Leogunner

An interesting tidbit I noticed right here. FYI, this comment isn't directed at you (the person I'm quoting) particularly but just RPG and tactical game players in general: isn't challenging content supposed to force you out of your comfort zone sometimes and/or use different tactics, playstyles and advantages to your benefit? That's a strong premise when playing against other Chess masters, knowing their tendencies and then either changing yours to throw off your opponent or specifically adapting your style to directly counter them. Or in the direct comparison of MMOs, the raid mechanics introduced sometimes shift the meta completely to keep players on their toes or subvert mainstays in group compositions and gear. Ultimately, what I'm getting at is, why is fundamentally changing the playstyle considered negative? In the quoted example of having a build that relies on +recovery being harmed, have players forgotten the methods of moderating their END usage? Have we gotten so complacent that if put in a situation where our recovery is tanked, we fold up like wet paper bags? All those missions in the low levels, we forgot how to just NOT use certain END hungry powers or rely on a teammates' buffs to keep us afloat? Basically what I'm saying is, if your build having the bonuses temporarily stripped away would cause harm to your playstyle, that is literally the point. Outside of adding options to change the enemies, forcing the player to adapt is the other side of the challenge that is lacking. Heck, that could be an interesting mechanic there, giving enemies the power to suppress certain buffs/bonuses like a "sealing" effect that turns off those IO bonuses or an "anti-hero" status where any benevolent buffs you provide are lessened or an enemy type that can disable toggle effects. None of these mechanics have to be wide-spread but perhaps optional meta-powers given to foes if you turn the notoriety to its maximum and only on some enemy groups.

Practically every power listed I use liberally in any of my builds except maybe Whirlwind and Galvanic Sentinel (only have a MM /shock character). I'd like to like Black Hole but it's not very friendly but I do like Dimension Shift. Such a nifty little tool. You can create a choke point for an ambush (double points if there are foes already inside the choke point to group them up), or drop it on yourself when you don't want to be bothered for a few seconds (I'll just grab this clicky over here and there's nothing you can do). Can also use it like a temporary trash can to dump (wormhole) foes into and keep them in place. If people waste their AoEs, no biggie, 3-5 other teammates have plenty of AoEs to cover that. And a slight miscalculation can be canceled since it's a toggle.

They *might* be able to make a new model for a weapon that could then have selectable auras for it, but I'd imagine it would still be time consuming and you still wouldn't be able to pick the weapon model AND aura (only the one weapon). Who knows. I could be completely wrong but I'm assuming to do what is requested would be to create duplicates of every weapon with a different aura.

Only if you give that option to hero side too and killing civilians accumulates xp debt.

Maybe if pools like that were a build choice so you can choose a "travel inherent pool" which gives you a leg up picking powers from the actual travel pools but at the cost of inherent fitness pool. Just giving players more powers "just 'cause" seems completely unnecessary but a lot of changes they've implemented have been mostly unnecessary power creep.

You either have a broad definition of "malicious" or having a dialog (yes, even multiples) that you don't like is bad and anything bad should be locked up in the naughty corner. Sometimes I wonder if people on these boards have any sense of self reflection. At what point do you think the "trolled" become the "trollers" here? And no, I'm not defending the OP. I just despise hypocrites but sometimes people just don't realize they are.

First of all, I'm pretty sure the OP is suggesting an *addition*, not a change. While I'm certain semantics could be argued in the difference between the two, the intent of the OP is obviously to facilitate a discussion on possible changes, not specifically the changes he's suggesting. Whether a suggestion is too drastic or outside of the capacity of development is going to hinge more on specific proposals. I'm still reminded of the devs talking about new code for vectored KB which gives me the perception that they are willing to make new tools and look for places to use them. If it's for this idea or another unrelated improvement leaves me with a different perspective of what game developments are up for discussion. With regards to the OP and additions to Scrapper mechanics, I'm more or less in the camp that feels controllable crits are the realm of Stalkers and even for them perhaps reigning in their capabilities is probably something to consider (simply making fast AS only accessible with maxed focus, for example). If I were suggesting a proposal for an interactive inherent anyway for discussion's sake...off the top of my head: Overkill: An addition to the AT's Critical Strikes inherent similar to Stalker's Assassin's Focus where you gain a charge of "Overkill" if an attack deals a certain amount of damage over the target's current HP. You can build a maximum of 3 charges and each charge is expended individually. The powers that expend them would be the tier 1, 2, 3 and PBAoE attacks which will get 100% crit chance. A critical that expends an Overkill charge can also gain a charge if said crit is overkill. This is a bit different from Stalker who will use their single 100% crit opportunity at the start and more strategically, likely with their high damage burst attacks. The Scrapper with this addition doesn't ever get to start with Overkill but rather have to build it by defeating foes (which is, in and of itself, different from Fury which is built by taking damage and using attacks) and the controlled crit opportunity is limited but has multiples to DPS oriented powers. In circumstances where you're dealing with 1 hard target, this won't come into effect but it won't have to because Scraps tend to deal the best DPS on high-rank non-resistant targets than any other melee when given time. It would come into play with more standard engagements, however.

If we were making the game, maybe. Since the game is already made and we're looking at it from lots of angles (from trying to increase traffic to old content or reward achievements over a spread out timeframe), it can really be either or. Compelling reasons to the contrary are: power creep...someone put out giving more slots for vet levels and I think that's a blatant example of power creep that should probably not be a targeted reward/tasking. Obligation/choice...even if the reward is minute, it's ultimately your choice to pursue it or not but likely someone out there will or maybe not even know and just get something extra for doing something they were doing anyway. Lastly, the concept of "gates" itself....it's not like there is much to this game besides using your powers, clicking stuff and looking cool. Creating a list of tasks isn't difficult. Ultimately though, I don't think it's particularly more fruitful to start from one point or the other unless you have a particular idea and you're starting from that vantage point. To anyone else who has a completely different idea, it might be worse. Still, I think whatever tasking you can devise should have some purpose/link to the reward you're getting moreso than not.

Wouldn't these gates just depend on what the reward is? Or maybe not. I never understood why certain accolades required certain badges. Whether the reward is an accolade power, a piece of gear, a feature unlock or a costume piece, wouldn't you then try to devise an intriguing an engaging task to obtain it? You could come up with all kinds of ways to obtain a thing but I'd personally consider making the method to obtain it meaningful or have some other kind of design direction besides fixating on the concept of a gate existing to put the thing behind that has no relevance or lore behind it.

Past me is chuckling at this because I enjoyed Shadow Maul BEFORE it was overpowered and making it a honking-easy AoE really turned off the novelty of using skilled placement to get maximum performance out of it. Hit 1 target and you are flushing your DPS, hit 2 and it's still not great, hit 3 and you're good (for the most part), hit 5 and you are getting a good amount of DPS and AoE mixed in. Of course, I'm in the minority so no one cares. Unfortunately, so are you and now you just have to eat your porridge or go away. Identity can be rather fluid but I don't think making sets identical make them easier to balance. Considering the overall AT performance partially hinges on the tools granted by the powersets, you're naturally going to get peaks and valleys in various attributes but having Electric Melee as mediocre on most melees while being upper tier for Stalkers doesn't = balance if the reason they are mediocre on the other ATs is because the tools don't favor the AT goals. Just my opinion but, anyone playing Electric Melee on a melee AT should just skip everything else and go to Stalker as you get great AoE and good ST if you supplement your DPS with an out-of-set attack to make up for it (the epic pools have some variety). That being said, I don't think it would be that bad if, for example, Scraps got a modified mob-crit aspect to their Thunder Strike (i.e. if they crit their primary target, all targets in the AoE will get crit as well) while Brutes get higher -end with the higher fury for no other reason that they could have some new option to create a sapper/debuffer for variety (Tankers already get a nice energy cone from JL which is unique enough since it's rather meh on everyone else). That was just an example though. On the topic of Dark Melee, I'm rather indifferent now. I haven't played my Shield/DM for a long while (got him to the 40s after the Tanker buff) and I squandered the chance to remake my DM/WP Stalker from live. If I get the urge to take a break from FFXI and come back to CoX, maybe I'll try out the new TW to see if I can get some levels with my WP Scrap but everything feels like it's just ripening into a sour plumb. Oh well...

Funny you mention that. I've actually been away for work related things for almost 3 weeks now and before that, I hadn't played the game for like a month before that so I've been eager to come back to the game. Once I got back though, I decided to play FFXI because I had been catching some Youtube videos about it and redownloaded it once I got home. Hadn't played it in years so decided to join a new linkshell. Long story short, I have so much old content to wade through to unlock and build up my character I had to ask for some direction from some vets. I kept hearing gushes about how nostalgic helping me through the old stuff is as they hadn't done it themselves in years. Moral: there can also be fulfillment in those in-game rewards when you're helping others get it. I know...."Psh! Helping other players in an MMO!? Not in my CoX!". I'm not advocating for old-skool questing for CoX, just making an opposing point here. If anything, FFXI's quest system is so confusing, you either need to run it with a guide or a player versed in it. A lot of it isn't even hard since the level gates are mostly lifted on a lot of stuff.

As someone who does use self-imposed limitations to motivate myself to play, you're right in saying it's not the same sense of accomplishment. It's more a sense of discipline than anything only that that discipline has no pay-off. I'm unsure why you think I'm blowing you off, I'm merely using the terms both sides of the argument are using. Pro-OP use terms like "grind" and "goals" and Con-OP use terms like "elitism" and "inaccessibility". I am actually for having some more content with certain things unlocked as a reward. Not because it gives me warm fuzzies but rather because it gets me and others to want to play the content. When you put these little "sites to visit" throughout the content, you promote traffic through it and more people play it. I'm pretty sure there are some newer players that don't even know there is a mission to unlock auras.

Why do people resort to calling a mod to shut down topics? It's already sort of ridiculous they decide when it's time to stop regular forum chatter just because it's not "progressing", as if it's somehow better to silence and censor than just having people civilly chat on a chatting forum. If you feel a particular talking point is off topic, why not just tell those speaking about it that it's off topic? And if mental health is off topic, how is appealing to arguments about pride and elitism not fall under the same umbrella? Either having grind/goals is a mental gate or it's off topic and no one has engaged the OP since page 1.

I'd be weary of "fixing" Regen considering what they've done to a lot of other sets in the recent change. Sure, a lot of people enjoy the boost and changes but I'm certain there are plenty who liked some aspect that was completely altered, locked behind a gimmick or simply removed. Unless the changes are slight additions, I'd rather just get "new hotness" in new sets and keep legacy stuff plain and similar. I am actually a fan of Regen BECAUSE it's clicky and adding extra mitigation to it via mez, set bonuses or raw damage makes the healing it does get stand out. Not saying don't change anything about Regen, btw, just that I'd be far more cautious. The game's balance is already getting completely out of hand and just making everything out of hand isn't healthy.

Just don't choose your destination until the tram arrives. Of course, you have to click the door when the tram is closed/not yet arrived but it doesn't thrust you in front of it if you don't become impatient.

Forgotten about mechanic: Can we split proc rates for things like damage, mez, buffs and debuffs? It sux that certain procs are practically miniscule because they are benched by the PPM system or been nerfed to ugly status because just using PPM made them too effective so they had to be "adjusted" (looking at them heal procs). Funnily enough, no one seems to talk about procs like the +ToHit or the Recovery debuff when they should either have a completely other mechanic involved to make them not completely useless. Also, the argument for simplicity/transparency I'm not for. When you're talking about specialized gear, you're kind of allowed to be complex, IMO. Especially with a pure roll-function system that doesn't rely on time-sensitive me mechanics like blocking, dodging, HP-critical, aiming at specific spots, etc.

The capes and auras thing was more an example since that piece of content already existed. It's too late to change that particular unlock now but it could be an option for something new. Like I said before, the prospect of "hating" something doesn't make it bad or even undesirable. Looking past surface level appeasement or worse case scenarios, games are all just various combinations of challenges, repeating tasks and time consumers. I'm not here to argue against examples of bad implementations since you can practically give infinite examples of such, I'm here to mark the good or seemingly bad but decent examples and why I feel they are good/decent. With regards to the old capes/auras, I believe they had an alternate way of unlocking them via vet rewards which, for that particular era for the game might be decently acceptable but if they had created some other means to unlock them besides just re-doing the mission, I could see that as being an alternative that allows you to choose how you want to go about accessing a piece of content.

I don't think that really proves or disproves anything, really. Overall, the industry would probably be evidence to the contrary, it's just that what could be considered meaningful grind will differ from one game to another as well as what is an acceptable amount of grind. What could be an interesting retrospective is how critically sharp players get after they encounter and interact with various gaming systems/formulas and the more observant we become the more we seek to manipulate and circumvent hurdles and grind. Rather than make games less grindy (and I'm not really singling out CoX here), perhaps developers should seek to make said grind more seamless to the overall gameplay loop. Ultimately, everything you do in the game is a kind of grind so trying to limit or eliminate that gets you a redux-version of a game.

A different shard of history as I never played either AC or SWG: A formula of task-oriented MMOs that were a thing in the past and still exhibit a strong niche in the present is the Final Fantasy set of MMOs. My first MMO was FFXI and that game was brutal, complex and intriguing while being in a place that felt like an actual world. Soloing for exp at a reasonable rate was practically impossible after you got past level 15 and even attempting held the danger of death and undoing your progress. Only through careful planning, partying or using specific jobs/subjobs could you reasonably solo. It made exploration fun and exhilarating, it made teaming a form of culture as you were putting aside your time as well as others' and you wanted to utilize that limited resource as best as possible and extra tasks such as obtaining quests, spells, special items, access to new places, certain features like increased inventory or new jobs, or even crafting and selling via your bazaar were a reflection of your prioritization of that time. FFXIV is similar in a lot of respects sans the leveling part as you can progress your job levels pretty easily through story completion but there is just so much to do, a new player can sometimes feel overwhelmed which can be a great thing. There's a reason it is one of the most popular current era MMORPGs on the market. As for FFXI, I occasionally revisit it because changes to it have made some things a bit different and accessible (like the NPC party members you can collect, kind of like pokemon). It basically turns FFXI into an old school version of FFXIV to an extend as the NPCs can be your party and you can level up and explore to your hearts content and use whatever job/subjob combo you fancy that you could never do in the old school game. The way that those games are made and balanced is the world is greater and more powerful than an individual player and steps have been made to push for the world to be just that bit more easier and accessible. I feel now, a lot of games are the reverse in that they overpower the player and are consistently forced to create harder content to keep up with the player. And the modern MMOs push to make more things accessible and easier you really don't have the chance to appreciate earning some of those accessibilities. I think Black Desert is the only MMO I can think of without fast travel (or maybe it does now) requiring some planning just getting from place to place. Things like that aren't even questioned now as instant teleports are practically expected...but it really does help make a world feel like a world when that isn't the case and so long as you're not literally going on a 1hr long road trip just to get to a quest location (5-10min tops) is it really that inconvenient? The answer is yes, in these days, yes.

Are you sure about that? In my 16 years of driving, I have encountered plenty of driving indications imploring drivers to keep out of the "passing lane". To pass traffic, there has to be someone moving relatively slower and someone moving relatively faster. To argue there is no fast lane is arguing you are only allowed to drive the speed limit and not under while also disregarding common nomenclature since I'm certain many have heard of a "fast lane" but no one is going to indicate there is a "slow lane".

To me, I always thought the sentiment of "leave them coming back for more" was a good thing. In the aspects of MMORPGs, not having most things being accessible does make leave you with wanting to log in to try new things. Of course, this is going by the F2P model but I feel that should likely be the approach here rather than completely embracing the zombie-game metric that you're nearly free to morph and manipulate to your heart's content. Structure and limitations have their negatives and positives.

I share this sentiment. I wouldn't be opposed to having capes and auras locked while having access via the trainers to unlock the capes/auras with 5 merits. At least then, it feels like, if I decided to do the mission to unlock, I'm saving myself some currency OR if I have an abundance of currency, I can just send that to my new alts like I usually do with the 1mil inf stipend to start them off.

Personal opinion: I don't think a blanket replacement would be a good thing because the main problem comes in with stacking effects. Unless you create a diminishing returns function to curtail stacking efforts to the desired level, it's only going to shift the meta to another build direction (likely having to do with maximizing recharge). Ultimately, I think stack-buster tactics need to be implemented for the current system, leaving some IO procs as PPM while changing others to straight % and further still others applying some other aspect like the one presented in the OP of this thread. Think about it, if 2 of the 4 procs for a power in the current min/max PPM meta were changed to the OP's suggestion, a % chance or a combination, how easily would it be to maximize the system to get the max damage? Slower rech powers won't benefit as much from % procs and lower damage powers won't benefit from ED-bypassing dmg buffs. But if you changed all dmg procs into any of these, you get either buzzsaw, ED-cap+ or current meta (if the current meta does indeed have present problems to be presented).

And then you shiver because you know it's true but that means everyone who's dead sucks too. [EDIT] Note: I have literally 0 sentinels so I'm not speaking from experience.

As a weak semi-pvp'er in other games, it does annoy and discourage me a lot of the times...but then I don't go online complaining about people throwing burns my direction. It's not fun and I'd prefer just pure silence which is why I often either turn off those chat avenues or avoid PvP for a while. Would I consider such things toxic? I guess my tolerance is in the moderate category. Once could almost equate online tolerance to alcohol tolerance. Not everyone can follow up 6 shots with a full pitcher of ale and still be able to throw punches and further still, some have no taste for even a single sip of wine let alone anything with a hint of a buzz. And that's not an argument to coddle any one extreme but rather to portray that there are people who partake/enjoy or not, various levels of "toxicity" and we should take that consideration in mind when passing judgements.