jack_nomind

Only the cast time has to matter. Animations can be interrupted (this happens all the time with e.g. self-buff powers), and a too-short animation can just have 'dead' time at the beginning or end. In a way, I'm a little surprised that Leandro -- with all his work on the camera tool -- didn't find some way (or someone) who could make a CoH conversion kit for Blender, or a custom tool, or etc. I don't know much about this area, but I do know the information is out there.

I don't really see the need to scale these effects based on team size, to be honest. For 1), tanker solo-ability isn't really in question right now. I don't think it's needed at all, and it somewhat conflicts with 2) (since a solo tanker would need to still rely on an otherwise-inefficient attack chain while solo, but could shift into higher-efficiency chains while teaming). For 3) -- and I think a lot of us in this thread like the idea of a bodyguard effect, even if we don't know if anything like that can be attached to a team this way -- either no scaling or scaling in the opposite direction makes more sense. As proposed, the largest team also has the highest % of damage redirection, which makes the incoming damage the tanker has to mitigate scale up multiplicatively (from 1x0.01 at duo to 7x0.07 at full). I would rather see a flat value (something like 5%), but if it were to scale then something like 25-50% while duoing to ~5% while on a full team. Okay but... why does that mean their inherent should change? Their current inherent does do that job.

Does radial ageless debuff resist go for the full 120s (rather than 90s) in i25?

We might disagree on "necessary," since it's not just the model rigging (as in your examples) that needs to make sense -- it's the effect itself. Reskinning Toxic Dart or Psychic Scream would only go so far. But of course, animations themselves aren't strictly "necessary," if you're flexible enough about that kind of thing. So quite aside from that, also the power effects are unfinished and unbalanced. I'd love to see your proposed implementations in action, though!

Very solid build. Since you're overcap on S/L resist with the proc up, you can afford to drop the Reactive Defense kits from Maneuvers and Heightened Senses. In fact, the Heightened Senses one does almost nothing for you since you're deep in ED red -- you can actually drop one of those slots entirely, move it to Soul Drain, move the Chance for Build Up along with it to complete the Gaussian's set bonus, and you'll break 45% to s/l/m. I think there are some other efficiency things that can be done to tighten up the offensive aspect of this build. Although I heartily agree that LBE is just an incredibly fun power, you might do better overall going into an EPP with some AoE offense like Mu (or at least getting Energy Torrent and slotting it for KB-to-KD). I don't think Touch of Fear is doing much for you -- the -tohit is attractive, but without any damage on the attack it ends up being fairly ineffectual (remembering that you don't really care about minions or lts and EBs and AVs resist 5/6th of tohit debuffs). I think there's probably a way to drop something, pick up Smite, and shuffle the Dark Consumption, Shadow Punch, and Shadow Maul slotting so you don't lose anything meaningful but end up with a better attack chain.

Difficult, but absolutely possible. There were plans to do something like this early on within the Reddit discord community, which afaik have not been abandoned. And that's the real issue. It requires surrendering basically all autonomy over your server either directly (because you have to stay identical or at least very close to every other server on the network; something like a badge that your server has but others don't could break it) or indirectly (because there is literally nothing stopping a server on the network from handing out max xp, inf, what-have-you and crashing the economies or play environments of every connected server). The benefits of this system are vanishingly small, and the commitment is enormous. The only way it would work is with a close-knit cooperative and at that point... it's not entirely clear why they're running separate servers at all.

Yes, but (quite aside from their effects being unfinished and unbalanced) most of them don't have animations and there aren't many people who can do that.

Yeah... that's not really the main problem, though. Most of the costume parts are shitty and they could run around with the "recolored skin" that the base costume items all are until people had time to fix them. And yes, this would be an ongoing source of friction because it's unequal, but that's 'situation normal' levels of problem. The main issue is rigging and animations. Without people creating new animations for everything in the game that is animated -- active powers being the big one but also every reactive animation, every emote, etc etc -- the problems range from uncanny non-responses to map breaking to, potentially, client or even server crashes (which would be weird, but no weirder than some of the server crash issues that have already had to have been resolved by the Homecoming team. And it's not like most players would care if it's "just" that every client in the same zone occasionally crashes...). I totally think this is a thing worth doing anyway. It's just, you know... a lot.

Knockdown is "knockback, but with a magnitude of less than 1." The magnitude of Arc's KB is 0.67.

My list of "in need of one or two improvements" is very long indeed, so I left all those off.

I suspect low-level optimization, same as the first Rollercoaster Tycoon (which came out in 1999 and relied on a mixture of C and Assembly for the same purpose). Remember that in the early 2000's we were still on single-core CPUs with core frequencies somewhere around 1 gHZ (see the original minimum specs) With no sources or verification I'm going to confidently state it's because it's 1) what they knew; 2) was cheaper (for a variety of reasons) than alternatives; and 3) because CoH is a MUD, but with pictures.

Don't worry, I know this isn't an LGBTQIA+ thing. Because then you'd know the difference between skirt and dress. There's not a ton of difference between a robe and a dress, and there is a (weirdly separated from either) Toga costume piece. It sounds like what you're actually asking for is a folded-texture male miniskirt (or "lesser kilt"). Is that accurate?

Staff always offers more synergies; it was designed to fill out defensive sets. Katana offers more damage.

The issue is the easiest sets to level (especially early on) aren't really the sets with the best final performance. Towards the end, the best-performing Katana pairings are Dark, Radiation, and maybe Electric. They're all resist-based sets that can be built for positional defense; Radiation and Electric both offer +recharge, which Katana very much wants, while Dark offers Cloak of Shadows which is basically a second copy of Weave and Cloak of Fear which is a tohit debuff. They all also benefit from an overall high-recharge build. But the easiest sets to level with are going to be Super Reflexes, Willpower, Energy Aura, and maybe Invulnerability (levels out by the 20s). These all synergize a little bit with Katana in some way, but can be tough to build out to their best performance with Kat/. The overall 'easiest' is maybe SR, but it depends a little on playstyle.

Gauntlet as a power is a placeholder. If you look at its detailed info, it is an auto, self, single-target power with no effects. If you look at the detailed info of any of your attacks, you will the +400% Taunt listed (duration and range varies by power). Bruising is already an effect in-game; a -20% resistance debuff on the first attack of all Tanker secondaries. Why?

You could see if the Lighted Paths will let you escape -- that's the 'traditional' way in and out of the zone, but technically they're linked to a quest chain (standing in one should open a new bar with the "shadow shunt" power, but I don't know if it works before you talk to Hellowise). Failing that, you should try talking to a GM in the Discord. Once you do get out, one way you can avoid getting too lost or stuck again is to go earn the Pocket D VIP teleport power by idling for 1 hour in Pocket D (accessible to goldsiders from Imperial City).

The thing I notice about most 'overperforming' attacks is that they are in sets that are otherwise uninteresting. Energy Melee is a single-target-focused set with the least-desirable melee secondary effect (chance to stun -- and it doesn't get even that on its single AoE). It is eclipsed in every meaningful way by Radiation Melee and Kinetic Melee, to the point that EM (if proposed today) would likely be rejected as redundant. I personally don't see an issue with it being ST DPS equivalent to Titan Weapons, but with animation times smoothed out relative to TW. Even then it's still a boring set, but one that has a clear niche. If not that, what would you propose for it?

Absolutely. Perhaps a little tactless, but I'm going to quote my list from earlier in this thread. As far as difficulty to program in... I think the damage sharing and aggro cap changes are probably the hardest things on that list, but changing Bruising is more 'tedious' than difficult. Most "inherent powers" aren't separate "powers" at all, but exist as additional effects within other powers. For example, Scrappers' inherent power Critical Hit exists as a proc chance that's added to most Scrapper attacks, and not an independent ability that attaches on somehow. All of Tankers' inherent powers are similarly encoded as effects within other powers, and they actually have quite a few of these types of changes. While "Gauntlet" and "Bruising" both have special names, Tankers also have a Taunt aura added to each of their Primaries. Nor are Tankers the only ones whose inherent powers incorporate their secondaries. Notably to your point, Defenders' Vigilance has a very large damage buff component, which is really only relevant to their secondary sets -- but every Stalker secondary includes Hide, Blasters' Defiance works across primary and secondary, etc. Several Inherent powers (notably all EATs') aren't tied to either Primary or Secondary at all. Focus on the role first, and names or conventions second.

Many Task Forces can be done in an hour or less. There are some notable exceptions, but even disorganized ITFs (as one example) rarely take much more than that. That being said, it sounds like Trials and Flashback arcs are exactly what you're looking for.

I have the same response to each version of this topic.

As I recall, it was three people from the same SG running other people -- I don't remember if it was full groups or if they only went up to like 6 or somesuch. They 100% knew exactly where to go for each spawn and door, which I assume was a combination of overlays and long practice. But yeah, cutting out breaks and 'organizational' time cuts off maybe an hour; I want to know how they were blitzing the defeat-alls so fast, too. With again zero memory of specifics, I'm thinking maybe blaster/corr/warshade could do it at that level?

I actually rather like this idea. I imagine something a bit between Ice Armor and Bio Armor; a defense set with stances that visually/thematically covers amorphous characters like Inque or (really showing my age here) Alex Mack. The set has very little resistance, instead functioning as a defense/regen kit with large "pools" (ha-ha) of hp and end. The power names are placeholders. Note: All powers in this set have a slightly higher than usual base endurance cost, which interacts with the stances. Dispersion: Toggle power with defense vs ranged an AoE. Fluid Form: Auto power with defense to melee and +regen. (Dull Pain style power) (Mez Protection Toggle): Grants +recovery based on enemies in range, a "dehydrate" style. (Power based on Steamy Mist): Stealth/defense toggle, probably with an aura component. Tidal Shift: Stance power with two stances, "ebb" and "flood". Ebb tide is an efficiency stance that provides an endurance discount, significant debuff resistance, regen, and slightly improves defenses. In ebb tide stance, the set is less costly than most others, but it has no real offensive utility. Flood tide has no endurance discount, so the base cost runs a little high, but adds +recharge and some powers gain damaging effects, +dmg, or debuffs. (Auto power 2): Max endurance buff. +? (Toggle 4): Strong Tidal Shift interaction power, think Evolving Armor. In Ebb, it should do an Absorb or HoT tick. In Flood, probably a damage/debuff aura. +? (T9): ? Open to ideas. I kind of like a big freezing/burning whirlpool effect that heals allies and debuff enemies speed, rech, and res, but...

I remember on Live a trio had Synapse runs to like 30-45min and would shepard other players through it, and I wish I could remember what builds they were using for it.

Oh, yeah -- those should be two -rech, not two endredux.

Here's a build through level 25. Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 26 Magic Tanker Primary Power Set: Shield Defense Secondary Power Set: Broad Sword Power Pool: Sorcery Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Fighting Hero Profile: Level 1: Deflection -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(5), EndRdx(13) Level 1: Hack -- Acc(A), Dmg(3), Dmg(3), RechRdx(9), EndRdx(11), EndRdx(15) Level 2: Battle Agility -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(5), EndRdx(13) Level 4: Slice -- Acc(A), Dmg(7), Dmg(7), RechRdx(11), EndRdx(15) Level 6: Active Defense -- EndRdx(A), EndRdx(9) Level 8: Boxing -- Acc(A) Level 10: Against All Odds -- EndRdx(A) Level 12: True Grit -- Heal(A), ResDam(17), ResDam(21) Level 14: Mystic Flight -- EndRdx(A) Level 16: Parry -- Acc(A), EndRdx(17) Level 18: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(19) Level 20: Phalanx Fighting -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(21) Level 22: Tough -- ResDam(A), EndRdx(23) Level 24: Weave -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(25), EndRdx(25) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Gauntlet Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A) Level 2: Health -- Heal(A) Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A) Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod(A), EndMod(19), EndMod(23) ------------