Discord Weekly Discussion - Ongoing and Updated Thread

[Golden Azrael]

I have used Discord.  I find it easy to get lost on it.  Though there is the appeal of its real time nature.

 

I do like the forums.  This is the 1st time I've found the 'weekly' topic discussion.  It was good to see the overview opinions on the different themes.

 

Was there a Discord discussion on Energy Melee for Tanks?  (I do like the idea to toggle the animation for ET though I am a pom pom fan myself.).  Is that going to be 'summatively' posted here?

 

Azrael.

[GM Miss]

  On 9/17/2020 at 4:05 PM, chi1701 said:

Find the Warshade and Peacebringer discussions interesting, both have nearly same inherent, but Warshade needs looking into? 

 

• A few people mentioned the idea of having the forms act like stances, one increasing dmg while the other increases sturdiness/mez protection. 

Im confused by this, atm, each form comes with their own abilities which are separate from human forms, so triform has access to 2 heals, human and dwarf, would this then be reduced to 1?

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It was just an idea someone had to remove forms and make them act as stances. These aren't changes we are making, they are ideas from players on ways to bring life and balance to aspects or powersets of the game. 

[GM Miss]

  On 9/21/2020 at 1:57 PM, Golden Azrael said:

I have used Discord.  I find it easy to get lost on it.  Though there is the appeal of its real time nature.

 

I do like the forums.  This is the 1st time I've found the 'weekly' topic discussion.  It was good to see the overview opinions on the different themes.

 

Was there a Discord discussion on Energy Melee for Tanks?  (I do like the idea to toggle the animation for ET though I am a pom pom fan myself.).  Is that going to be 'summatively' posted here?

 

Azrael.

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EM was this week, the changes are now up. Feel free to join us in the general discussion section of the forums or in the CoH category in discord for next week! 

[GM Miss]

 Weekly Discussion 65: Build Your Own Powerset

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This contains suggestions from both Discord & The forum weekly discussion.

(Link to the Forum Discussion)

8/23/20-8/29/20

Here is a link to a page I created specifically for this week.

 

 

Weekly Discussion 67: Build your own Epic Pool Power

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This contains suggestions from both Discord & The forum weekly discussion.

(Link to the Forum Discussion)

9/6/20-9/12/20

Here is a link to the post I made for this weeks compilation of suggestions.

 

 

Weekly Discussion 69: Build your own Patron/Mentor Pool

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This contains suggestions from both Discord & The forum weekly discussion.

(Link to the Forum Discussion)

9/20/20-9/26/20

Here is a link to the post I made for this weeks compilation of suggestions.

 

 

Weekly Discussion 72: Build your own Power Pools

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This contains suggestions from both Discord & The forum weekly discussion.

(Link to the Forum Discussion)

10/11/20-10/17/20

Here is a link to the post I made for this weeks compilation of suggestions.

 

 

Here are all the Build your own weeks!

Edited October 19, 2020 by GM Miss

[GM ColdSpark]

Hello Folks!! I'll start a new post here to pickup the logging of the weekly discussion outputs (I'll make a minor edit to Miss' post to point folks to this one going forwards). I'll do my best to capture the common thoughts that came up, obviously for the full discussion you can refer to the forum discussion link for each week (in the spoiler) or search back in discord.

 

Weekly Discussion 74: UI Suggestions

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This contains suggestions from both Discord & The forum weekly discussion.

(Link to the Forum Discussion)

October 25th to 31st 2020

Map:

• Keep the zoom level constant in missions
• Translucency on the map

Window Positions:

• Netgraph Display can’t move
• Nav window & map to be merged to free up space
• A snap-to-grid type setup

Visibility:

• Make Health/Endurance/Buff window more eye-catching with more visual cues of impending doom.
• Linked to the above – more player choice as to which buffs show up
• The close window buttons being a bit too easy to miss
• Adding a range indicator

Usability:

• Being able to save setup across characters including window positions would be nice
• Saving powertray setups (pre-respec for example)
• A button to “clear all powers from trays”
• Base storage – being able to move all or change the default type for storage items
• Being able to lock trays so they don’t accidentally move from tray 1 to tray 9 at an inopportune moment!
• Stop base storage screens from randomly re-ordering themselves when taking things out/putting in.
• More power trays please & chat tabs
• More options to “do all” – e.g. claim all items in mail
• Enhancement Conversion – change from “In set and out of set” (with a sub menu for Rarity/Category) to 3 radio buttons for In Set, Rarity and Category – with the choice persisted.
• Speed up the enhancement boosters/catalysts time to apply
• Some of the text editing fields are a little hit and miss (e.g. bios and AE text), similar issues with numbers in the AH UI
• Make the powertrays indicate the key bound to the power rather than static to 1-9
• Give a collapse option in the incarnate power creation screen
• A new easy way to see influence / infamy
• Ability to hide/show/filter/sort contacts

Character Creator:

• When a player has selected a piece that has a matching piece in another “slot” put that piece to the top of the list
• Alphabetize the pieces

General Suggestions:

• Taking a pass over the AH UI to see if it can’t be made a little better (including the search and wrong price issues)
• Similarly the Arena interface
• Also the email interface so it is more readable
• Revamp and combine Contacts, Missions, Clues and Souvenirs so they are connected.
• Increased support for UHD resolutions
• A new screen to display and edit binds & macros

  

Weekly Discussion 75: Vote!

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This week we had a vote, across both the Discord and Forum communitites. Collated results are below and the top 5 will form the basis of our discussions for the next few weeks.

Thanks everyone for participating in the vote, I'm looking forward to the discussions ahead!

 

 

A) Noticeably underpowered sets; and what needs an emergency buff?
102

 

B) T1 Immobilizes in control sets
27

 

C) The Auction House - how to make it better for both new users and experienced ones
30

 

D) Mercenaries - Discuss!
52

 

E) Design an epic archetype for Praetorian Earth
56

 

F) Don't you just hate it when / love it when (with a focus on in game events not powers etc)
10

 

G) The pros/cons of making more hard-mode options for existing content vs new zones/missions
52

 

H) Incarnate powers, a discussion of ultimate power! (with possible follow-ups to go more specific)
40

 

I) Top Powerset Lucky Dip! I'll choose one of the top powersets you previously identified that haven't been covered yet (Darkness Manipulation, Force Field, Assault Rifle, Dark Miasma, Dark Melee, Devices)
30

 

J) T9 Lucky Dip! I'll choose one of the remaining T9 areas for discussion: Blaster/Defender/Sentinel/Corruptor Ranged Damage OR Brute/Stalker/Scrapper/Tank Melee Damage OR Dominator Assault & Mastermind
24

Weekly Discussion 76: Noticeably Underpowered sets. What needs an emergency buff?

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This contains suggestions from both Discord & The forum weekly discussion.

(Link to the Forum Discussion)

November 8th to 14th 2020

Thanks for the great discussion folks - I've tried to capture the most common tactical suggestions below (some are a little bit bigger I grant you)

 

Thanks to @CrudeVileTerrorfor usefully tallying up the number of times powers came up in the forums - the top 3 seem to be:

 

1. Assault Rifle
2. Mercenaries
3. Stone Armour

 

 

And here's some of the general themes (in no particular order)

 

Mercenaries

Potential de-couple of the medic from the T1, Medic to become the level 18 as a 7th pet, Adjust serum to balance.

Add DR and or stacking damage buffs to Equip Mercenary

Add some traps-type powers to the Spec Ops

 

Assault Rifle

Adjust the root on tier 9

Drop beanbag and add an Aim/BU equivalent

Increase AoE on M30 and flamethrower

Add incendiary rounds

Change Full Auto to be a rooting toggle with high end usage

Add more "gimmicks" to the attacks to make them more unique

 

Fire Melee

Boost damage a touch so it performs at a similar level to fire blase

 

Sonic attack

Increase attack speed to boost dpa

 

Mastermind Primaries

Balancing pass to even their performance

 

Force Field

Addition of some +Absorb to the bubbles / Absorb over time

 

Munitions Mastery

Give LRM some loving (sniper treatment maybe) - Look at Sleep grenades

 

Mind Control

Make more powers trigger containment (e.g. Fear and Confuse)

Speed up cooldowns on the bigger powers

 

Stone Armour

Adjust the powers outside of granite to make it less of a one-trick-pony

Remove the -jump but whilst off ground remove the buffs

 

Regeneration

Add a strong debuff resist to reflect it just healing over things

 

Bane Spiders

Speed up the animations on blasts a little

Make Shatter Armour crit from hide

 

Force of Will

Speed up activation times

 

Electrical Blast

Damage boost for more parity and to allow for the secondary effect being less meaningful in the current state of the game.

Change -end to -recharge to avoid enemies "cheating" the effect

Make the sounds more.... BOOM-y

 

Super Strength

Remove Rage  and buff baseline damage instead

 

Claws (on Stalkers)

Give them Spin/Follow-up or some element of AoE

 

 

 

Oh and apparently we need to replace the monorails with Monorail Cat. Gets my vote! 🙂

 

Weekly Discussion 77: Designing an Epic Archetype for Praetorian Earth

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This contains highlights from both Discord & The forum weekly discussion.

(Link to the Forum Discussion)

November 15th to 21st 2020

Creative juices in full flow this week everyone, great job!

 

People in general seemed to like the idea of lore-based EATs, whether that was reflecting the Resistance (as Commandos perhaps)  vs Loyalists (Troopers), some of the other factions like Hamidon, DE or Carnival of Shadows or some combinations of the above.

 

Other origin suggestions were magical mishaps, some kind of biological event or bio-engineering (e.g. splicing with DE), are we returning to an infested Praetoria or has something else happened since, driving the story forward, that changes the environment from that experienced by folks starting gold-side?

 

Talons (linked to teh Oracles, Furies and Sybils), Clockwork (both sides, how have they reacted to Neuron being MIA and Metronome taking over the space station?), Warworks, IDF, Rune Troopers, Ghouls, Descendents of Mu and the Olympian Guard all got shout outs as potential starting points as well as did some of the other unique groups like the Syndicate, Carnivl of light and the Black Knights. Shadow Hunters beasts got a mention too with a shape-shifting element to them perhaps.

Hybrid type suggestions came up too, for example The Warder, being a type of refugee returning from the wards to Nova Praetoria as well as types reflecting the relationship between Primal and Praetorian earth like the Dimensional Gemini

 

Shape-shifting / evolving was a pretty prevalent theme - another example being the Living Spells - more balls of light for me to hang around with! 🙂 

 

There was also discussion of whether or not to have the EATs branch like the VEATs do or have the new EATs (PEATs for the purpose of this writeup) evolve an existing character (or bringing them back after dying as "The Undying". Points were also made about perhaps linking the PEATs into the wards to give more mileage to remaining in Praetoria beyond level 20.

 

I thoroughly recommend checking the thread out if you've not already, there's some great really well worked through ideas in there. Good job all!

 

Weekly Discussion 78: Incarnate Powers - a review of ultimate power!

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This contains highlights from both Discord & The forum weekly discussion.

(Link to the Forum Discussion)

November 22nd to 28th 2020

Great chat folks, below summary reflects some of the more popular points raised where a reasonably clear consensus emerged. Some really well thought through suggestions I thought this week.

 

 

Accessibility

• A few people felt that a more comprehensive introduction/explanation of the incarnate system would be beneficial - linking an excellent guide here.
• Enhance the crafting screen so that it highlights what you need to create the selected power when you move to the creating tab.
• Retire the "Shards path" to remove the risk of confusion
• Allow threads to be converted to empyrean merits to allow transfer between characters

 

Balance

• Thoughts that Destiny and Judgement are unbalanced currently - potential need to alter recharge, Ion chosen often because it's easier to fire and forget than some of the others
• Might be nice to be able to toggle off incarnate powers - e.g. when doing normal game content and wanting to avoid it feeling "easy mode" (add as  challenge criteria was suggested too) - this was a popular suggestion.
• Addition of more hard-mode options to balance the power increase - this could be new, or simply harder version of existing missions/TFs
• Allow AE to create more hard-mode content
• Support hybrid was reported as being underpowered 
• Interface DoT should be adjusted to not interrupt sleeps
• Support bonus should affect the recharge pets like Crabberminds, Controllers etc.
• Look at the Lore Pets abilities - BP and Longbow -res are highly desired currently
• Adding of original clockwork pets to Lore
• Incarnates on their own are ok, but when in a team/league the power level goes a bit OTT. Perhaps an addition of some kind of tweaks to power potency when in the presence of other incarnates (possibly preserving or boosting a power you designate as "primary")

 

 

Crafting & UI

• Broadly OK with crafting system though the UI is a bit fiddly
• UI window can't be permanently re-sized 
• Desire to be able to collapse incarnate types once expanded (particularly when looking at Lore)
• Normalisation of components to make creating easier
• Remove the "branching" in tier 3 altogether or simply insert the other branch as a tier 4 and move 4 to 5. (Link is to @Grindingsuckspost with picture to explain)

 

Development Options & thoughts

• Desire to complete the roll out as originally planned (Omega slot)
• Additional goal could include a few extra enhancement slots after significant work
• Adding a unique travel power as an incarnate unlock
• Omega slot could be a second Alpha slot (but not the same power) and made to only work in iTrials (Sorry @Lunchmoney!!) Incarnate Content
• Alternatively, Omega slot could react differently based on the Alpha chosen.
• Don't rush deployment given the potential to break balance.
• Completion and release of The Battalion content
• Making the incarnate affects only affect certain powers - e.g. applying your Alpha boost to just one or a few attack/heal etc 
• Some new judgement options with suggestions including: Gatling Gun Judgement, Orbital Cannon Judgement, Meteor Strike, Bezerker Rage, A Psi judgement, Exploding Shurikens & Statesman/Tyrant Lighting Smash
• Tweak Lore Pet Phantoms so they can be customised like Phantom Army
• Develop an incarnate "charge up" a bit like domination
• Develop the Shadow Shard into an incarnate level zone

 

Weekly Discussion 79: Mercenaries. Discuss!

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This contains highlights from both Discord & The forum weekly discussion.

(Link to the Forum Discussion)

November 28th to December 5th 2020

Here's the summary from the chat about the much discussed MM Primary. It's a set most of you seem to *want* to really like but there's just a few too many little (or large) issues to make it a real "tier 1" choice. There was a great deal of agreement across the discussion this week (hence the list is smaller than normal!)

 

Suggestions:

• Add DR to both the upgrades to make them less squishy, a more tanky-like MM set 
• Add stacking damage buffs to the upgrades but without increasing their hardiness
• Make Serum PBAoE to affect all pets
• Replace medic with a 3rd soldier (possibly putting the medic back in as a separate power) - aids the slotting issues on the T1 power. Possibly Medic becomes replacement for Serum
• Replace serum with an additional damage - e.g. a forced grenade throw from all pets or an artillery-like / airtrike power
• Increase damage output of Spec Ops (add cones, remove brawl)
• Replace the Medic Frag grenade with a buff that they give to the other pets
• Replace the soldiers cones with targetted AoE
• Reduce recharge on some of the long recharge powers across the pets
• Add toxic damage to attacks
• Shorter animations on the bursts from the rifles
• Remove redraw of weapons
• A little refresh to the artwork, particularly of the T1 so they look more modern and less WWII
• Replace Commando with more like a gunslinger 
• Adding a take-cover power instead of Serum with +Def, Regen, Range and Accuracy. Stays where it is cast.
• Make the Spec Ops more like devices blasters (drones, mines etc)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weekly Discussion 80: More Hard Mode or New Zones & Missions?

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This contains highlights from both Discord & The forum weekly discussion.

(Link to the Forum Discussion)

December 5th to December 12th 2020

Here's the summary from this weeks discussion - lots of great thoughts and debate this week so do check the link to get the whole picture or use the pins in the Discord.

 

General thoughts fell into the following areas:

 

• More micro-tuning options  -  like the way that AE and Exp Boosters etc let players control their experience (no pun intended) more.
• Re-work of zones - Hazard zones in particular e.g Creys, Boomtown and the Abandoned Sewers (potentially using echo's to preserve the existing ones)
• Scaling of lower level content so that you can go back and play it at level 50 and it still be challenging to your level
• New content always welcome, but the playerbase seemed realistic about the workload of this vs the available resources in the HC team
• Work more on some of started lore areas e.g. Blood of the Black Stream
• Additions of tip missions dropping in co-op zones
• More toggles in Orob that add further challenges like buffs and debuffs
• Creating new maps that can be used by the tips/paper mission selector
• Completion of Kalisiti Wharf
• Further work in Praetoria to flesh it out - inc PvP zone
• Create badges that are awarded based on team composition - necessitating certain ATs (e.g. all-tank task force or TF run with 4 etc)
• Tip missions that utilise selected (and locked down to prevent game-breaking edits) AE missions as source
• Add a +5x12 option
• More zone based events or mechanics, e.g. a Brickstown one based around the Ziggurat with a TF that spawns a zone event
• Make outdoor spawns work like GM spawns where they're relative to each players level (minions white, lt yellow, boss orange etc)
• Tweaks to the "purple patch" to increase the to-hit for enemies
• Give "leadership" type buffs to Lts and Bosses that affect nearby minions
• Adding a "Bounty" system in Hazard zones to hunt x type of enemies providing reward currency/temp powers etc
• Addition of zone "guides" like we have in Hollows to point players arriving in zone to the key contacts
• Give some of the lower level enemy groups a chance to go "big-time" like the Igneous coming out of Hollows or the Leviathan going to town in Sharkhead

 

 

Weekly Discussion 81: The Player-Market

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This contains highlights from both Discord & The forum weekly discussion.

(Link to the Forum Discussion)

December 13th to December 19th 2020

Here's the summary from this weeks discussion

 

Issues identified:

• Merit usage - current model means most merits are spent to by converter to sell for inf. Adjust prices for some enhancements and put Hero/Villain/Winter packs on the merit vendor
• The UI bug showing the proper prices is a problem for market transparency - improvement would be to also show a longer history/trend ( @Grouchybeastdidn't seem so bothered by this fix though 😉 )
• Shards and threads are harder to convert to inf than
• Sorting is unreliable
• Text scaling in the AH screens
• Crafting costs at 50 mean that some recipes simply are not worth crafting (P2W table is cheaper to obtain than via the crafting badges)

 

 

 

Positives:

• Pooling of items much better than on live
• Attuned versions being bucketed with non-attuned price-wise
• Market seeding is v effective

 

 

 

Requests & Suggestions: 

• A deeper explanation of the devs view on the market and inf-sinks
• increase "stacks" from 10 to 99 (possibly an unlockable ability)
• Reworking of the influence "currency" to be more like influence where you could affect the in-game world, missions offered etc
• Possible rename of influence/infamy to a more simple currency/resources-type name
• Addition of a market tutorial much like the university/crafting tutorial
• Add a "claim all" button for purchases
• Access in bases/PvP (though the current issues of having to do a db load were acknowledged)
• Utilize merits as some kind of universal salvage (or Brainstorms)
• Add option to stop salvage drop (at different levels) or auto-sell
• Add a power to all that is simply the /ah command
• Add a warning on the merit vendor that "some things may be effectively cheaper on AH than using merits"
• Ability to drag and drop to order things in AH
• Add fixed price items in P2W to the fixed price AH section
• Add a time stamp to the date stamp in selling history
• Create dayjob salvage which is used to create certain IOs only
• Make merits tradable (removes converters as a "middle-person"
• Add seeded bids to create a price floor on certain items or "fair price range" recommendations

 

 

Also sharing @gchpaco's analysis of merit values relative to boosters and converters and sets from Discord as I think it's a neat summary.

 

As far as merits go, 10 merits buys you 30 converters which can be relied on to go for 70,000. That's 2.1 mil.

10 merits also buys you 2 boosters, which can go for anywhere between 1 and 1.5 mil; the converters are a better call if the market is feeling like 1 mil for boosters, they're a nuisance though.

These are broadly somewhat comparable items, tho.  That means 100 merits is "worth" around 20-25 mil.  Event IOs (which includes winter IOs) and ATOs all go for 100 merits, and when I trade in ATOs I usually sell them for 8, so this is, like, 3x the price.

 

Wiki has this for rewards table:

IO Set: 50 Merits for Rare, 20 Merits for Uncommon.

Respec Recipe: 50 Merits.

PvP IO Sets: 100 Merits.

Standard Invention Enhancements: 5 Merits.

Very Rare IO Sets: 100 Merits.

 

That puts rare IOs at being "worth" according to the vendor between 10 and 12 mil, which is hilariously wrong, like about 10x wrong; respec for 10-12 mil which is like 6x the market price, PVP IO sets for 20-25 which is about treble the going price, usually, and purples at 20-25 which is actually? almost right.  Not all VR recipes sell for that much money, but VR IOs after crafting usually do.  The trick is that a purple is going to cost you 3 rare salvage (so another 1.5 mil there normally) and 600,000 inf.  So basically the crafting costs add another 2 mil of overhead.

 

It might be cost effective to craft some highly used VRs—say, Apocalypse, or Hecatomb—using merits for the recipe and making it, but IDK.  Winter IOs are sometimes a better deal.

so that's somebody who does a lot of market work.

 

TL;DR; 1 merit is worth around 200,000-230,000 inf, if converted properly.  Check pricing accordingly.

Another thing that is out of whack though is merits for catalysts.  20 merits buy one catalyst.  You want depending on number of winter sets usually between 12 and 20 catalysts for ATOs and Winter IOs on a finished build, so limited market demand, and they usually go for between 2-3 mil.

So catalysts are at least 2x overpriced.

 

 

 

Weekly Discussion 82: Vote!

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This contains results from both Discord & The forum weekly discussion.

(Link to the Forum Discussion)

December 19th 2020 to January 2nd 2021

 

Hi Folks - here's the results from the vote that will drive the next few weeks of topics.

 

 

Thanks everyone for voting and of course, Happy New Year!

Weekly Discussion 83: Task/Strike Force Revamps

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This contains results from both Discord & The forum weekly discussion.

(Link to the Forum Discussion)

January 3rd to January 9th 2021

General thoughts:

• Remove heavy chains of "defeat alls"
• Create a new Posi-level SF redside
• Implement scaling to player level - so that a level 50 could tak on a level 54 Dr Vahz
• Adjust risk vs reward - e.g. Master runs to give more merits
• Hunts to move to be non-zone specific and to be grouped so they could be being done simultaneously
• Gold-side to get a TF (possibly the Calvin Scott content tweaked)
• First & Nghtward should get TFs
• The best TFs are the ones with "unique" content/ideas/mechanics
• Remove standard maps - make TF ones unique
• Increase reward of TF Commander to incentivise it
• Add some unique loading screens (community to submit artwork)
• Most missions should have multiple objectives
• More unique powers like the Rad Shields in the TV respec trial
• Add a new BaB TF in Kings to complete the Skull story line
• More fights like the shadow simulacrum
• SSTFs need a lot of love (Faathim being the least problematic)

 

 

Task / Strike Force Specific thoughts (collated where players submitted full ideas):

 

Penny Yin:

• Penelope Yin should not be hosting a TF about Freakshow. Her role is obviously to host the Clockwork TF. So she should take over the Clockwork King TF, which should be revamped to not be painfully long, or possibly split into two separate TFs like Positron's. Ideally it should be about finding out more about Blue Steel's background, with the CK trying to get back at Blue Steel in various ways. Part two can be a reworked version of the TF we have now, which I to be honest can't even tell you what it's about. It's oh so very mysterious, until we find out that the Clockwork King is behind the Clockwork and their mysterious behavior. Wow. No, it needs an update, badly. Here's the deal: Penelope Yin can still be hosting the Freakshow TF from Independence Port, but a younger version of her can be the contact for the Clockwork King TF, perhaps set to start in Kings Row near Blue Steel, or in Faultline. If that sounds irksome, we could even let her father be the contact for the Clockwork King Task Force, as he might have noticed the King's interest in his daughter and want to protect her from the criminally insane psychic ghost.
• Why is the final mission door NOT in Terra Volta?  I know it is the terra volta map but still would be kinda nice to have to actually go to the zone.

 

Synapse:

• What about Synapse then? Well, his background is all about Crey, so he should obviously take over the Crey TF and assume Manticore's role. There can be something about him not being able to go up against Crey personally because they have countermeasures to him and his powers since they created him, and he needs our help to deal with the countess and her evil schemes. He doesn't need to move from his location in Skyway - his old TF have you mostly running around Steel Canyon after all, so it shouldn't be a problem.

• Overall I think Synapse is very salvageable. What could we improve in it to get it closer to ITF quality? I'm glad you asked! A lot of people advocate for trimming down those early missions (which, did I mention, are very similar and repetitive?) and I don't disagree. Most of the end stuff is good, especially that Babbage spawn, and I wouldn't even necessarily reduce the number of zones you have to go to (though maybe we should make sure the Boomtown mission door is always near the entrance to the zone).

  I think the most important thing to look at is the Clockwork King, though. He should be the most memorable part of this TF: we see for the first time here that he's not just a robot, or a guy building robots, but a psychic brain in a jar*! That's cool as heck! Aaaand he's down. I didn't even get to see him because my team ran ahead. Let's give him more of a spotlight: at least a cutscene where he says some sinister stuff, like Dr. Vahzilok gets in the Posi 2 revamp, and I'd buff him in combat a bit as well. He needs a bit more HP so you don't miss him entirely, maybe a psychic attack or two to hammer home that part of his story, and I'd personally throw in a Clockwork minion ambush that he summons when he gets to 50% HP - nothing too serious, as this is still a level 20 TF, but a little bit of a surprise kicker. And let's give him his own room to stand in, at least!

  *I don't recall if we learn he's a psychic here, but the brain-in-a-jar bit was news to me the first time I ran this TF.

• Cut the three substations down to one, combine "defeat all robots in headquarters" and "defeat Bertha" into one mission (cutting the patrol in between), cut the first warehouse.

• Why is this in Skyway if the entire TF is done in Steel???
• Remove all but 1 defeat all
• Remove the street sweep
• Remove the patrols or at least have something happen when the patrol point is clicked like I don't know maybe a nice ambush or 6
• No BOOM
• Why is this the only AV at the end we get a special gun that turns the fight into a cake walk?
• Quick Fix - move the defeat alls to small maps
• Full rework suggestion from @tidge
•   Reveal hidden contents

   I feel like this should be split (roughly evenly) between missions in only two zones. It would seem that Steel Canyon and Skyway City would be the obvious choices, but I wouldn't automatically rule out either Boomtown or Kings Row. Boomtown doesn't have a trainer, but leveraging a Hazard Zone could be fun. It might be too much trouble for this level range. I'll come back to this. Kings Row has the ability to leverage the presence of Blue Steel.

   

  The (current) first half should consider revising the "defeat all". I personally don't object to there being a "run between objectives" in a single zone, but it doesn't really scream "Task Force" as much as "Forced Tasks". I don't like that the entire team gets scattered by this activity. Just spitballing, but I like the way The revised Yin TF flows:

  Rescue (in an instanced part of a city zone) Objectives (behind a door) Multiple specific defeats (behind a door) Boss fight with "summoned groups"

   

  I find the "summoning spawns" to be fun, as long as there is not a terribly long delay between spawns (ehem, Terra Volta trial).

   

  The proposed second arc seems natural to keep the Skyway warehouses, the GM spawn and the AV. To spice this one up, I'd beef up the "Court" (requiring a defeat of multiple specific members of the court: Queen, Prince, Knave, Bishop, Knight) add a pseudo-pet enemy combat effect to one of the missions... similar to Battle Maiden's fields of death... but slightly less deadly.... some Psy damage, or Endurance drain. I'd like the back half of this arc to feel like it was designed by a kid really into chess (or D&D).

   

• Full rework suggestion from @DougGraves
•   Reveal hidden contents

  Defeat all clockwork in station (Steel)

  Stop all robots in headquarters (Steel)

  Go talk to the foreman (Steel)

  Stop Clockwork Lord its guards (Sky)

  Babbage Ambush (Sky)

  Get immobilizer from Synapse (Sky)

  Defeat clockwork king, his court (Sky)

   

 

Manticore:

• Manticore could move to Peregrine Island and host a new TF about Malta, the "Natural" enemy faction. It can expand upon the story hinted at in Dark Astoria, where Malta were going to use nano-tech stolen from Warrior Earth to boost their own forces against the incarnate threat. Maybe Manticore isn't too keen on seeing more incarnates either, and is working both sides, as he is wont to do. If Peregrine already feels too full of content, the Manticore TF could be in Kallisti Wharf, and could be made co-op since villains aren't happy about Malta getting improved either, and Manticore isn't above working with villains.
• Turn the first defeat-all into just a rescue.  There are only two defeat-alls in this TF but the maps tend to be huge.
• Stop the all over the place with the mission doors.  Really should primarily take place in Brix and Crey's folly.
• The rescue should be an escort even though I loath those.

 

Numina:

• Numina is another TF I can't tell you what it's about, but I remember a lot of running around various zones hunting low-level enemies. As a showcase of "look how far you've come" and a tour of the city we've left behind it was probably okay back when max level was 40, but now it feels a bit disappointing. I don't really have a better idea for what to do with it but a level 40ish Task Force focused on the Circle of Thorns and their machinations in Founders Fall seems like it would be more fun than running around all over the place, for very little enjoyment. Maybe throw in some enemies from Night Ward too, to mix things up a bit.
• Get rid of the hunts, they are just a time sink.

 

Citadel:

• Cut the second mission, the "defeat base leader and guards" after you take the parts to the guy, and two of the three defeat-alls at the end.
• Everything in it is vanilla. The bosses are vanilla, the maps are extensively reused and vanilla, the dialog is vanilla. It is so vanilla, you could use this TF as pudding and nobody would notice.
• Stop the back and forth between Talos and IP.  I'm ok with the 2 zones but just make first half in Talos and final in IP or vice versa.
• Remove most of the defeat alls
• Revamp the maps.  How about only 1 cave base?
• Full rework suggestion from @DougGraves
•   Reveal hidden contents

  Investigate Council Base (IP)

  Defeat base leader and guards (Talos)

  Defeat base leader, his guards (Talos)

  Defeat all soldiers in base (Talos)

  Defeat Vandal and his minions (Talos)

   

 

Dr Q:

• Hold an AE contest to rewrite this TF, winner gets put in the game.  You can cover the entire plot of this long, pointless slog in five missions and even with the limited tools available in AE it would still be more interesting than what is in the game.  
• Add an AV at the end
• Full rework suggestion in spoiler from @Moonscribe
•   Reveal hidden contents

  Mission 1: Combines the first five missions of the original TF. You are sent straight into a Rularuu cave, without any hunt missions preceding it, to rescue explorers from the Rularuu. But when you get there you find that some of them have been killed by high-tech weapons. Waiting at the end of the mission is a Crey boss whom you defeat and capture - maybe the cave is even a new map that transitions into a secret lab where Crey is capturing Rularuu for their experiments, which the explorers stumbled onto after following some mysterious researchers. This plus the fact that you can literally see Crey mobs all over the zone is more than enough info for Dr. Q to conclude that Crey is, in fact, in the Shard causing trouble.

   

  Mission 2: Combines missions 6 through 13 of the original TF. NPC scouts have located a major Crey base for you (in Firebase Zulu, not Paragon City), and you go attack it and arrest the leader, NOT everyone in it. In that base you discover advanced portal tech Crey used to get into the zone, escaped Rularuu using it to build dimensional gizmos that could get them into Primal Earth if completed, and evidence that the tech comes from Nemesis. Also, there are Crey operatives planning to meet with somebody at an unexplored location about said tech.

   

  Mission 3: Combines missions 14 through 16 of the original TF. You go to the unexplored location and find it is a Nemesis stronghold, which uses the cool map from the RWZ arcs. It's already under attack by the Rularuu, so you have to arrest all the Crey representatives and the Nemesis leader while fending off Rularuu ambushes. (Maybe said leader has a cool new experimental EB Nemesis has been working on there in secret - a weather control automaton, to follow up on the Meteorologist mini-arc?) You also learn about the times and locations of interdimensional transits planned by Crey and Nemesis.

   

  Mission 4: Combines missions 17 through 19 of the original TF. There is one Crey base in the Shard and one in Paragon involved in the next transit, and you head to the one in the Shard while NPC heroes simultaneously shut down the one in Paragon - maybe you even get to communicate with them remotely, and hit glowies to deactivate security systems in the other base, cut off squads of bosses coming at you through the portal, etc. Unfortunately, Countess Crey's legal superpowers have already gotten her out of jail by this point, despite your heroic efforts with Janet Kellum earlier. You must defeat her and Hopkins as a team in order to shut down Crey's efforts here for good. But in the process, you learn there was a second portal base Crey was using where they were transporting Rularuu into Paragon, and they've lost contact with that base.

   

  Mission 5: Combines missions 20 through 22 of the original TF. While Crey's second portal base was easily shut down by other heroes after Countess Crey's arrest last mission, the transported Rularuu have already escaped into Oranbega and you must stop their final attempt to build a portal to the Shadow Shard and start an invasion. This time you do have to go to Paragon City, but at least you don't have to go back, and the mission is in Peregrine now so it's relatively quick to get to it. You must defeat every Rularuu mob present, but the map is mostly Circle so it is not a defeat-all. But you do also have to defeat a powerful Circle AV on site, perhaps Baron Zoria himself (or rather, the powerful Oranbegan mage who has been possessing his body - I forget what happened to him in canon, so not sure if this works or not). Or maybe a cool new Circle AV who is harnessing the power of Rularuu directly, Rulu-Shin style, and thinks they can channel it into a new magical power source that will lead Oranbega to supremacy once again.

   

  Moral of the story is as before: please don't let the Rularuu out of the Shard, it's bad. Also of course the Countess successfully argues in court she was there to shut down these illegal operations in the Shard, not oversee them, and gets out of jail before you know it.

 

 

Hess:

• Hess doesn't need that much editing I don't think.  The trap in the first mission needs to be beefed up significantly.  Toss the scientist from the second mission into the first, and you can do away with the second entirely.  Add some objectives to the third and fourth missions to make them more dynamic instead of just "beat up this guy and click this blinky."  Beef up Burkholder to reduce the "the AV died before I even saw him" issue.
• The part that really needs to be revamped is the radar stations.  While taking them out is a nice way to add to the idea that you're assaulting a major Council stronghold, the execution is dumb.  They send you back and forth across the map, and if you took Fly as your travel power or if you're a slow loader the mission is done before you even get in.  So here's my idea for a revamp: make them not instances.  Put the radar stations right out in the zone,  Cover them in turrets and Council.  Then, once you accept the mission "Take out the radar stations" you have to go click a blinky at each one, to shut down the radar station and collect whatever information is on there.  They're open world blinkies that can be done in any order, like getting those flowers for Marauder's girlfriend.  Long interrupt time, so you have to fight the turrets and Council at the base instead of just stealth-clicking.  Yes, it's possible that someone else in the zone will clear the base before you get there, but if the respawn time is short enough it shouldn't be much of a problem, especially since Striga isn't usually heavily populated.
• That's just my idea for working with what's reasonably feasible;  the ideal revamp would remove all that "Burkholder's the only one who can pilot it", you beat him up, take his robot, get a nice cutscene of you piloting the Mega Mech out of the volcano as it self-destructs behind you, and then, I dunno, drive it to Boomtown to fight the Council War Walker?  It would be nice to be able to drive it to Grandville to take potshots at Recluse's stupid tower (building Vigilante alignment points in the process) but I don't think it can swim.

 

Lady Grey:

• Fix the issue with the min level or that Hami will only spawn at 50

 

Tarikoss:

• Add a bit of variety to the Bat'Zul demons

 

Silver Mantis:

• Add a cutscene for Duray arriving so players know he's there

 

Ice Mistral: 

• Sort the doors out so that the same door doesn't lead to two places in the same SF

 

Barracuda:

• More info for the team about Reichsman being invincible and fix the Patron spawns 

Weekly Discussion 84: Kinetic Melee

  Reveal hidden contents

This contains results from both Discord & The forum weekly discussion.

(Link to the Forum Discussion)

January 10th to 16th 2021

 

Here's some of the key thoughts coming out of the discussion. There was a lot of universal agreement and I'd like to call out @Galaxy Brainfor their detailed analysis of the powers and some of the animations too. Great job everyone!

 

• Alternative animations would be nice
• The sound effects are not to everyone's taste
• Animation times after T2 are slow
• Suggestion to add the -dam debuff across the powerset
• The Concentrated Strike crit chance on scrappers could do with a tweak
• Make power Sophone faster and buff the to-hit and damage boosts
• The combination of melee and ranged is appealing and it has a unique feel to it
• Stalker version of KM seems v popular compared to the other ATs, primarily because of the build-up power they get
• An idea was put forward to replace Siphon Power with "Yin and Yang" stances a bit like staff
• Suggestion to switch the ranged powers to instead tp you to the target, speedster-style
• @RoboKnightSeems to want the damage tweaked but it was a little hard to tell in what way 😉
• Also a suggestion for a mechanic to absorb damage and then be able to unleash it back out again (I can imagine the devs tearing out hair at that one but it does sound fun!)

 

 

Weekly Discussion 85: T1 Immobilises in Control Sets

  Reveal hidden contents

This contains results from both Discord & The forum weekly discussion.

(Link to the Forum Discussion)

January 17th to 23rd 2021

 

Here's some of the key thoughts coming out of the discussion. On balance I'd say more people said they don't take them than do, but there were some strong advocates for their uses, particularly so on Controllers. A little shout out for the Discord contributors this week who I think win the award for being most creative this week with their ideas!

 

• Controllers take them as a bit of an ST damag boost and for setting up containment - less so with Dominators for some players.
• Would be good to increase the speed of the DoT being applied
• There seems to be an imbalance between sets which already have decent damage getting the best damaging ST immobs as well
• Suggestion to link being immobed to increase the secondary effect of the control set on that target.
• Reports that some immobs don't take IOs that they probably should - e.g. Stone Prison is -def but won't take accurate defense debuff or defense debuff sets.
• Linked to that - a suggestion to create a number of IO sets specific to the immobs a bit like the new End Mod sets.
• Also a suggestion on the secondary sets to swap out the T1 and T2 and/or to add some -def / res or a small AoE speed debuff around the immob'd target (difficult terrain type concept)
• Mesmerise stands out a little by offering a high mag, non position psi damage (good for Mog!)
• Lift stands out slightly by being faster than the others. Stone Prison the other end of that scale.
• Incentivise T1s by increasing Overpowering chance % and for Doms increasing the dom build rate
• Possibly add a -status protection effect to them, an immob'd target then becoming easier to hold, sleep etc.
• Potentially change AoE immob to be more PBAoE and then add -range to the T1 to adjust function 
• A suggestion that if you hit a target which is immob'd with another control power, the remaining DoT then bursts. Or the other way around where an ST immob applied to a controlled target triggers some kind of effect (depending on set)
• Apply a damage buff to the ST immob based on how many other powers from that set you have - a concept of "mastery" (need a diff word) of the power and your focussing it all against a single target. So as you level up your ST immob becomes more relevant

 

 

Weekly Discussion 86: Base Building

  Reveal hidden contents

This contains results from both Discord & The forum weekly discussion.

(Link to the Forum Discussion)

January 24th to 31st 2021

 

Here's some summarised comments from the week - thanks all for your contributions and special thanks to @Naomifor dropping in with some great feedback and info for the community!

 

• Ordering / sorting of the items in the base could be improved - so much to choose from but hard to find what you're after.
• A base tutorial would be fun
• The ability to "pre-fab" items for re-using groups of multiple items
• Nudge ability to move things just a touch
• Able to disable click to teleport
• eyedropper tool to select already placed item and have it ready to duplicate
• F5 settings to be a sticky toggle
• The return of base raiding
• Hexcode tinting choices
• A smaller grid size
• Ability to resize items
• Ability to save and share base designs
• AE access within bases
• Moving NPCs and Objects
• Custom TP points with renaming
• Able to make invisible objects or alpha adjustments
• Objects with noclip
• Options to hide all base wars and floors
• Interactive objects in base (light switches etc)
• Fix for item drift
• Personal housing per character
• A ruler
• Able to adjust local chat ranges in base
• Customizable NPCs
• PvP enabled areas within bases - like a fight room
• A pop up box for when people enter bases with basic information the owner wants to share with visitors
• More portals
• Recently used tab
• Able to flag areas as indoor/outdoor and set lighting defaults accordingly
• Able to adjust exit direction from a base portal when you arrive.
•  

 

 

Items requested: (shoutout to @Wravisfor their excellent Imgur list here https://imgur.com/a/HBGqytE) 

• Colour tintable vanguard portals

• More surfaces, with various size options, ideally with sides and a bottom, ideally tintable

• More generic building block items in general, again with sides and bottoms, and ideally tintable.

• Lighting options that produce colored light. 

• Salvage storage racks that aren't huge and ugly.  Alternate options for enhancement and inspiration storage would be good too.

• A merit reward vendor NPC; the ATM doesn't fit the theme of every base

• More decorative NPCs, not just civilians.

• Lava

• Force fields, in various sizes, like the blue force fields at the border of villain zones.  Big ones to keep visitors from going off the edge in outdoor bases, smaller ones for builders to get creative with.

• Silent versions of items that make noise.

• Scalable letters

• Letters with serifs

• Crawl spaces

• Walls with windows

• Round and curved surfaces in diff sizes

• More Oranbegan architecural pieces

• More City parts, roads etc

• Target dummies at least even level

• Pre-fab buildings for cityscapes

• Mugs

• Small water tile

• Ice themed objects

• More blue fire FX

• More lighting that is tintable

• Items that emit sound FX

• Items from RWZ

• Glass bottles, glasses etc

• Praetorian underground objects

• The wooden gazebo from the winter cabin map

• More eastern-themed items

• More surface textures

• Towels

• More Plants

• More street signs 

• More roof options

• Cargo containers like from the ships

• More vehicles

• Livestock

• Carriages

• Farm equipment

• Tintable butterflies and fish

• P2W NPCs

• Doors

• Curtains

• Mobs placeable as guards

•  

 

Edited January 31, 2021 by GM ColdSpark

[Gobbledigook]

  On 10/31/2020 at 4:30 PM, GM ColdSpark said:

Hello Folks!! I'll start a new post here to pickup the logging of the weekly discussion outputs (I'll make a minor edit to Miss' post to point folks to this one going forwards). I'll do my best to capture the common thoughts that came up, obviously for the full discussion you can refer to the forum discussion link for each week (in the spoiler) or search back in discord.

 

Weekly Discussion 74: UI Suggestions

  Reveal hidden contents

This contains suggestions from both Discord & The forum weekly discussion.

(Link to the Forum Discussion)

October 25th to 31st 2020

Map:

• Keep the zoom level constant in missions
• Translucency on the map

Window Positions:

• Netgraph Display can’t move
• Nav window & map to be merged to free up space
• A snap-to-grid type setup

Visibility:

• Make Health/Endurance/Buff window more eye-catching with more visual cues of impending doom.
• Linked to the above – more player choice as to which buffs show up
• The close window buttons being a bit too easy to miss
• Adding a range indicator

Usability:

• Being able to save setup across characters including window positions would be nice
• Saving powertray setups (pre-respec for example)
• A button to “clear all powers from trays”
• Base storage – being able to move all or change the default type for storage items
• Being able to lock trays so they don’t accidentally move from tray 1 to tray 9 at an inopportune moment!
• Stop base storage screens from randomly re-ordering themselves when taking things out/putting in.
• More power trays please & chat tabs
• More options to “do all” – e.g. claim all items in mail
• Enhancement Conversion – change from “In set and out of set” (with a sub menu for Rarity/Category) to 3 radio buttons for In Set, Rarity and Category – with the choice persisted.
• Speed up the enhancement boosters/catalysts time to apply
• Some of the text editing fields are a little hit and miss (e.g. bios and AE text), similar issues with numbers in the AH UI
• Make the powertrays indicate the key bound to the power rather than static to 1-9
• Give a collapse option in the incarnate power creation screen
• A new easy way to see influence / infamy
• Ability to hide/show/filter/sort contacts

Character Creator:

• When a player has selected a piece that has a matching piece in another “slot” put that piece to the top of the list
• Alphabetize the pieces

General Suggestions:

• Taking a pass over the AH UI to see if it can’t be made a little better (including the search and wrong price issues)
• Similarly the Arena interface
• Also the email interface so it is more readable
• Revamp and combine Contacts, Missions, Clues and Souvenirs so they are connected.
• Increased support for UHD resolutions
• A new screen to display and edit binds & macros

  

Weekly Discussion 75: Vote!

  Reveal hidden contents

This week we had a vote, across both the Discord and Forum communitites. Collated results are below and the top 5 will form the basis of our discussions for the next few weeks.

Thanks everyone for participating in the vote, I'm looking forward to the discussions ahead!

 

 

A) Noticeably underpowered sets; and what needs an emergency buff?
102

 

B) T1 Immobilizes in control sets
27

 

C) The Auction House - how to make it better for both new users and experienced ones
30

 

D) Mercenaries - Discuss!
52

 

E) Design an epic archetype for Praetorian Earth
56

 

F) Don't you just hate it when / love it when (with a focus on in game events not powers etc)
10

 

G) The pros/cons of making more hard-mode options for existing content vs new zones/missions
52

 

H) Incarnate powers, a discussion of ultimate power! (with possible follow-ups to go more specific)
40

 

I) Top Powerset Lucky Dip! I'll choose one of the top powersets you previously identified that haven't been covered yet (Darkness Manipulation, Force Field, Assault Rifle, Dark Miasma, Dark Melee, Devices)
30

 

J) T9 Lucky Dip! I'll choose one of the remaining T9 areas for discussion: Blaster/Defender/Sentinel/Corruptor Ranged Damage OR Brute/Stalker/Scrapper/Tank Melee Damage OR Dominator Assault & Mastermind
24

Weekly Discussion 76: Noticeably Underpowered sets. What needs an emergency buff?

  Reveal hidden contents

This contains suggestions from both Discord & The forum weekly discussion.

(Link to the Forum Discussion)

November 8th to 14th 2020

Thanks for the great discussion folks - I've tried to capture the most common tactical suggestions below (some are a little bit bigger I grant you)

 

Thanks to @CrudeVileTerrorfor usefully tallying up the number of times powers came up in the forums - the top 3 seem to be:

 

1. Assault Rifle
2. Mercenaries
3. Stone Armour

 

 

And here's some of the general themes (in no particular order)

 

Mercenaries

Potential de-couple of the medic from the T1, Medic to become the level 18 as a 7th pet, Adjust serum to balance.

Add DR and or stacking damage buffs to Equip Mercenary

Add some traps-type powers to the Spec Ops

 

Assault Rifle

Adjust the root on tier 9

Drop beanbag and add an Aim/BU equivalent

Increase AoE on M30 and flamethrower

Add incendiary rounds

Change Full Auto to be a rooting toggle with high end usage

Add more "gimmicks" to the attacks to make them more unique

 

Fire Melee

Boost damage a touch so it performs at a similar level to fire blase

 

Sonic attack

Increase attack speed to boost dpa

 

Mastermind Primaries

Balancing pass to even their performance

 

Force Field

Addition of some +Absorb to the bubbles / Absorb over time

 

Munitions Mastery

Give LRM some loving (sniper treatment maybe) - Look at Sleep grenades

 

Mind Control

Make more powers trigger containment (e.g. Fear and Confuse)

Speed up cooldowns on the bigger powers

 

Stone Armour

Adjust the powers outside of granite to make it less of a one-trick-pony

Remove the -jump but whilst off ground remove the buffs

 

Regeneration

Add a strong debuff resist to reflect it just healing over things

 

Bane Spiders

Speed up the animations on blasts a little

Make Shatter Armour crit from hide

 

Force of Will

Speed up activation times

 

Electrical Blast

Damage boost for more parity and to allow for the secondary effect being less meaningful in the current state of the game.

Change -end to -recharge to avoid enemies "cheating" the effect

Make the sounds more.... BOOM-y

 

Super Strength

Remove Rage  and buff baseline damage instead

 

Claws (on Stalkers)

Give them Spin/Follow-up or some element of AoE

 

 

 

Oh and apparently we need to replace the monorails with Monorail Cat. Gets my vote! 🙂

 

 

Expand  

I would like to say that removing Rage entirely was only suggested by 1 player. Other powers were mentioned more than once like Pain domination but did not make it to this list.

 

Rage doesn't need removing, just adjusting in my opinion. Plenty of suggestions have been made in other threads.

Edited November 16, 2020 by Gobbledegook

[Solarverse]

Well it would seem I was far too late to add my input on Ice Armor, and seeing that Ice Armor is my favorite primary for Tanks, I feel that I could have given great input on the flaws of the set and the bonuses and what I feel could be changed to make it better. I noticed a certain number of players who were giving suggestions on the set either hardly ever played one, or had one at low levels and I fear that their opinions of the set may influence a set that needs more attention than the insight they had to share.

Since that thread is already closed, is there anywhere I can give my views on the set or did I simply just miss out and am now at the mercy of suggestions (which very few were anything I thought would help the set) that were already made?

Also, if we are going to get rid of the graphics of the set (since that was the number one issue people seem to have with it) can we return the original graphics back to the set for those of us who actually loved them? The graphics were already nerfed once, I would for one like to see the old graphics for them return. It shouldn't be hard to do since the original graphics are in the original copy of City of Heroes. I have that copy by the way if you need it, heh.

[AustinSmith]

Rats, I wish I’d known about this thread earlier to throw in my cents. Fortunately Assault Rifle, Stone Armor, and Mercs would’ve been my top 3 anyway lol

[Monos King]

Not a fan of replacing electrical blast -end with -rech. There are many suggestions that are superior to outright replacing the thematic element of one set and stepping on another's toes.

Edited November 17, 2020 by Monos King

[Safehouse]

Missing from the week 76 notes are the remarks regarding Kinetic Melee. There were numerous comments indicating that it needs some buffs, including some feedback on how it could be improved (animation times for later tier attacks being too long as the set stands, for example), specifically around page 3/4 of the thread. I think it merits some mention here.

[Take One]

Can we add more future topics here?

Because I think it would be cool if we could consider updating some of the ancient TFs.

New Positron 1 & 2 are cool and all, but all the other original Phalanx TFs could use an update, and a reshuffle so they make more sense.

• Penelope Yin should host the Clockwork TF, which should involve the King trying to get back at Blue Steel.
• Synapse should host the Crey TF.

I'll save other ideas for the future discussion.

[Darmian]

  On 12/4/2020 at 6:03 PM, Take One said:

Can we add more future topics here?

Because I think it would be cool if we could consider updating some of the ancient TFs.

New Positron 1 & 2 are cool and all, but all the other original Phalanx TFs could use an update, and a reshuffle so they make more sense.

• Penelope Yin should host the Clockwork TF, which should involve the King trying to get back at Blue Steel.
• Synapse should host the Crey TF.

I'll save other ideas for the future discussion.

Expand  

Posi got rebuilt into two TFs.  Maybe Dr Quaterfield could get the same treatment?

[Take One]

  On 12/4/2020 at 6:56 PM, Darmian said:

Posi got rebuilt into two TFs.  Maybe Dr Quaterfield could get the same treatment?

Expand  

Ideally all of them should be rewritten to be shorter, maybe replaced with part 1 & 2 like Posi, but mostly just remove redundant filler missions and stuff.

Actually, each contact could have several shorter unrelated TFs, if one can't be converted into a two-parter.

Edited December 4, 2020 by Take One

[GM ColdSpark]

  On 12/4/2020 at 6:03 PM, Take One said:

Can we add more future topics here?

Because I think it would be cool if we could consider updating some of the ancient TFs.

New Positron 1 & 2 are cool and all, but all the other original Phalanx TFs could use an update, and a reshuffle so they make more sense.

• Penelope Yin should host the Clockwork TF, which should involve the King trying to get back at Blue Steel.
• Synapse should host the Crey TF.

I'll save other ideas for the future discussion.

Expand  

If you've got suggestions for future weeks, the best bet is to message me directly and I'll add them to the list for the next time we ask you all to vote on a set of topics

[Golden Azrael]

The problem with TFs I always found?

 

Boring.  (Especially the one in the orange dimension which will physically age you.)  Over written.  Over blown.   5 missions is enough for me.  

 

As it is...'some' team members rush to the end.  To expedite the TF runs.  A choice.  Ofc.  But many do to move things along a bit.  (As in 'get on with it.')

 

By the time I've done most TFs I've forgotten my name.  I prefer tips by comparison because there isn't the same time lock in.

 

And I didn't like the 8 man teams either.  A team of 5 would be enough, also.  For me.

 

Edit them.  Trim them down to size.

 

Another 'minor' detail.  'How many missions to go now?'

 

It would be nice to have the mission progress bar for the contacts in blue...segmented or numbered to show how far along the TF you are.  ie. Mission 3 of 5.  

 

It brings the 'Are we there yet?' out in me.  With the poor team leader needing to know the arc off by heart, from a photo memory or look up the answer on CoH wiki.

 

Why all the angst re: TFs?  Time commitment.  They are too long for me to get involved in them.  If ten tips gives you 40-50 merits.  Make the TFs 5 missions long and give you have of that.  20-25 merits.

 

I like the Hamburger format of CoH in general.  To have a more 'pick up and play' version of TFs would be nice.  Maybe have 'eazy' and 'hard' versions.  Or short and longer versions which vary by reward as per the difficulty.  Maybe an option to do a shorter version with less rewards to the equiv' longer version.  Option for a.  Hamburger TF.  vs.  b. War and Peace TF.

 

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  Let it out Azrael.  I've waited a long time to get that off my chest.

 

*Breaths into a paper bag.

 

Azrael.

Edited January 16, 2021 by Golden Azrael

[Stryke_Force]

Have the weekly discussions been put on hold? I've not seen a new one go up since the end of January.

[Darmian]

  On 2/20/2021 at 2:04 PM, Stryke_Force said:

Have the weekly discussions been put on hold? I've not seen a new one go up since the end of January.

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They are for the time being, yes.  Along with new Dev Choices.

[Stryke_Force]

  On 2/20/2021 at 2:58 PM, Darmian said:

They are for the time being, yes.  Along with new Dev Choices.

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Thanks, I just hadn't seen an announcement about and was curious.

[Darmian]

  On 2/20/2021 at 3:04 PM, Stryke_Force said:

Thanks, I just hadn't seen an announcement about and was curious.

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It's buried about half way down in the last announcement.

[Narfu12]

  On 10/31/2020 at 4:30 PM, GM ColdSpark said:

Assault Rifle

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Beanbag does not belong in a blaster set. That is needed for something like Corruptors. Not Blasters. I would say something along the lines of what I've seen ammo types or something to spice it up because honestly. A beanbag does not make sense at all. Maybe with a Longbow Nullfier but if they're gonna be blasters maybe something like an Aim or other wise something of equivalence to take the otherwise useless powers place with something thats actually useful. 

[Clave Dark 5]

I can never seem to understand what these threads are doing or where to current topic is being discussed.

[Darmian]

  On 3/21/2021 at 7:02 AM, Clave Dark 5 said:

I can never seem to understand what these threads are doing or where to current topic is being discussed.

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There's no "official" topic at the moment.

[Clave Dark 5]

OK, thanks.  I just seem to scroll and scroll and scroll, trying to find a recent date...  didn't they use to just sticky these at the top for a week then close them?  Or did we just stop doing them?

[Darmian]

They're on a hiatus (as are Dev Choices and so on) while the Devs/GMs sort stuff out, recruit community members and get their lives together because there's really only 6 of them!

[Darmian]

@Clave Dark 5here you go.  

Details a little bit in.