Solarverse

Honestly (this is going a bit off subject here) but the only thing in the game that bothers me mechanics wise is when you attempt to spawn a pet based off a dead body and that body vanishes before the spawning is complete and the pet never forms. You get charged endurance (which is what made me think of it when you said it) for it and your power goes on cool-down. It drives me as insane as the target based Heals used to before they fixed that.

What is the point though? I mean, how often do we really miss wtih 95% chance? Let's just auto hit anything Grey Con and call it a day, especially since they are insignificant to us anyway. However, the way this game is balanced depends on that 95% chance. If we are going to do away with that, we need to do away with the Defense cap as well. Good luck hitting my SR Stalker if that's the case, I don't care what your tohit is, lol. Seriously though, I am not a huge fan of this idea and I for one hate games that have auto hit, it was one thing that drove me insane about Champions Online. Sorry Vanden, I like you, man...I really do, but this is not one of your greatest ideas.

Right? MA has always been a bit subpar IMO. It's still enjoyable to play due to theme, but not exactly the brightest crayon in the box of an assortment of colors.

Yeah, that sucks, man. If I played Doms I would be a bit more upset about it so all I can do at this point is sympathize. I don't understand why they could not give you the buff that is coming while letting you maintain what you already had. But, I'm not a Dev either and I have no idea what they discuss at their round table. 😞

Something I forgot to cover. I don't think you should have to do this on every character minus the badge. If there is a costume unlock, I think it should unlock for the whole server. It's only fair. However, if it is the badge you want, I think you should have to do this on each character, but that should not be an issue since most players only have 1 badge whore. This kind of thing can be worked around is all I am saying.

Oh wait, never played Energy on a Dom. However, if memory serves, Doms had a special proc where if the enemies were stunned it would do proc damage or something, right? If so, are you saying that no longer applies? Have you tried taking this info directly to Captain Powerhouse in a PM?

Wait, didn't Whirling Hands get a Damage increase from scale 1 to 1.1819? That's actually a buff. As far as I know, there has been no nerf.

They were so full of it!!! More visually impressive? To who, a monkey scratching its behind??? I don't even take Bitter Freeze Ray just because of that animation!!! The ONLY reason that was nerfed was due to PvP and Stalkers running around 2 shotting people in PvP....what really pissed me off is that the Devs said they would not nerf anything due to PvP but then turned right around and did it anyway, after feeding us lame excuse after lame excuse that dodged the real reasons they were nerfing crap. Anyone with half a brain could see right through them. Thank...God! 😄

Sounds like a valid complaint. You could have (I'm sure you have missed your chance by now) went to those forums when it was up for discussion and expressed your concerns and perhaps requested a 50% damage bonus or something in its place. otherwise though, you shouldn't have it too much since nothing really changes for you on a Dom. So at least it's not a nerf. It could e worse.

I would be willing to try alternatives. I simply used Hollows because I felt like it had the most potential to bring people in. But hey, I can compromise. 🙂 Edit: Or lke you said, maybe an Echo Hollows but revamped to be made much in the way as described?

Ah man I fricken LOVE times like that...and it's rare because most teams will complain like crazy if you set it any higher than +1. It sounds lke you had a blast, man. That's why I am trying to get at least the Hazard Zones changed in a way that attracts people that want that kind of challenge, without players having to self impose restrictions on themselves.

Everything we have now does make it easier. However, the zone was also made easier. The amount of NPCs per mob was decreased, the levels of the mobs were decreased, how many of them that were in any given area were decreased...that did make a difference on top of the power creep. As far as the other hazard zones...well, let's see here. Faultline was changed, but that was a pretty decent changed. I just think they should have increased the difficulty of the zone. Dark Astoria was changed, perhaps for the better as well, but same thing with that, I wish it had been made a wee bit more difficult and more interactive. Task Forces seem to be the main driving force on traffic in to a zone. Paper/Radio missions seem to be another major driving force. It's hard to say really but all speculation, which is what gave me the idea to add a TF to the Hollows that actually takes place in a revamped Hollows. However, I do not want the Devs to waste any time on the other Hazard Zones until we see how this new version of The Hollows works out. If it works out great, then that should green light he other Hazard Zones. If it fails, well, no biggie. Minimal effort would have to be made to change it to my idea since really you are just combining three contact in to one TF, raising the level and intensity of the mobs in the zone and changing a few Bosses to be either AVs or EBs. The cut scene is already there for Frostfire (which did not always exist, but the cut scene fits nicely for a TF) so there would be no need for that...it just seems minimal effort required to see how well or bad this would play out. Then that opens up the doors for more content as well, which is something that almost every player has been wanting. So why not give it a shot?

Damn airplanes! 😠 Do me a favor. In game, on a few pugs here and there, while running Frostfire, strike up some conversation with people and reminisce about the "good ol days" and see what people say. I have been doing this for a long time on many many many alts and they all generally say the same things. They miss the days when Hollows were difficult and pretty much everything else I said. Give it a try, you might be surprised how many of the overwhelming players you interact with will say. And I promise you, none of it matches what players on these forums say. Just do that and hit me back sometime. I am interested in what you might find.

Read my post a few posts back...it's long, I'm sorry, but it was necessary and it covers this very thing. The problem is, is that this game has changed in a way where it has literally left players like me (and I am not the only one) behind in favor of players who prefer it in much the same way as you. So this is very hard for players like me because we have truly lost what this game once was. So my suggestion attempts to give us what we want, while maintaining what players like you want.

Well, I did not want to include every single possible variation of category there could possibly be, I just wanted to mention the primaries. I covered the basics basically and left it at that. 🙂 This is why I say it negatively impacted the game for players like me. This is what caused that negative impact for players like me. Unfortunately, all the players who left the game because of this are no longer here to express their views...otherwise I do not think I would have such a hard time trying to get people to see why this affects players who are like-minded as myself. I mean sure, there are tons of things that negatively impacted the game. I remember when Jack Emmert told us on these forums that PvP will not be something they ever do with this game. They had thought about it during development and said no. Then, out of the blue, here comes PvP and once the first set of nerfs hit (like almost immediately, when they added in the -Ac while travel powers are active due to Arena complaints about Super Speeders doing fly-bye hit and runs) I watched 3 of my closest in game friends leave the game because of it. They were outright pissed that the PvE aspect of the game was nerfed due to the bastard (their words, not mine) creation of PvP....something the Devs said they would not be adding to the game but did anyway. There were all sorts of things that caused players to leave the game...however, for the crowd of players I have known over all these endless years nothing caused more of a mass exodus of this game of players who preferred a challenging game with high rewards....who lived by, "more risk = more reward." I almost left myself because I had nobody left to hang out with. So instead since all the people who knew left the game, I left the server I was on and created a level 1 Blaster on a different server in search of a new group of friends to hang out with. It was fricken sad, man. Really sad. Man, you can't really tell me that it was not all taken away from me and players like me when I was here when this game gave everything I wanted and I watched it all go away little by little. The only thing this game has left that I truly loved was the community, the theme and the general game play. I know it might be hard for some people to understand, but everything I onced cherished about this game has indeed been taken away in some way or another. I can't sit here and let anyone else tell me that is not true when this is coming from my perspective...and judging by the number of threads like this one popping up from time to time, I am not alone in feeling this way. Granted that. And I agree to that. Honestly, considering how the mechanics of this game has changed over the years, I would have asked for a revamp to make those zones actually challenging again regardless. It already has its own zone, man! How can somebody take a zone that is by its very design supposed to present more of a challenge, change it to being easy, then tell us that we need to create a different zone that is challenging? That makes absolute zero logical sense to me. We already have that, why do we need to create a different one? They are Hazard Zones, so let's make them what they are actually supposed to be. I would honestly think that you would see my point on at least that much. You're a sensible guy and I respect you, have never had any problems with you at all. So I honestly thought you could at least see my point on that much. 😞 You would have to delete the game forever to stop that. I don't think it's any big secret that I am not a fan of power leveling. So trust me, anything that I think up will never have power levelers in mind. What I think up will almost always have more to do with a regular level profession that comes with rewards, story and goal oriented. If I had to take power levelers in to consideration for anything I suggested I would never make another suggestion again, lol. 😄

You have no idea just how stoked I am for this, Troo. I have been waiting for this day ever since they first nerfed ET. Energy for both Blasters and Tankers have been my main two characters in this game since the very beginning. When ET took that nerf, it crushed me. I literally quit the game afterwards for about a solid six months before finally returning, and only did so because a friend had asked me to come back. It was not the damage that I loved so much about it, it was the animation...and being forced in to that hideous animation that they had changed it to was just too much. I ended up respecing out of ET and never used it again...until I herd ET was coming back. Now that it is back, I am sooooo hyped about it. Not only did they give us an optional way to get it back, they added so much more to the set that I am head over heals in love with whoever implemented this fix. If anyone ever says anything bad about them, i'll "cut them!" Hahaha

It's not obvious?

This has always been about that though. Players like myself have been prevented from enjoying the game we like to play it because the status quo prefers the game as is. Any attempts made to have any aspect of this game changed at all to make it more enjoyable for players like me (keep in mind, at one time this game was the way we liked it) is usually met with a hard no and typically some rude comment to follow it. I have no choice but to categorize different types of players when there are indeed different types of players. The good news is, I did so in a positive way without casting any one group in a negative way. I understand that people just can't stand to be put in some category, however, the truth is that there are indeed different types of players who play for different reasons and in order for me to express my point of view, it was necessary to put this in to perspective. I don't believe it hurt my argument, on the contrary, I believe it helps my argument. Oh, I am fully aware of this. The Hollows can't go back to the way it was, it simply wouldn't be enough to make the Hollows an actual Hazard Zone with today's mechanics. That is why my thoughts on how to implement a new Hollows Hazrd Zone goes a little outside the box. Increasing Mob size and level that spawn at and how many of them there are per square mile might be similar to what it once was, but that was only part of the thought behind making Hollows better. Remember, I also suggested turning the first three contact in there and changing them in to a Task Force. Honestly, I would not even change that. That is a bit old school and I would rather find new ways to make the zone a challenge again. If it is going to bring in players like myself, there has to be something new and outside the box. Yeah, I am not really in to doing that either. A far as pop-up mobs, not trying to roll with that either. We are on the same page there. Although I do miss those times, I don't think that is the kind of change the zone needs to be a Hazard Zone again. We're safe there. 😉 The whole idea behind Hazard Zones was that they were supposed to present more of a challenge than the other zones. To justify the names of those zones, they often gave them a look and feel of there being a catastrophe that allowed the criminal element to take over them, which in turn made the zones much more dangerous. Sadly, that didn't work for most of the zones because they simply just didn't think it through correctly and didn't really give people good reasons to go there. If we start with Hollows and implement the changes mentioned in my previous post, see how that works, and if it is a hit (which I am sure it will be, I team with random people every day and I cannot tell you how many countless conversations I have had with players who wish the Hollows and other Hazard zones were more like what I have presented in this thread) with the players, we can take that as a foundation and build upon it when reworking the other Hazard zones. On the contrary, I think it would be a hit with players. maybe not the players on these forums, however, most players who I have talked to over the time this game has been back has expressed to me a deep yearning for Hollows to be something more along the lines as I speak of. The thing is, people who want more challenge in this game has nowhere to go. People already have Kings Row that is the same rough level range. The problem here is that players like me have nowhere to go at all to get what we crave whereas we once had that in this game. That has been taken away in favor of the casual gamer and all I am asking for is that players who are like me have a small piece of that pie. Which is why I gave a viable solution to that problem by making these things available at the Merit Vendors. I mean, come on....what are players like me supposed to do then? We have nothing, man. It was all taken away from us and I am simply trying my hardest to find a way where players like me are no longer excluded from the things that we once enjoyed about this game. The game was changed on us forcibly. The players who HATED this game back then demanded changes that negatively impacted this game for players like myself. Now we are basically being told to suck it up. We never asked for these changes. I think it is only fair to at least make Hazard Zones hazardous and rewarding. I mean, it's in the very name, Hazard Zone. 😄 This is true, however I was basing that idea off older replies I have gotten to similar requests. So I decided to include it in my post as an option rather than something a player must be forced to do in order to achieve. I simply had to be as thorough as possible to cover all points.

Let me know when you get your computer back up and running and I'll send you the file for pigg viewer directly.

This is long, but should tackle the current issues players are facing and hopefully this will not be too controversial but instead a well thought out compromise for all styles of play. I am really gritting my teeth on this. I am really hesitant on speaking how I feel about this because every time I do, there are usually the same 4 or 5 posters who do not read everything in context or even the followup conversations after. Instead what I get is people reading one sentence or paragraph, taking things completely out of context and implies false intent and then projecting that false intent, which then leads to strawman arguments where people will say that I said something that I did not, and then they argue that false argument instead of arguing anything that I actually said or implied. If you need to know what a strawman argument is, look it up. It can be very frustrating to have a debate with somebody who uses strawman arguments. Unfortunately, once those strawman arguments are made, you have people who do not even read the thread and they only read the last page which contains that strawman argument, which leads to them jumping on the strawman argument bandwagon. The only people reading the thread who know any better, are the people who read it from page 1 to the final page and have most likely seen half the posts that got deleted by a GM in between. Then we have those few select posters who are straight up smart-asses. These are the people who just comment to try and jump on the bash the (enter name of Original Poster here) bandwagon because they did not even bother to read the thread, all they read was the strawman arguments made against somebody and the whole thing just ends up a complete mess, ends up locked and becomes a complete waste of time. I'm not salty about it though but I feel that I should be salty about it. However, I just can't be. I understand why these things happen on a deep psychological level so it makes it much easier to cope with when I see this type of thing unfold before my very eyes. This is a very controversial topic and it is very hard to have this conversation without people feeling attacked in some way because they feel like the status quo is under fire. To be clear, I absolutely love a good debate. I consider myself somewhat of an intellect and I get a certain level of dopamine when I have an equally intelligent (or more so) individual/s who can logically challenge a view point that I may have. Having said all of that, I want to attempt to get some common ground here and see if we can't find a way for all types of players to find a way for everyone to get what they desire from this game, without having a negative impact on anyone else's way of playing the game. So, I know putting people in to little boxes or groups is generally bad. I understand this. However, there are no absolutes and this is one of those times when putting people in to categories is absolutely necessary since it is people's different ways that they enjoy the game that seem to be in conflict here. So the types of players that we have that pertain to this discussion and the proposed change I am about to toss out there are as follows. Players who prefer a challenging game that requires teams to play collectively in a very organized way in order to achieve a goal with a big reward at the end. These are the players who love to run the type of missions that are way more difficult than your typical leveling missions. These are the players that combine strategies with math in order to defeat the content and they work hard to develop these strategies over time. They get a certain level of thrill when they finally accomplish their goal through hard work and dedication and they are proud of the rewards they obtain after completing such a challenge. Players who prefer to play casually and do not wish anything in game to be gated behind content. These are the players who for whatever reason, it could be time limitations, it could be they simply do not find difficult missions that require that level of persistence to be fun, it could be any reason at all, but for their own reasons, they prefer a causal game in where anything in game at all is completely achievable on their own and they do not want to be forced in to these types of teams to get the shiny that would otherwise be unachievable for them. These players play to relax and for them, running the types of missions mentioned above is far from relaxing and most certainly not fun. Players who prefer to play the game solo These players get the most out of their gaming experience when they can play at their own pace. Maybe it is because they simply are not very sociable, perhaps they do not get any enjoyment when other players have any kind of interaction if it conflicts with their style of playing. Perhaps it is because their PC's are a bit outdated and any other members of a team can cause their game to freeze up. Or maybe they just prefer the calm of solo play over the sometimes chaos of group play. Whatever their reasons, they prefer to play the content solo and they do not feel there should be any content in game that they should be locked out of due to a mission or shiny being locked behind difficult missions or missions that require teams. The problem we have today is that this game was once the very type of game that the first group of players used to love, because this game had much of what they wanted in those days. Sadly, little by little all of the content that was once difficult became less difficult for multiple reason. The addition of the difficulty slider, allowing the shiny at the end to be available upon character creation. Changing zones that were once Hazard Zones and turning them in to a practical schoolyard playground instead. Inventions with set bonuses making more powerful characters that can even solo AVs...or worse, Werner Rules ITFs. All of the things this game once had that was difficult and locked behind gated content, the Devs little by little made easy as more and more players over time requested things that made this game easier over time. The problem with this is that by doing this, the Devs of those times alienated one group of players in favor of the other group of players. This caused an exodus of those players after this happened and with that exodus of players, came a lot less amount of players in favor of keeping the game with a certain level of difficulty on the forums; which left only the few who remained a very small minority to make such a request as the one in this thread. Players like myself and the OP remember when this game was challenging and getting that shiny at the end was exhilarating. Unfortunately, there is no longer a sense of accomplishment left in this game for people like us. When zones like The Hollows were changed, that was kind of the final nail in the coffin for us. Once that happened, we knew that the type of game we cherished had been removed from us, made easier to play and then given to the other types of players instead. We knew that at this point there was no turning back the hands of time and that certain level of difficulty and sense of reward was gone forever...or was it? So, how in this situation do all players get what they want, when what those players want directly conflict with the other type of player's status quo? That does indeed present a challenge and is like an unstoppable object colliding with an immovable object. Unless... What if any new content that was released that was very difficult and challenging did indeed have some really cool shiny behind it, gated behind it, but was obtainable in the Merit Vendor? Let's say for an example, a new costume style...if a Dev made Solarverse's costume available in game, I would be willing to pay 100 or more merits to unlock it if I were not the type of player who wanted to run the content to get it. At the same time, whatever Task Force or set of missions that the shiny would be available through, could also be made to challenge even solo players but be something that is achievable with hard work and dedication. Not only could we unlock the shiny costume piece or whatever by running this content, we would also unlock badges for doing so. Before you hammer down on me for mentioning badges being locked behind content, there would be three types of badges you could get for this content, and you can only have one of them depending on how you go about obtaining them. But no matter what, you can only have one. So we already know that the shiny at the end of such content can be bought at the merit vendor. Say that nice costume design, or that new Pool Power Unlock, or whatever we put at the end of the content that is not restricted only to completion of the content, but can be bought at the merit vendor for a decent but fair price if you do not wish to run said content. Now that we have the shiny taken care of, how do we go about obtaining badges? We do not wish to leave out badge hunters here, so we need to include them in a way that they too can be satisfied with the outcome of locking goodies behind content. So, let's make up a badge and name it, "Solarverse's Brainstorm Badge" in honor of my brilliant idea! Just kidding, I am not that stuck on myself....or am I? So anyway, we now have the badge. There can be three ways to get this badge, the problem is, which version of the badge are you going to get? Yes, there will be three versions of the same badge that indicates how you achieved your badge...but at the end of the day, it's the same badge and you can only have one at a time. Whichever way you obtained the badge last, is the way the badge displays on your character. The White background with Black inscription Solarverse's Brainstorm Badge: You have ran Solarverse's Task Force with a group of super powered companions and saved this city from utter galactic chaos! Obtained by running an 8 man team of Solarverse's Task Force! The Black background with White inscription Solarverse's Brainstorm Badge: You have ran Solarverse's Task Force as a lone wolf hero and have saved this city from utter galactic chaos! Obtained by running Solarverse's Task Force solo! The Grey background with Gold inscription Solarverse's Brainstorm Badge: You have helped fund Solarverse's Task Force as a wealthy hero and your charitable donations played a game changer role in saving this city from utter galactic chaos! Obtained by making a gracious donation to the cause; purchasable at any Merit Vendor for 100 Merits! As you can see, there is more than one way to skin a cat. Which version of the badge you have is only important to your point of view and play-style of the game. There is no first place badge, second or third, which is why I did not use Gold, Silver or Bronze backgrounds, but instead the only difference is, the color variation of your badge and the description of your badge. Now, which version of the badge you have will update per the latest way that you obtained the badge. If you ran this as an 8 man team, you earn the White Colored badge, if you then later solo this Task Force, you then will have the White Colored badge removed and replaced with the Black Colored badge. If you funded the task force and earned the grey colored badge and then solo the task force later, the grey colored badge will be removed and replaced with the black colored badge. Everybody wins, there are no losers, everyone gets what they want. Also...Make The Hollows a Hazard Zone again! We already have a place for level 5-15 to go that is regular difficulty, Hollows needs to be an actual Hazard zone again and the contacts in there can be combined to create a new TF. I mentioned this before that people who prefer a more challenging game should have a place where they can feel more challenged. Players who prefer less difficulty can go to Kings Row, players who prefer more difficulty have nowhere to go. The Hollows needs to be challenging like it was meant to be. That zone has potential to be made the go-to place for level 6-16. They could maybe even add to the Flux (Frostfire) story arc by taking David Wincott, Flux, and Julius and combine them in to a 2 or 3 part Task Force. Change the zone back to a real Hazard zone by making the enemies a bit tougher (starting at level 10 mobs all the way to level 20 mobs) and increasing the size of the mobs like they used to be. Then they could do away with the mobs that really just don't belong there and bring the zone back to being what it once was by only having Trolls, Outcast, Igneous and CoT. Add a few missions here and there, make Bedrock, Gunther, Snap, Greased Lightning, Rundum and Mantle Elite Bosses. Change Frostfire and Gundor and make them AV's in this Task Force and it gives players a whole new reason to enter The Hollows for more reasons than just nostalgia. Now they have a Task Force that combines three contacts and give a whole new reason to take out Frostfire and Gundor while adding a bit of challenge to not only the missions, but the zone as well. Then they could drop that silly contact that literally takes you nowhere in the game and that zone will now be the go-to place to go after running the DFB a single time. That zone needs to be dangerous again like it once was. The Hollows was made to be challenging, not the playground that it is today. People who want normal difficulty have Kings Row for that. The Hollows needs to be that place that players can count on to be challenging like it once was. The mobs used to be stronger, more of them per group and the zone was filled with them. Almost everything you fought in there was red con or purple con. You just didn't do it by yourself unless you have simply out leveled the mobs. It was a Hazard zone for a reason and it needs to be a Hazard zone again IMO. However, same rules that applies in the Solarverse's Task Force example can also be applied to The new Hollows. So...I am all about compromises and in my educated opinion, I believe this is the only perceptible way to this date that we can give everyone what they want without excluding others from the juicy prizes. However, we simply cannot keep kicking down people who want a challenge and then tell them, "then stop using IO's and make the game challenging for yourself" as the go-to answer for people like us. I don't think you really understand just how insulting that statement is. We also want to enjoy the game on the same level as anyone else. Thoughts?

I suggest you learn how to do this. 😉 I don't mind helping out, but you are asking a lot there, man, lol.

I got one like that as well where I brought back the original Thrust and Hit sound effect back to Energy Transfer. They corrected the Thrust part of Quick ET, but the hit effect is still the same. So I am going to have to remove the Thrust SFX from the Quick ET (since that was fixed) and keep the original ET Hit effect. I have added an addition to your mod as well, the original Sounds for when you click enter or select a character. If they ever put that back in to place that will make the mod obsolete as well. However, I am not complaining about that. As you can hear below, I have your mod running and the one that I added to complement it.

Other than my own customized mods? Hmmm...the ambience of the Hollows. The Howl of the Peace Bringers (which was removed but hey, no biggie I brought it back!) The THOOM of foot stomp The Crackling of Ice (another sound I brought back, the multiple crackling SFX) The POW of Whirling Hands The Toggle for Repel (Sadly, the same sound on other ATs now vanish after a few seconds like the toggle for Invincible) The sound Energy Blaster have The theme for City of Heroes and Atlas Park (Which I recreated!) The sound effect when Ripper Hits its target The sound Assassin's Strike used to have before it was removed. (I brought that back too!) The stacking AoE SFX that Heals used to have (Warmth, Radiant Aura, Healing Aura and Nullify Pain) until they were complained out of existence. And lastly, the stacking sound effect that Kinetics Fulcrum Shift used to have (that was also removed) 😞 Sadly, almost all of the sounds I once loved has since been removed from the game, only some of which I was able to bring back. It's what prompted me to start creating Sound Mods to begin with.

That's part of a custom mod I made for Radiation Blast. You should check it out on your Rad Blaster/Defender sometime. Again, if you don't like it let me know and I can change just those two sound bites instead of the whole set.

Also, if you don't like the whole mod let me know and I can make one just for the AoE. However, any powers that share the same sound effects will also be affected by the change. So bare that in mind.