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Gulbasaur

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Posts posted by Gulbasaur

  1. Just now, Snarky said:

    bad form to show up on a pug and chastise your new friends for you not being as happy as you want to be

    Oh, absolutely. Goodwill towards your fellow players is pretty much what makes or breaks an MMO. The fact that their behaviour is notable speaks quite positively overall for the City Of Heroes/Villains community.

    • Like 2
  2. On 5/3/2024 at 12:52 AM, Snarky said:

    Drunk Games on Steam

    images.jpg.d10226ecfd407b354648aecf9c0ac0d5.jpg

    As someone who stopped playing originally in like issue 7, I came onto Homehoming with literally no idea about Invention Origin enhancements, Ouroboros, VEATs, or *gestures vaguely at everything*.

    I didn't know what I didn't know.

    That said, I tried not to be weird about it. I did not try to be sober about it.

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  3. On 4/20/2024 at 3:51 AM, Aean said:

    As someone who is already level 50 mostly through group play, are there any particular missions that are worth doing through Ouroboros?

    Honestly? Most of them.

     

    I'd definitely run through the First Ward and Night Ward arcs if you haven't already; I really think they're about as good as it gets for storytelling in the game, outside of Dark Astoria (which is also quite good).

  4. 10 hours ago, Vargul said:

    can you please explain, why do you take provoke and teleport target? sorry if its stupid question, im kinda new and trying to figure out why use taunting if youre not plan lead tanking on mission for example

    I take Provoke because I enjoy tanking and teleport target because it's handy for groups.

     

    If you don't want them, pick something you do want. Everyone plays differently.

  5. On 2/11/2024 at 9:11 PM, Xalon said:

    Why skip:

     

    Skyway City

    Talos Island

     

    I'm doing most of what you laid out OP but not bothering with Gold content until I make my Gold characters. Then they can do 1-20 gold, some other zones and then back on praetorian track

    Nothing against either. Talos has some cool arcs, particularly. Definitely worth spending time in both places.

     

    This is a completely insane thing to say as it shows just how unemployed I was in 2020-2021, but Skyway's roads don't link up in any sensible way and I've never forgiven the zone for that. I think one loops back without joining onto any other roads. I tried to walk from one end of the city to another on only roads and Skyway was such a mess it didn't work.

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  6. I am going to ask outright because I think some people would like to know: does the licence agreement require, or indeed permit, HC to defend or protect the licence, for example by requesting other extant servers not affiliated with them to cease and desist operation?

     

    While I think it's a good thing that you have successfully protected Homecoming, it would be a great shame to see other smaller servers suffer as a consequence.

  7. 43 minutes ago, srmalloy said:

    Or is it only a pidgin when one of the cultures involved is significantly less advanced than the other?

    In the study of linguistics, the word pidgin has a very specific meaning. I get that the general definition is a bit looser (and that's fine), but we're discussing academic linguistic theories here so it makes sense to use the academic definition.

     

    It's more to do with social status than advancement and is quite tightly linked to colonialism and enslavement because of the the nature of how languages interact.

     

    With a true pidgin, multiple substrate (low status) languages come into interaction with one superstrate (high status) language. They tend to have very unstable grammar and vocabulary.

     

    With Old English and Old Norse, there doesn't seem to have been that kind of social stratification and there's no clear substrate-superstrate system. A language that formed from their contact would be a contact language, rather than a pidgin (or creole, which is a pidgin where the grammar has become systematic, typically around the time that the first generation of children start to speak).

     

    So, you could argue that it was a contact language but it meets almost none of the conditions to be considered either a pidgin or a creole, but they're different things by definition. It's a fairly outdated theory that has disproportionately high representation on Wikipedia, which is a problem with Wikipedia generally (although it's otherwise very good for linguistics).

     

    In the case of late Old English, the elision of endings (which often contained case and gender information) was likely to do with contact between English dialects, rather than English and Norse.

     

    The timeline doesn't add up, the geography doesn't add up (attested changes in areas with no or minimal Old Norse linguistic influence) and the cultural interactions don't meet the criteria to fall under the definition of a pidgin.

     

    It might be more accurate to say that grammar changes in English may have been accelerated in some parts of England due to contact with Old Norse speakers, but that's not the same it being a pidgin or creole. There is some more acceptance of it as a "semi-creole", but that's not really an agreed upon idea. There was likely a language continuum going on, but that doesn't mean it was a pidgin or creole (or semi-creole).

     

    The Talk page of the Middle English Creole Hypothesis is very interesting and highlights a lot of the issues of the theory.

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  8. 12 hours ago, srmalloy said:

    John McWhorter, in his book Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold Story of English, contends that English grammar is the result of a pidgin between Old English and the language spoken by the Norse invaders, who acquired enough of Old English to conduct day-to-day business, with the grammatical structures and tenses that survived being the ones that had cognates in the invaders' language; they continued to use the ones they were already familiar with, and elided the tenses and constructs that didn't fit their existing notions of grammar.

    This theory, sadly, doesn't hold much weight. Partly because pidgin means something *extremely* specific in academic linguistics that Old English and Old Norse contact doesn't even remotely fit the criticia for and partly because the timescale just doesn't match up. The loss of case and gender happened a bit later. People in medieval England moved around a lot for a medieval European society and while dialects coming into contact with one another almost certainly caused the elision, it's not as simple as an Old English and Norse pidgin and, as I said, the timeline doesn't match up with the criteria for a pidgin. It's slightly complicated by the fact that Old Norse speakers left almost no written material in England, but that's more a piece of trivia than anything else.

     

    Like I can see why they arrived at that conclusion and if you take the loosest possible definition of *pidgin* then yeah kinda I guess, but it's a fairly niche theory that isn't enormously supported by textual evidence.

     

    Tldr: only if you're very loose with your definitions but it's not enormously supported as a theory in its "pure" state

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  9. 8 hours ago, Snarky said:

    That may have naturally given rise to using “run on compound words” to become a regular part of the vocabulary.  No idea, German language history is a long way off in my meager studies 

    Occasional German speaker with a degree in linguistics and another degree which involved the use of Old English* here - it's arguably the other way round. English used to have grammar that's very, very similar to modern German. German didn't really develop them; English lost them. Or both. It's probably a bit of both because nothing in life, love or linguistics is ever simple.

    English has a couple of linguistic oddities to it that are easy to overlook if you're a native speaker of the language, particularly when compared with closely related languages. One of them is that it has unusually strict syntax (word order, more or less) for a Germanic language. Another is that is it one of only a handful of languages in its language family to have almost totally lost linguistic gender. The very closely related Scots doesn't have gender, but Frisian (English's next nearest neighbour) does. English and Scots are genderless oddities surrounded by either two- or three-gender systems. Celtic, Romance and most Germanic languages all have gendered nouns.

     

    With German specifically, learning which word endings map to which genders helps enormously to the point where it starts to feel natural. That also helps with German plurals which feel quite unpredictable until you realise that it's almost entirely linked to whatever the last syllable is and what gender it is. After that, it's just vibes.

    * that's one hell of a noun phrase

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  10. On 9/10/2023 at 4:20 PM, Greycat said:

    Also, on a different character (the one who'd be my first 50,) doing missions with a team in the Hollows and seeing this white floating thing come out of the door and fly off... hooked on Kheldians since.

    I remember during the first valentine's day event event when villains and heroes could crossover for the first time, and a villain whispering me on my peacebringer asking how I did that after I transformed.

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  11. 32 minutes ago, Enchantica said:

    4.Batman- Christian Bale

    Kevin Conroy, hands down.

     

    Played the character the longest. Brought Batman into the modern era. Portrayed Bruce Wayne in animated media, games and (once) in person. There's a reason that, for a lot of people here (I'm sure), his voice is the voice of Batman.

     

    Cinema, games, TV, all of it. He was outstanding. I loved his portrayal. He more or less originated having two distinct voices for Bruce Wayen and Batman. Bales' Batman was cinematic but shows the worst elements of Batman as a flat character. No Batfamily (other than Alfred) and no real human connection other than his disposable girlfriend. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the films, I just think that Bales' perfomance was a bit charmless.

     

    So yeah, Conroy's Batman is and, I imagine, always will be the Batman for me.

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  12. I'm going to agree with Tidge (as I frequently do, we seem to have very similar favourite playstyles)... while I really wanted it to be good, it just ain't.

     

    Part of the reason (in addition to what Tidge says) is that the proc rate of the IO and the proc rate of World of Confusion are actually out of sync, so not every application of WoC actually even has a chance to proc the IO effect (unless this has been changed).

  13. 3 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

    I've always enjoyed red side more, I like the general aesthetic, sue me - Blue side came first and it shows; then Red side came later once hey got better at their graphics; then Gold showed up and looks fantastic, but I don't like how it plays there - so Red side for me. 

    One design thing that floats around in the back of my head is how empty a lot of the early blueside is. It's content for the sake of content. Maps for the sake of maps. So much of it is just there.

     

    Atlas Park got a refresh. Galaxy City got destroyed. The Hollows got a revamp. Perez Park has nice worldbuilding but bugger all to do there other than some occasional missions. Ditto Crey's Folly - there's a flippin' shanty town out there with ties to the lore and all you really do is fly over it. Eden is full of very cool design, but apart from the Eden Trial, there really is no reason to visit. The Hive had the Hamidon Raid, and that's about it. Dark Astoria got a very large revamp and so did Faultline. There's just so much that was put out at launch with so little to do there. The post-launch zones of Striga and Croatoa aren't perfect, but they were very solid content releases each with 4 story arcs and a task force relating to the lore of the zone, as well as an additional one in Striga linking to the Kheldian storyline. 

     

    OH! That's not even counting the Shadow Shard, which have some cool lore but the task forces are the epitome of time-filling exercises. In the early days, you could expect to stretch each one of them over two or three play sessions.

     

    Part of me recognises that gameplay norms have changed; the grind has fallen out of fashion in gaming and street-sweeping isn't as popular as it was.

     

    The Rogue Isles just feel tighter. Each zone kind of has its own identity. Each zone (more or less) has its own story, although some did get revamps. The Task Forces feel more unique. The landscape feels more unique. The maps kind of follow the Peregrine Island model where there are street-sweeping areas, but not zones. I didn't love City of Villains when it came out, but in hindsight I do see a bump in quality.

     

    Part of me has always wanted to write a kind of travellogue guide to the zones. I'm never going to get round to it and I'm not sure how interesting it would be

     

     

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  14. Strap in, folks. Things are about to get mathsy.

    7 hours ago, Shocktacular said:

    Is 5-digit damage even a thing in this game?

     

    Part One: Hitting Hard

    First of all, lets identify the strongest-hitting single attack. Melee, as a rule of thumb, hits harder than ranged and ranged, as a rule of thumb, hits harder than AoE (apart from nukes).

     

    So, our answer is probably a melee attack. Of the mainly melee archetypes, there are two that can critically hit, which doubles damage under normal circumstances. The damage potential is:

      Scale Cap Potential
    Scrapper 1.125 500 562.5
    Stalker 1 500 500

     

    So, scrappers theoretically do slightly more damage than stalkers (just over 10%), but the offset of this is that their crits are random, whereas stalkers have control over their critical hits.


    In addition, some of the powers don't quite fit the model and you get the odd outlier that does more, or less, damage than it "should".

     

    Using the very technical and innovative strategy of pissing about in Mids, I would purport that the highest single target damage attack is probably a 3-combo-point, critically hitting Crushing Uppercut with Fiery Embrace running at 487.4 damage on a scrapper. It's not! Stalkers' Crushing Uppercut actually hits harder. My settings in Mids were a bit off, giving me average damage and not maximum damage. They can do 574.7 damage, before enhancements and procs. See what I said about outliers? Boom, baby. Outlier.

     

    Mids gets things wrong sometimes, but that looks respectable. At damage cap, that's about 2873.5 damage. However, we can add to this by 6-slotting the power for procs and getting our damage boosts from an external source, which can add another 501 damage, and running an Interface power adding another 66.93, giving us 3,441.43 damage if

    • it hits (max 95%);
    • it crits ;
    • the player is getting a +400% damage buff from an external source (e.g. Fulcrum Shift);
    • your Interface hits for all 5 procs (~24% chance);
    • all six procs fire off (6% chance of them all going off at once).

     

    And lets face it, that's never going to happen. According to my very rough calculations, it's about 0.13%. So, you'd have to do approximately 1000 attempts to have a chance to see this.

     

    Part Two: Making Squishy

    Per the Homecoming wiki, the minimum damage restistance a character can have is -300%, which effectively multiplies this amount by four (-100 is double, -200 is triple, -300 is quadruple damage). There are a few ways you could do this, such as five Cold Domination defenders casting Benumb on the same target.

     

    This gives us a highest theoretical single target damage of 13,765. So, the answer to your question, @Shocktacular, is yes. Five-digit damage is theoretically possible, although it would likely involve one street justice stalker, two kinetics defenders, five cold domination defenders and almost astronomically good luck.

     

    Although, lets be fair, you're probably overjoyed with that 2k damage. 

     

    On 5/6/2023 at 12:47 AM, Eoghnved said:

    So how do I make this happen on a Sentinel?  None of my attacks are even close to that.

     

    Bad news - you probably can't. Under normal circumstances, you won't need to. That's crazy damage.

     

    Two or three hundred is generally seen as very good.

     

    Inferno with Molten Embrace would likely be the hardest hitting single attack for a Sentinel at 253 damage before enhancements.  The damage cap for Sentinels is 400%, so that's 1012 at damage cap (no crits, remember). With perfect proc luck, you could add on another 250 to that, adding up to 1262.7 damage from a single attack. With the -300% resist debuffs, that's 5117.33 theoretically maximum damage to a single enemy.

     

    HOWEVER you can hit up to 10 enemies at once with Inferno... so, if

    • every enemy is hit;
    • Molten Embrace is running;
    • all four procs go off on every enemy;
    • all interface procs go off;
    • all enemies at at -300% damage resistance; and
    • you're at the damage cap

    you could hit for 51,173.3 total damage, spread between the ten enemies.

     

    Seriously, though. 200-250 is pretty good. @Eoghnved, I think you've got the scale of numbers a bit wrong. In City of Heroes, you're generally looking at high double-digits to low triple-digits for most attacks.

     

     

     

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  15. May 2023 version

    With the power availability level changes, the redraw changees and a few little tweaks. Again, this is what I am using - please roll your own and play with it. It's a springboard, not a limit.

     

    Comments and Changes

    The significant differences here are swapping out Psychic Scream for Dart Burst - the lack of redraw just makes it more appealing and if I'm totally honest the sound effect was beginning to annoy me.

     

    Does more damage in general. Cuts it a little finer with defence.

     

    A few more putples in general.

     

    Feel free to swap out TK blast for Total Domination with something like the Unbreakable Constraint set.

     

    Spoiler

    This Villain build was built using Mids Reborn 3.4.7
    https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn

    Click this DataLink to open the build!

    Level 50 Magic Arachnos Widow
    Primary Power Set: Fortunata Training
    Secondary Power Set: Fortunata Teamwork
    Power Pool: Sorcery
    Power Pool: Presence
    Power Pool: Teleportation

    Villain Profile:
    Level 1: Swipe

    • (A) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage
    • (3) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance
    • (3) Crushing Impact - Damage/Recharge
    • (5) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
    • (5) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
    • (7) Touch of Death - Chance of Damage(Negative)

    Level 1: Combat Training: Defensive

    • (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
    • (7) Red Fortune - Defense
    • (9) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance
    • (9) Red Fortune - Defense/Recharge

    Level 2: Strike

    • (A) Touch of Death - Chance of Damage(Negative)
    • (11) Mako's Bite - Chance of Damage(Lethal)
    • (11) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage
    • (13) Mako's Bite - Damage/Endurance
    • (13) Mako's Bite - Damage/Recharge
    • (15) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge

    Level 4: Tactical Training: Maneuvers

    • (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
    • (15) Red Fortune - Defense
    • (17) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance
    • (17) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance/Recharge

    Level 6: Dart Burst

    • (A) Ragnarok - Damage/Endurance
    • (19) Ragnarok - Damage
    • (19) Ragnarok - Damage/Recharge
    • (21) Ragnarok - Damage/Recharge/Accuracy
    • (21) Ragnarok - Recharge/Accuracy
    • (23) Superior Dominion of Arachnos - Recharge/Chance for -Dmg and Terrorize

    Level 8: Follow Up

    • (A) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage
    • (23) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance
    • (25) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
    • (25) Crushing Impact - Damage/Recharge
    • (27) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
    • (27) Touch of Death - Chance of Damage(Negative)

    Level 10: Indomitable Will

    • (A) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP

    Level 12: Lunge

    • (A) Mako's Bite - Chance of Damage(Lethal)
    • (29) Hecatomb - Chance of Damage(Negative)
    • (29) Hecatomb - Damage
    • (31) Hecatomb - Damage/Recharge/Accuracy
    • (31) Hecatomb - Damage/Recharge
    • (31) Hecatomb - Recharge/Accuracy

    Level 14: Dominate

    • (A) Superior Dominion of Arachnos - Accuracy/Damage
    • (33) Superior Dominion of Arachnos - Damage/Recharge
    • (33) Superior Dominion of Arachnos - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
    • (33) Superior Dominion of Arachnos - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
    • (34) Superior Dominion of Arachnos - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
    • (34) Ghost Widow's Embrace - Chance of Damage(Psionic)

    Level 16: Psionic Tornado

    • (A) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy)
    • (34) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
    • (36) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
    • (36) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
    • (36) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
    • (37) Superior Spider's Bite - RechargeTime/Global Toxic

    Level 18: Telekinetic Blast

    • (A) Apocalypse - Chance of Damage(Negative)
    • (37) Apocalypse - Damage/Recharge/Accuracy
    • (37) Apocalypse - Damage
    • (39) Apocalypse - Damage/Recharge
    • (39) Apocalypse - Recharge/Accuracy
    • (39) Explosive Strike - Chance for Smashing Damage

    Level 20: Mask Presence

    • (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed

    Level 22: Foresight

    • (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
    • (40) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All)
    • (40) Red Fortune - Defense
    • (40) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All)
    • (42) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%
    • (42) Gift of the Ancients - Defense

    Level 24: Mind Link

    • (A) Reactive Defenses - Scaling Resist Damage
    • (42) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance
    • (43) Reactive Defenses - Defense
    • (43) Reactive Defenses - Endurance/RechargeTime
    • (43) Reactive Defenses - Defense/RechargeTime
    • (45) Reactive Defenses - Defense/Endurance/RechargeTime

    Level 26: Confuse

    • (A) Coercive Persuasion  - Contagious Confusion

    Level 28: Psychic Wail

    • (A) Eradication - Chance for Energy Damage
    • (45) Armageddon - Chance for Fire Damage
    • (45) Armageddon - Damage
    • (46) Armageddon - Damage/Recharge
    • (46) Armageddon - Damage/Recharge/Accuracy
    • (46) Armageddon - Recharge/Accuracy

    Level 30: Tactical Training: Leadership

    • (A) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff
    • (48) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up
    • (48) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Recharge
    • (48) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Endurance/Recharge

    Level 32: Aura of Confusion

    • (A) Cacophany - Accuracy/Confused/Recharge

    Level 35: Tactical Training: Assault

    • (A) Endurance Reduction IO

    Level 38: Tactical Training: Vengeance

    • (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed

    Level 41: Mystic Flight

    • (A) Soaring - Endurance/FlySpeed

    Level 44: Provoke

    • (A) Perfect Zinger - Chance for Psi Damage

    Level 47: Teleport Target

    • (A) Endurance Reduction IO

    Level 49: Combat Training: Offensive

    • (A) Accuracy IO

    Level 1: Conditioning | Hidden


    Level 1: Brawl

     

     

    • (A) Empty
    Level 1: Sprint
    • (A) Empty
    Level 2: Rest
    • (A) Empty
    Level 1: Swift
    • (A) Empty
    Level 1: Hurdle
    • (A) Empty
    Level 1: Health
    • (A) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb
    • (50) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance
    • (50) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery
    Level 1: Stamina
    • (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End
    • (50) Performance Shifter - EndMod
    ------------

    ------------

     

    Code in spoiler below.

     

     

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  16. I've been asked about this more recently, so here is the build I'm currently using:

     

     

    More defence, more offence.

     

    Is it the most optimal? Maybe not. Is it a ton of fun? Yes.

     

    Main changes are my constant fiddling around with the ranged attacks. I could probably free up a slot from TT:Leadership.

    Have fun!

    • Like 1
  17. On 5/4/2023 at 9:16 PM, Diantane said:

    Getting a character to level 50 takes me 3 to 4 days depending whether or not I use the double XP buff.

    I usually turn XP off at levels ending in 4 and 9. There's a lot of content you miss by skipping to 50. Not all of it is available in Flashbacks and teams are locked for Ouro stuff anyway so you have to find a team and just run with it, you can't pick people up as you go on the LFG. 

     

    Go slow. Go sideways. Take the scenic route. 

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  18. 7 hours ago, macskull said:

    "The servers are empty, no one plays anymore."

    have noticed a bit of  a "we don't use the LFG channel, join our Discord to find out blah" trend , so it feels more like a ghost town than it is at times. If you put it on the LFG, people will come. Sometimes, you have to take the lead. I'm in the UK and play on Everlasting because from experience RP servers generally have a nice atmosphere and this game ran playably on dial-up so lag is rarely a problem. 

     

    A similar thing happened on the NA GW2 servers but not the EU servers (well, to nearly the same extent) where the NA LFG is a ghost town because the LFG peand the EU LFG is live and well as long at it's not like 3am on a Wednesday. 

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