Changes...

[Peacemoon]

4 hours ago, Without_Pause said:

Because it is decidedly faster to get to T4s on everything if you use shards for the Alpha slot. I have two characters at the same vet level. One has 3 T3 and 3 T4s. The other has 5 T3s and 1 T4. I'm sure you can figure out which one uses shards.

Yeah that makes sense. I respect that. I do the same with threads and emp merits to maximise the amount I’m getting out of them. I only have 3 50s and a lot of vet levels, so I have been fortunate enough to be able to give my new 50 excess emp merits to help them along. 🙂

[smnolimits41]

what is the gunslinger bow in the costume changes, i've looked at both dual pistols and archery sets.  is it an emote or something ???

 

[merrypessimist]

17 minutes ago, smnolimits41 said:

what is the gunslinger bow in the costume changes, i've looked at both dual pistols and archery sets.  is it an emote or something ???

 

It's a female hair style/costume piece.

[smnolimits41]

thanks, i guess i was hoping it was a new gun skin 🙂

[Ruin Mage]

14 hours ago, Ukase said:

that's where I'm at. Is there a point to getting incarnate powers if we can't use them in this challenging content? 

The point is for a challenge. Incarnate powers made these optional settings way too easy. It was very very easy to just pop Barrier and mop the mission up.

Master of is back to its original form of requiring some work to complete, rather than being able to autopilot it.

[cranebump]

14 hours ago, Ukase said:

You guys keep calling it an MMO. I've stated this before - back in issue 3 when I got this game, I had no idea what the MMO letters stood for. And if I had known, I'd have likely not bought it. I continued to play in spite of it being an MMO, not because of it. But it's not an MMO anymore. There just isn't the player base to justify calling it that. It's a solo game with teaming optional. At least, that's the way I see it. 

I've never experienced any value added to teaming. 
 

It’s still an MMO because it has a lot of players playing online. I think that’s the baseline definition maybe? Not the teaming aspect. 
 

As for your antipathy to teams, the “value added” comment says a lot. It seems like you’re seeing your teammates not as people, but rather tactical choices, power slots, and efficiency add and subtracts. And while I guess that’s pretty important under these new challenge settings, I feel like, for a lot of us, teaming isn’t about adding value, but adding the people themselves. What makes a team fun isn’t always (or ever?) about efficiency. If it were, then of course every team would be a disappointment in some manner, because there’s no such thing as perfection, and therefore no way to ever be satisfied.

 

All that said, there’s still plenty of soloing out there for folks that want to avoid the madding crowd. I’m withholding any verdict on the new challenges til I play them. I do like the idea of no incarnate powers, if only to avoid the monotony of constant alpha strikes.

Edited November 27, 2021 by cranebump

[Without_Pause]

3 hours ago, Peacemoon said:

Yeah that makes sense. I respect that. I do the same with threads and emp merits to maximise the amount I’m getting out of them. I only have 3 50s and a lot of vet levels, so I have been fortunate enough to be able to give my new 50 excess emp merits to help them along. 🙂

On the flip side, I get a build to 50, and it is vastly parked unless I get the desire to go further. I'm currently at nine 50s, and could ding a few more if I lifted a finger or two. Going through the process of adding in fully going T4 on a build makes me less wanting to repeat that process. We are talking 80+ levels overall and at some point it does feel a bit like a grind. Once I get past having a build fully T4ed and can build up a stash of Emps, then yeah, it will make things easier for the next one.

 

Also note using shards meant as soon as one of the abilities became unlocked, I almost always had a T3 ready.

[gamingglen]

4 hours ago, smnolimits41 said:

thanks, i guess i was hoping it was a new gun skin 🙂

 

It is, sort of, if you pretend you're hiding your MAC-9000X in that big and pretty bow in your hair.  😉  

[arcane]

18 hours ago, Ukase said:

So...that's where I'm at. Is there a point to getting incarnate powers if we can't use them in this challenging content? 

If you plan on only playing the new hard modes from here on out, you belong to a very very tiny minority of players, I’m guessing. So doubtful you actually intended to imply that. My guess is Voltak’s gang will be almost the only ones genuinely serious about that.

 

But yeah, it’s a consideration. I will still want them because they are endlessly cool, but it does sound like I’ll have some adjustments to make during hard mode. Which is a good thing. Every other game mode was stupidly easy.

Edited November 27, 2021 by arcane

[Ironblade]

18 hours ago, Ukase said:

I wonder if some of these will rival "Avoids the Green Stuff" on the annoyance scale.

It looks like that is a 'yes'.

[Troo]

17 hours ago, Shenanigunner said:

It's still massive (as few games have ever been), it's still multiplayer (even solos share the same air, most of the time) and it's very much online (only). No Semanticist badge for you. 🙂

 

Does my private off-grid server count?

 

--- - ---

 

@Ukase you're not totally wrong.

Think of it this way. Page 3 leaned more teaming, and such. Maybe the next will have some solo content. I'd like that myself. 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2021 by Troo

[Coyotedancer]

I tend to either solo/duo or run with a small family team of 3-4 these days. I have pretty much zero interest in "City of Dark Souls"-style challenges. That's just never really been my thing personally, and to be brutally honest, it's also not a level of play that the family SG is up to handling now, or, quite possibly, ever. I don't actively badge anymore, either, so I won't be chasing the Master of-s. Given all that? I'm basically neutral on the new options. I don't hate them, but I'm also not in any way their target audience.

 

All that said, I'll continue to get iToys for my characters as they hit 50, just because I personally feel like that's just another part of finishing them. Like giving them an IO set build or finding the right badge title, it's become a part of 'the way things are done' for me. And, since I won't be dealing with the challenge modes often or at all, I'll still get to use them on a regular basis in the regular, old style content. 

 

I think it'll be interesting to see just how popular the hard-mode play actually is. Will everyone but the more-l33t-than-thou power-gamer types ignore it once they have the badges? Or will the increased rewards turn it into the standard mode of play with everything else being snubbed as "baby mode"? I have no idea... I guess we'll see once the challenge setting are widely applied to all of the other TFs and SFs and such. 

[Shenanigunner]

1 hour ago, Troo said:

Does my private off-grid server count?

 

Only in the sense of having an F-150 Lariat Edition locked in a vault somewhere. 🙂

[iBot]

My 0.02 inf...

 

This is only the first round of difficulty changes.  Personally, I think in the future there will be more content that requires incarnate powers.  I know that this patch removed the alpha slot req for Apex/Tin man but I think that was done more to open up the runs for players that didn't get to alpha yet rather than removing incarnate content.  So for right now I agree that incarnates can be skipped for the current settings but future who knows.  Keep in mind, all the higher difficulty settings actually reward incarnate salvage so it would be very odd in my mind for them to give that reward table and then remove the use of those powers for more content.

 

Along that note, I only worry about the first level shift for most of my characters unless I really enjoy playing that toon.  In that case I might get to T4 alpha and T3 in the rest.  Otherwise I do have several 50s that don't even have an alpha slot yet cause the toon was made for a specific event run and not played since.

[Ukase]

22 hours ago, Aurora_Girl said:

 

I ask this in all seriousness, how do you relate to other people? Like, in real life. I don't drive blindfolded because other people haven't run into me...

Depends. For work, my job requires I build relationships with candidates and clients alike. I get to wear the white hat and put people in a better position than they're in now. Usually more money, better perks, etc. (I'm an executive recruiter) On LinkedIn, I've got over 8K contacts. It's a lot of damned Christmas Cards I'm mailing out each year, I'll tell you that. Over $260 in postage! As for people outside of work - I haven't related to anyone in person since the pandemic, outside of interaction at the grocery store. I mean - how could anyone? Socially distancing and all that. 

The game was always a place to get things done without having to team up to do them. Now, I still have teamed up for various badge efforts - Really Hard Way, Avoids the Green Stuff, other iTrials and the occasional Master of TF/SFs. I just don't enjoy the teaming experience most of the time. Occasionally, I do. And the new patch won't change much about that. Nobody's putting a gun to my head saying I "must do these things".  I just would rather the new badges not be team dependent. But I'm just one voice. 

I'm simply not going to do them until I want to do them. The new SF is about 3x as long as it should be. But hey, at least it's new content. They'd have been better served making it Aeon Pt 1, Pt 2, and Pt 3, but that's just one person's opinion. 
 

[Ukase]

22 hours ago, Peacemoon said:

Just a question but why do you use shard? Threads are so much easier to get and can be used to craft Alpha slots too.

The short answer is - it's faster and easier to get the t-3 in alpha using shards - IF you're trying to get t-3 in lore and destiny as fast as you can. I'm good with burning a trancendent merit to get there in some instances, but usually, just by running content organically (MSR, Hami, a few tfs) I'll get my Alpha t-3 without burning threads within a day. But I also try to avoid lengthy incarnate content until I get my t-3 in alpha complete. 

Shards do not drop as often as threads, that's true. But - if you do MSRs, Hami Raids, and other content that's not in Dark Astoria, they do drop. And they drop fairly often. 
Now, my ...methods aren't practical for everyone. I can blow through influence and reward merits and not miss any of it. Another player may not be willing to do things the way I do them. 

But, when I have a fresh 50, I will want to do the weekly. Not for the double merits, but for the Notice of the Well. I will also want to do Mortimer Kal (can be solo'd in 20 minutes without much fuss) and get the extra notice from the Flames of Prometheus conversion. 

But, in order to use the NotW, I need 12 shards for the Alpha t-1, and 20 shards to make the Alpha t-2. And 8 shards and the notice for t-3. So, 40 shards.
But, if I do an MSR, I can trade in 150 vg merits for a gr'ai matter, which saves me 4 shards. Sometimes 8 shards, depending on the recipe. 

If I do a lady gray tf, I can get a hero 1 component. If I do an ITF, I can get an Ancient Nictus Fragment. I won't often do those, but I will do a 3x hami raid, which is generally good for 9-10 shards. I realize I could use threads, but threads drop in lumps only 8 times (aside from iTrial bonuses). 
So, in running these tfs, it's not out of the question to get t-3 alpha fairly quickly. Just depends on the rng sometimes. 

Because of that, I find it much smarter to save those threads for the other 5 slots. Once I have the t-3 in Alpha for the level shift, I don't even look at shards again until I'm t-4 in all the other slots. By then, I've usually got enough shards to finish the t-4 in alpha. 
If I do a lot of in incarnate stuff, say...a few underground trials, Keyes - - those leave a better chance of better rewards. (view the table below) 

 

But - in the past year, I've found myself growing weary of these trials. Regardless of whose leading these, it can take up to 20 minutes just to form up the league. That's a lot of time wasted that I cannot get back. Time is more precious than money. I can accumulate money, stash it for a rainy day. I cannot stash time away. When it's gone, it is gone, there's no getting it back. That's the biggest reason why I hate teaming. Whenever you team, you can bet that 95 times out of 100, you're going to be waiting at least 5 minutes for someone to show up and get in zone to get things started. I'd rather not wait. I will if I have to, I just prefer not to do so. 

So, I will three box heather townsend as fast as I can for 3 reward tables. And I'll do Mu's as well. And so on. I find that even though these are not as fast as heather's arc, they're still faster than waiting for a league to form, and complete the trial, than if I just proceed on my own. And each character will get a reward table 3x. 

Once you spend a thread on alpha - that's a thread you can't spend on any of the others. And they're limited in supply. They only drop 120 at a time, 2 vet levels out of 3. 
If one were to not use shards, it would cost you 320 threads (or 16 common components), 120 threads (or 2 uncommon components) 16 emps (or 2 rare components) & 30 emps (or 1 very rare compenent) ... and that would be for hybrid, Lore, Destiny, interface, Judgement AND Alpha.
440 threads x 6
vs 
120 threads at vet levels 1,2,4,5,7,8,10,11 =1080 threads.  But I need more than 2x that many, even not using Alpha. So, yeah, to me, better to save those threads for the non-alpha stuff. 
Now, threads will drop in a farm, or other content, just as shards would. But, you need SOOO many more threads than shards. Seems like a no-brainer to me to use them if they drop for you. If they don't, well, then, use what you get. Me, I'll use shards. 

Your experience may differ.  A lot depends on the rng on reward tables, of course. The only trial I seem to get lucky with is Underground. Just anecdotal evidence that tells me all the other itrials suck. 

[Aeroprism]

14 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

 If my character is Andre the Giant fighting a class of kindergartners, incarnate powers are the equivalent of giving Andre a baseball bat to hurry things up.

 

This mental image.

 

It is gloriously eloquent and I will never, ever tire of it.

 

Poetry.

[Albion]

The game upgrades will always lean towards encouraging and improving team playing, because that is the core nature of the game, solo players dedicated stuff will never be made, the team has limited resources and applying them into that is a luxury, or a waste, what can happen is that this or that mechanic benefits those who like to play alone, and the devs won't axe it out of consideration. Despite how we like to enjoy the game (and how we can get away with it thanks to peculiar things like soft capped defense among others), it is and will always be multiplayer.

[Songseven]

4 hours ago, Ukase said:

I'm simply not going to do them until I want to do them.

ok...

 

 

kinda glad you prefer solo play, you're not really someone i would like to run into,

 

how about a lil' tiny, wee bit of gratitude instead of the incessant complaining about content you don't even participate in.

 

but hey, maybe some of those 8k contacts you spend $260 on posting Xmas cards to, just burn em too!

 

Edited November 28, 2021 by Songseven

[Ukase]

"Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent". 

I should probably have remained silent. I have to recant my initial position, as I now have more information. 

[iBot]

10 minutes ago, Ukase said:

"Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent". 

I should probably have remained silent. I have to recant my initial position, as I now have more information. 

Naw.  You formed an opinion based on the information you had at the time.  That opinion was flawed and collectively we convinced you to reassess your position which you were smart enough to do.  Anyone that shared the same opinion is also now better off.  Silence is never a good thing.  Free exchange of ideas is. 👍

[Ukase]

What bugs me the most is I need to relearn reading comprehension. 

Words on screen: One plus one equals two. 
Brain interprets: Null pointer exception. 

The stress from real life has always been real, but when it impacts sleep, it's impacts my ability to process information properly. The information was there, I just processed it incorrectly. Kind of like being color blind, only instead of color it's words, lol. 

[Bill Z Bubba]

1 hour ago, Ukase said:

What bugs me the most is I need to relearn reading comprehension. 

Words on screen: One plus one equals two. 
Brain interprets: Null pointer exception. 

The stress from real life has always been real, but when it impacts sleep, it's impacts my ability to process information properly. The information was there, I just processed it incorrectly. Kind of like being color blind, only instead of color it's words, lol. 

 

You just described the state under which I was perpetually plagued until I threw a molotov at my reality, quit my job, sold my house and moved to a different corner of the country,

 

Burnout is an unpleasant mindset. Temporary retirement and legal pot might be good for you, too!

[0th Power]

On 11/27/2021 at 3:32 AM, Yomo Kimyata said:

 If my character is Andre the Giant fighting a class of kindergartners, incarnate powers are the equivalent of giving Andre a baseball bat to hurry things up.  

slightly related quiz

[DrunkFlux]

So reading some comments, here goes.

 

Firstly, most players don't actually like optimizing 'that' much.  The challenge difficulties require that as much as humanly possible.  Also, optimizing means leadership: Maneuvers and tactics.

 

Two, when teaming is required, yes, you start seeing teammates for there powers and builds and not as people.  CoH was awesome because teaming was fun but optional.  Key word being fun.  It wasn't required.  Guild wars teaming was required, everyone, myself included, began to only see people for the build and not as people.  And player behavior reflected it by saying "Well the monk sucks" rather than "He sucks" or "The boonprot is not built correctly" ect.  You are not a person, your a build in guild wars, period.  It's why I love CoH so much more.  But the challenge settings rub me off as whether or not you have maneuvers and tactics.

 

Players shouldn't experience this:

 

 

Three: Any content can be trivialized if people take maneuvers/tactics and they all have them across the team.  Not everyone wants to have to do that, but handling the highest of the challenge settings almost requires it, at the very least 3-4 stacks tactics to hit anything reliably through the mob def buffs.  Otherwise yeah, you need support archtypes.

 

That last point is obvious just looking over the numbers the mobs get, you don't even have to play the game to know what those numbers are.  But many players under-estimate the power of 5+ players stacking maneuvers.  even 3+ is pretty potent in normal gameplay(though not enough if you don't have any def yourself).   So, again, Maneuvers and tactics.

 

Honestly glad it's a separate setting and not a universal everyone has to play it that way like some players might want(just so they can brag they are good at the game and other people aren't cause that makes them think they are better than everyone.)  I've little interest in it myself, I tried building an SR tanker for it and the mids build rubbed me off as over-specialized and to impractical.  All tanker builds require a force fielder to become combat-fit on the top setting, everyone in fact requires one in practicality.  And maneuvers + tactics.