the most Id say for street sweeping at lower lvls. Like roof top hunting in KR. Clear a roof or two, rest, and repeat etc. So Id say it gets a decent few uses during that phase while I lvl the old fashioned way keeping the roofs of my city safe.

IMO a team leader taking a team into content that their victory is questionable in is a bad leader. Especially in a pug. When I lead PUGs and I do often for TFs, I only use characters I know can solo the content so I can insure the team will not be wasting its time. This isnt really something unique to me or this MMO. Its basically the rule of thumb on just about any MMO Ive played. dont lead teams till the content your playing is something you can solo through. Most MMO gamers ime also tend to not want to feel like a play session ends in a waste of time, hence the above view. To that end I dont care if all 7 others in my team are iffy builds or younglings trying out the game. Ill do everything I can to make sure they have a good time and see completion, Ill offer advice as needed. And as a blaster out tanking many tanks get asked for advice from just about every player no matter their AT. If your team is getting wiped, look at the leader, then look at yourself, those 2 only. Either the leader is trying to use the team by pushing past their personal limits, or you are just not that good yourself and in no position to complain about others. If a team was to wipe with me on it or leading it Id say the same damn thing I failed, no one else just myself. Fortunately I cant recall the last time I was on a team wipe. certainly not on Home Coming. As a batman fan I plan to win, and have tons of tricks to adapt to virtually anything thrown my way.

Hey bud just so you know the laughing reaction still adds to their forum rep. only sad and confused dont so you actually upped that guys rank you were responding to.