Can't we just get a difficulty slider that applies to ALL game content? Where the slider is at is dandy and but it doesn't actually affect most of the game.
Figure out all the cute mechanics later. Let's just make the tech work and stop releasing content that is incompatible with the slider...we have enough alerts.
That can be done without debating whether or not the game is too easy.
There are still many players out there still don't have freeform and they are enjoying the game with ATs. Some ATs such as The Blade is very squishy and they can die even fighting normal enemies such as the Viper soldiers.
So to be suitable for everyone, adding different option into the diffulties selection will be good. The dev team can add tough and elite tough into the difficulties selection. Moreover, Cosmic type of boss with enhanced ability can be added to adventure packs or cosmic series for diffculties selection.
Once again, showing you know nothing about the game's mechanics. Invunlns had no defense debuff resistance (or maybe a little, I just know it was easy as hell to be dropped to nothing in a matter of seconds), meaning just about everything dropped their defense into Negatives. This was a problem for sets like Shield defense, that not only had more defense to begin with, but actually had more defense debuff resistance as well.
In a nutshell, what this meant was nearly every mob group in the game had some way of tanking your defense. This is why SR softcapped beat the hell out of invuln softcapped, or really any other set with defense: It had MASSIVE defense debuff resistance. 95% is enough that you'll practically never see your defense drop more than a percent or two.
Vhaz had pitiful damage. Doesn't matter whether you resist it when they hit like puppies in the first place. See: Why Arachnos Toxic Spider robots were so much worse, they hit like a truck. And for my willpower, that was literally the only thing that phased him in Arachnos.
Freaks were easy. No matter what you say, this was a known FACT. Even Blasters laughed at Freak Tanks, despite they could do their health in one hit, because they had absolutely no range besides a weak little buzzsaw on a medium recharge.
You also show your lack of experience with the game when talking about Carnies. Carnies doing Psi damage wasn't even half of what made them bad. Some of them (illusionists specifically) did non positional Psi damage, as in damage that couldn't be dodged unless you had defense specifically tagged "Psi" since it wasn't Ranged, Melee and AoE. Don't forget that the masked chicks had MASSIVE defense debuffs that would drop the defense of anything that wasn't SR into negative numbers or at least close, and that same attack would also hammer your energy regeneration. Which was bad because EVERY SINGLE CARNY you killed drained your energy.
And you know what? They weren't hard. They weren't really that hard, not at all. The problem here, is you're mistaking hard content, for a hard powerset: Very few characters were particularly threatened by everything the group did, and most of your average or above average builds at least had a way around them. I don't think you understand just how lopsided Invuln was as a set, SR, Regen, Willpower for the most part, Dark Armor for the most part, even Firey Aura to a lesser extent, all were more even than Invuln. Just about everything had a weakness or two, but Invuln was the only set in the game that was so horrifically specialized. Either you were practically invincible, or things would level you.
Just quit. You have no idea what you're talking about. You've played it more recently, and off the top of your head you don't even know half of what the groups did and what it meant for the player, or else you would have gone on further to mention it already. You think Psi and Toxic damage was the end all be all and the worst stuff in the game, it wasn't. It's nothing compared to what non positional attacks could do, and it doesn't account for stuff that just hit hard, or bypassed defenses that it should apply to, or otherwise just screwed over the player.
If you understood any of this, you'd understand why CoX wasn't harder by a long shot, it was just more situational, as I mentioned earlier. It was situational in a way that is bad, too: When you died, you usually didn't die because you did something wrong, but because you were fighting something that just straight up ignored your abilities. On the other hand, when you succeeded, it was because you just happened to walk in with the right pair of shoes on. The end result of this was that when you understood the game properly, you could pick your powersets to minimize your weaknesses, which led to a lot of powersets becoming largely redundant.
To summarize, CoX was really no different than CO: It was hard if you didn't know what you were doing, it was easy if you did. The devs there were smart, they didn't mess with that, and most of the players were wise enough to accept it. Hell, my casual as hell friends who came over here and repeatedly died until they quit the game could do the endgame stuff they added after I left, and if they can do it, I can probably run through it blindfolded.
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
Can't we just get a difficulty slider that applies to ALL game content? Where the slider is at is dandy and but it doesn't actually affect most of the game.
Figure out all the cute mechanics later. Let's just make the tech work and stop releasing content that is incompatible with the slider...we have enough alerts.
That can be done without debating whether or not the game is too easy.
Think about how this would have to be done.
Realize why it wont be done, because it's hard.
They have enough trouble getting multiple AI subroutines to play nice with each other, let alone ones that only activate in the presence of a player with an invisible difficulty buff on them. How many times have we seen the AI for scripted events get broken to hell over and over?
That's not even getting into how limited their options are for that, in a game based on autohit attacks with a fair amount of random rolls involved.
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
Yes...i am, id rather you didnt try and put words in my mouth Xaugrunt, especially words in the opposite direction of what im trying to achieve.
Maybe i am mistaken but i thought you were leaving this topic because you simply have nothing to add to your delusional and pointless whining from simply misreading posts or throwing a wobbler and making yourself look like a troll and nothing else. Im sure i read that, oh here it is!
EDIT: Y'know what, nevermind. I made a promise to myself to stop arguing even indirectly with some of the dullards in this thread, and I'm going to keep it. I've said my protest, it remains.
Anything in development is hard. Regardless, the end result is that we have a difficulty slider that's pretty much been abandoned, which is a shame cause its the obvious feature that needs to be improved to satisfy a community so divided by game difficulty.
I decided to stick around, that should teach people to challenge me.
If you want to talk about delusional, you're pretty much the king of it. I mean, you have a lot of people contesting you for that title, but out of all the people who can't see the reality of things as it stares them directly in the face, I think I have to hand the trophy for best in class to you.
Because not only do you ask for something that's unreasonable to expect in any cohesive and well designed manner that doesn't piss off everyone, the way you ask for it is completely ridiculous.
And FYI, no words were put in your mouth. I took what you said as you said it, and your opening post makes no mention of changes to the actual effect of the sliders. As such, the words rest squarely in your own mouth. Discussion of allowing the difficulty slider to effect more things has in fact been part of this thread, however that would have happened even if you weren't remotely involved because it's an issue that would need to be resolved if anything were to happen, and it's also something Cryptic has shown an unwillingness or inability to deliver in any capacity.
In fact, I'd go as far as to point out for much of the content in your video to be effected by such a difficulty slider, gaining what you describe in the OP, the difficulty slider would have to effect entire zones as giving enemies 3000% HP in the overworld is not something that can happen in any other way. The closest you could achieve would be a massive debuff on the players damage, which is a mechanic that we've suggested before- even if not at such ridiculous extents- and, once again, have not seen any ability for Cryptic to provide.
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
Anything in development is hard. Regardless, the end result is that we have a difficulty slider that's pretty much been abandoned, which is a shame cause its the obvious feature that needs to be improved to satisfy a community so divided by game difficulty.
It would just...be nice...so nice.
It's a matter of severity. As I just mentioned, we can't even get them to make the difficulty slider we already have act as a flavorless, odorless debuff on the player, which would be great for reasons not even related to what it effects.
This suggestion was made by many, repeatedly, since the difficulty slider was originally implemented, and I know I'm at least one of the first to make the suggestion.
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
It's a matter of severity. As I just mentioned, we can't even get them to make the difficulty slider we already have act as a flavorless, odorless debuff on the player, which would be great for reasons not even related to what it effects.
This suggestion was made by many, repeatedly, since the difficulty slider was originally implemented, and I know I'm at least one of the first to make the suggestion.
I respect your posts alot, so let's not spend all your talents validating Cryptic's unwillingness to look at the difficulty slider. They ought to look at it. Just a look. A little peep-show. Just a "heyyy we're looking @ difficulty guys!"
Cause regardless of what you think of Snake...he's making the community think about difficulty. That's all Cryptic really needs to take from this thread.
Let's not spend all your talents validating Cryptic's unwillingness to look at the difficulty slider. They ought to look at it. Just a look.
It is as it is, whether one wants to accept it or not.
Even I have moments where my judgment lapses and I go "OH HEY, THEY SHOULD DO THIS COOL THING EVERYONE WOULD LIKE," before being smacked back down to reality by the facts. I recently did this with the foundry, but then I realized even if we did get them to hurry up and get us that, it would be in a very half asses fashion and would probably have some really sketchy monetization scheme attached to it. At which point I did what INTELLIGENT people do, and changed my stance on the matter.
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
It is as it is, whether one wants to accept it or not.
Even I have moments where my judgment lapses and I go "OH HEY, THEY SHOULD DO THIS COOL THING EVERYONE WOULD LIKE," before being smacked back down to reality by the facts. I recently did this with the foundry, but then I realized even if we did get them to hurry up and get us that, it would be in a very half asses fashion and would probably have some really sketchy monetization scheme attached to it. At which point I did what INTELLIGENT people do, and changed my stance on the matter.
Asking Cryptic to consider difficulty isn't a lapse in judgement. Its more of a sensible sentiment. :P
I have indeed followed the debuff and difficulty-zones suggestions and their reasons for their implausibility (*cough vehicles*). But just cause they can't do it (yet) doesn't mean that it isn't what we need.
A lot of people are saying elite should be gated for just freeforms.
This idea is just plain bad. Sorry but it is.
I haven't said anything about gating the difficulty. Scaling it yes. It's needed. You know as well as I that a decently built freeform outperforms an AT of the same level. It's not fair to players to scale the whole game around one or the other which is what the difficulty settings are for. Scale the higher end of the spectrum for freeforms and the lower end for ATs. How is that a bad thing?
Igaining what you describe in the OP, the difficulty slider would have to effect entire zones as giving enemies 3000% HP in the overworld is not something that can happen in any other way
You are delusional, come back when you have facts.
Cause regardless of what you think of Snake...he's making the community think about difficulty. That's all Cryptic really needs to take from this thread.
Thats all im out to do. *thumbs up*
I'll add to this and say if difficulty in Very Hard/Elite (after an increase in difficulty) becomes a little too hard for AT's, would that make a customer think "i should buy a freeform/subscribe" ?
Its a very wise decision at a business level as well as a crowd pleaser.
I haven't said anything about gating the difficulty. Scaling it yes. It's needed. You know as well as I that a decently built freeform outperforms an AT of the same level. It's not fair to players to scale the whole game around one or the other which is what the difficulty settings are for. Scale the higher end of the spectrum for freeforms and the lower end for ATs. How is that a bad thing?
Because that would have the unfortunate side-effect of 'gating' that option from the majority of the player base now that we are F2P. Sure ATs/Silvers could 'try' it if they chose to, but everyone that's been here a while knows exactly how that would play out in application. They'd try, they'd fail, there'd be a fire (particularly if there were any rewards tied to an Elite mode that's scaled for 5 freeforms). Is less of a problem with the suggestion and more of a problem with trying to cater to this hybrid model CO uses (F2P vs. Sub).
Add tough and elite tough to the difficulty selection will be good enough to make stuff much more harder to accomplish.
Also increase the level cap and add some COSMIC type monsters with enhanced ability in adventure pack and comic series for elite, tough and elite tough difficulties will be interesting. Increasing the level cap will provide more advantage points so that tanks can add more points to Cripple challenge and some points to higher damage so that their role can be improve in protecting the group.
Add tough and elite tough to the difficulty selection will be good enough to make stuff much more harder to accomplish.
Also increase the level cap and add some COSMIC type monsters with enhanced ability in adventure pack and comic series for elite, tough and elite tough difficulties will be interesting. Increasing the level cap will provide more advantage points so that tanks can add more points to Cripple challenge and some points to higher damage so that their role can be improve in protecting the group.
Increasing the level cap without the requisite content increase that usually accompanies it is a no go. And the odds of this game getting a significant content increase anytime soon is seemingly small.
Teaming had alot to do with difficulty in CoH. CoH was strictly all about classic trinity gameplay. I remember my Blaster and Defender ATs having no chance solo'ing a good portion of the game. Solo'ing as either in a TF was unthinkable. Even as I souped up my Blaster with high-tiered IO sets and got my ranged attack evasion (I forgot the accurate name) to slightly above 50%, there was still no chance I was going to get through content unless I got into a team that had a good trinity setup in order.
.... are you kidding? One of the things I loved about CoH is that the Trinity was absolutely NOT required. The game didn't even have a dedicated "healer" class (the closest being a Defender with Empathy, but Empathy was only one powerset choice out of a dozen, many of which had no heals at all), nor a dedicated "DPS" class (most classes could put out good damage). Once the hero/villain division was removed last year, it didn't even have a real dedicated "tank" class (with Brutes filling that role almost as well as Tankers, and even Scrappers and Masterminds with a decent - not min-maxed, just decent - build and a taunt power could tank).
Blasters were an edge case - they were extremely weak on survivability, and possibly the "worst" class in the game. (Which Issue 24 was going to address by giving them incredibly potent regen and recovery powers, but that's water under the bridge now, I guess). I don't know why your Defender was having problems, but that depends on your Primary (some are more solo-oriented, some are more team-oriented).
... as for me, what I'd like in this game is the ability to turn it down a notch, below "Normal". (That is, in fact, what I eventually did with my Blaster in CoH - turned the difficulty down to -1/x1, turned Bosses and Arch-Villains off) Yesterday CO did nothing but frustrate me as it killed me a dozen times and made me waste all my healing and revival items, only to finally end the mission with a Super Villain that I couldn't beat because her demon pet was healing itself more quickly than I was damaging it. (And now I have to do it all again, only without the healing or revival items)
"It is unthinkable. But such is the nature of villainy, don't you think? To do the unthinkable, to challenge the impossible, to conquer all before you and make destiny your own." - Ghost Widow
Increasing the level cap without the requisite content increase that usually accompanies it is a no go. And the odds of this game getting a significant content increase anytime soon is seemingly small.
Yeah I wish there will be some new content and I have suggested some new story to be added into the missions in the suggestion box last time. I am pretty sure we are far from getting new content. Put the hope in 2013.
Xao, I know you want me to stop but, I just can't. You see... your ignorance is so blatant that I've been linking this thread to friends that have been bummed out about CoH's closing. Your comments have been the biggest laughs some of them have had in the last week.
As I said, your playstyle heavily shows from what you're saying and it does. Outside of mezzes, there was very little psi damage that didn't have a positional tag assigned to it and it would only be a threat to someone running a character that uses nothing but positional defenses. I know this because I also had a 50 SS/SR and a 50 Elec/SD. You won't shut up about how amazing SR was because it's massive defense debuff resistance and aren't even considering that it was an all or nothing type of mitigation or that, outside of elec armor, multiple forms of layered mitigation are always going to be better.
You can't stop talking about blasters either and seemed to think that ruin mages were the ultimate threat because of their AoE KDs? All it took to defeat that was hover. That's not even mentioning the fact that blasters were terrible DPSers as the game progressed and were outdamaged by practically everything. The power creep in that game made blasters worthless and this is coming from someone that loved playing blasters.
You mentioned pylons as well and seemed to think that was a great challenge. When I was bored I would screw with friends that were trying to organize mothership raids by throwing off their rotations and forcing them to start early by going out and soloing multiple pylons on the toon that you keep saying I know nothing because I played it. You must have missed the point where I said I ran everything at +4/x8 on that toon. Willful ignorance perhaps?
You've also talked about incarnate trials and seem to think that you could do them blindfolded because your friends said they were easy? Your vaunted SR toon would be torn to shreds in one of those. You needed a minimum 60% defense to be softcapped in an incarnate trial. From what you've said, you seem to think that your friends weren't as good as you. If that's the case, they thought trials were easy because people like me helped them. That Katana/Invuln you keep saying had to be garbage was described by other players as a one person league. Just so you know, leagues were gatherings up multiple teams that could form up to hold a total of 48 members. I soloed incarnate content on that toon. If people came over to help me with a mob I'd tell them to go find their own.
Regen was a terrible set and Willpower was the poor man's Invuln. The fact that you think Fire Armor and Dark Armor were good proves how little you knew. I'd educate you but, the game is shut down. There's no point now.
By all means, continue to explain to me how little I know. There are people reading this and laughing at you and they could use another laugh.
Because that would have the unfortunate side-effect of 'gating' that option from the majority of the player base now that we are F2P. Sure ATs/Silvers could 'try' it if they chose to, but everyone that's been here a while knows exactly how that would play out in application. They'd try, they'd fail, there'd be a fire (particularly if there were any rewards tied to an Elite mode that's scaled for 5 freeforms). Is less of a problem with the suggestion and more of a problem with trying to cater to this hybrid model CO uses (F2P vs. Sub).
This, I can understand. The issue I have with it is that I don't think the game should be scaled around either group and that a balance needs to be found between the two. If it's not through adjusting the difficulty then how? By making content geared specifically towards freeforms? That'd be a much bigger gate than adjusting the game's difficulty. While I can understand that it would cause some resentment among F2P players, the Freeform users are paying customers. Are we really saying that the fact that they're supporting this game with their money so means nothing?
I also want to take a moment to point out that I am against the idea of higher levels of difficulty giving better rewards. I think there should be an increased chance for some rewards and a higher amount of resources per kill but, I also think that those rewards should be balanced so that both players get the same quantity of rewards for their time played. No better gear or anything like that at higher dif. Just scale the drop rates along with the dif so the reward rate stays roughly constant.
No, I'm done with this particular person. It's pointless to argue with someone so ignorant and idiotic, and seeing as we've got Jenny going 9gag/Reddit on the thread it's obvious that the ignorant mob is converging towards critical mass. In fact, I'm not even bothering to read his post, there's just no point to it because given past trends it'll be a complete and total waste of my time. There's no point in even talking about CoX, because the game is dead, and I pointing out the truth of the matter as it's relevant to CO so there's no point in continuing discussion of it.
You, at least got some of what was being said, apparently without even reading it. While some people are never capable of coming to intelligent conclusions, it's nice to know that some people can. Even Squee gets it, whether accepting it or not. That's all I really wanted, was at least a few other people to use their ******n brains for three seconds, which seems to be something you're hard pressed to find around here.
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
Xao... SR was a great set for normal content, and very easy to softcap... Invul was FAR better, period due to layered defenses. incarnate content? yeah... SR had a really hard time unless they were soft capped for itrials and even then it was harder than others. Energy Aura performed awesomely on itrials.
You also seem to ignore how the game was in the last months, so please do not continue with your attempt... you are embarrassing yourself.
Xiogrunt i think it's best you just leave this be as you seem to be angry, grudge-fumed and have nothing relevant or correct to bring to the table.
I'm angry, but grudges have nothing to do with it. My anger comes from dealing with people who are as determined to make suggestions as they are clueless.
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
Yes lets brush Xiogrunt's bickering aside and get back on topic.
Why do Supervillains or our Nemesis for example, have like...less than 4 powers?
Extra difficulty could also be in the form of more powerful attacks being launched
This would make enemies less predictable if theyre all given a full powerbar to use.
Imagine an enemy charging Sniper Rifle on you (at player strength, not weak current npc strength)
Or what if an enemy could hit you and your team mates with Torrent of Arrows with the extra advantage to knock you.
As well as extra figures, enemies are still using T1 powers and not much else.
Yes lets brush Xiogrunt's bickering aside and get back on topic.
Why do Supervillains or our Nemesis for example, have like...less than 4 powers?
Extra difficulty could also be in the form of more powerful attacks being launched
This would make enemies less predictable if theyre all given a full powerbar to use.
Imagine an enemy charging Sniper Rifle on you (at player strength, not weak current npc strength)
Or what if an enemy could hit you and your team mates with Torrent of Arrows with the extra advantage to knock you.
As well as extra figures, enemies are still using T1 powers and not much else.
I don't mind supervillains getting more powers at higher difficulties. The high damage charged attacks should still be telegraphed though.
Why do Supervillains or our Nemesis for example, have like...less than 4 powers?
Extra difficulty could also be in the form of more powerful attacks being launched
This would make enemies less predictable if theyre all given a full powerbar to use.
You should know better than this, if you're such an "honest researcher." Let's list the two biggest reasons why:
1. More powers doesn't necessarily make them stronger. To ensure that the additional powers actually add something, the mobs using them as well as the powers themselves have to be crafted correctly. Simply throwing more powers onto a mob will not achieve this, as if the mob has say, a version of Force Cascade, with no cooldown, and you have say, eyebeams in their power list somewhere, any time they use that instead of Force Cascade they end up doing less damage. This is to say nothing of stuff like a mob using a weakish ranged knock to smack you out of the way of a melee haymaker, thus actually saving you.
2. Which brings me to: AI programming and crafting new mobs actually takes some work. Unless you're frankenstitching them together from existing powers, you have to tweak stats if not make new mechanics and maybe even animations as well. If you wish to give these mobs interesting and intelligent use of their newfound powers, they need to have AI, since anything between the mob gimping themselves in combat to being way, way more powerful than intended due to the wrong use of a special attack is possible.
Given this, the more interesting, unique and difficult a mob is the harder it is to simply take a bunch of existing mechanics and throw them together. Back in the day, Black Fang would hang you by your underwear if you didn't know what you were doing, because he had mechanics no one had seen before. In order to keep players challenged sufficiently in a game that's meant to have extended replay value, you have to continue throwing new stuff at them.
Imagine an enemy charging Sniper Rifle on you (at player strength, not weak current npc strength)
NPCs that are not bosses are not meant to be as strong as the player. Not only is this bad game design, to have a mook type enemy that can potentially one shot you with an extremely long range autohit attack, it's completely out of line with what you expect from the superhero genre. Even in dark gritty settings: In watchmen, it took a swat squad to pull Rorschach in, and even then he put up a hell of a fight. Now consider this is a man with no special powers, and not even the best gadgetry or training.
If you want random minions to be a serious threat to you, there's plenty of fantasy MMOs where you can fight bunny rabbits that can tear you a new one. But this is a Superhero game, that doesn't fly here.
Or what if an enemy could hit you and your team mates with Torrent of Arrows with the extra advantage to knock you.
It's called shotgun, and believe me you'll be wishing they DIDN'T do this after you get chain knocked up a wall a couple dozen times in Harmon Labs. Yes, that is correct, this already is in game to an extent. There's a list of problems with knocks in this game a mile long, ranging from how they interact with block, to how they chain. It should also be noted that it becomes horrifically unfun to fight, irregardless of whether it's hard or not.
As well as extra figures, enemies are still using T1 powers and not much else.
That's all your common mook is supposed to have. Bosses and higher ranked enemies already use T3s and even T4s sometimes. This already exists as it's supposed to, albeit to varying degrees of effectiveness depending on what you're fighting.
In fact, that's an excellent example of why AI programming is often needed to make stuff work right at all: There are a number of enemies who use Unleashed Rage, and they do so when they have no enrage stacks. They do less damage than if they hadn't used it at all. In order for them to use this power right, you'd have to give them an AI routine that triggers the use of this power once they've reached a certain amount of stacks. If you want to do it interesting, you'd have them wait until a set amount of stacks and start making rolls to decide if they use it yet, or base the use of it off combat conditions, which is more work.
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
Also, if it's not abundantly clear from the past posts of myself AND other people, that post was made with the idea that you are not a complete dolt and understand the implications of the fact everything I mentioned takes actual work.
To highlight the issue here: Gravitar is an enemy that actually seems to have a little bit of AI. Not the best either, as a single smoke grenade was enough to trivialize the encounter for ranged characters. When they fixed this, they did so by completely stripping her of the ability to be effected by it, not by giving her a special reaction to it, or making special AI routines for bosses in general to use when effected by Smoke Grenade, or perhaps a different status effect that was a little less problematic.
This was considered big content. This was "featured content." The scale of what you seem to take issue with is far, far larger. We'd be lucky to see what little future content we get any time soon have special interactions with the difficulty slider, let alone any of the existing alerts, APs, overworld missions, etc.
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
While I can understand that it would cause some resentment among F2P players, the Freeform users are paying customers. Are we really saying that the fact that they're supporting this game with their money so means nothing?
No, what it would be saying is that smaller number of customers contributing money to the game are getting preferential treatment to the vast majority of customers/potential customers. F2P player does not equal non-payer or non-customer. They're buying stuff too. There's simply more of them so catering anything away from the larger group is bad for the game as a whole, particularly when the game is struggling with population the way this one is.
*Looks at thread* Wow...this has sort of spun in a less than intended direction I think...
New Topic Anyone?
Yeah, when opinions start getting labeled as the truth it's a sure sign that things are snowballing downhill. Is it to early to play the "in before the lock" trap card?
Yeah, when opinions start getting labeled as the truth it's a sure sign that things are snowballing downhill.
One of the biggest mistakes our society has made is the prevalence of people who can't see that opinions and facts are inherently linked due to the simple well known fact that actions have reactions and thus there is a reason for everything. Including opinion.
It's a well held opinion that Burger King is better than McDonalds. Now, you can see this as simply an opinion or you can chose to try to understand the events that led up to it. At which point, you will find yourself pulling up the buns of hamburgers and realizing that Burger King factually just makes better burgers. They use better meat, often more meat, and cook it better. The other ingredients used are usually a bump up as well. This could change overnight, and it can be better or worse depending on the restaurant and the competency of its employees, but overall you're now looking, at this point in time, at the facts that led to that opinion.
Although, in this case, much of what I'm saying is indisputable fact. The primary argument, one of the reality of resources and difficulty of production, has proven itself repeatedly, and the only thing that would change this would be allocation of greater resources to Cryptic studios, for use on this game. Until a sufficient change of direction proves otherwise, one can only (at least logically) expect that previous trends will continue undisputed.
You yourself allude that you understand this, at least on some level:
Increasing the level cap without the requisite content increase that usually accompanies it is a no go. And the odds of this game getting a significant content increase anytime soon is seemingly small.
Are you going to change what you said there in that last sentence, or admit that it's a fact that Cryptic has shown a lack of ability to produce quality results when it comes to difficult tasks? I'm sure you remember how they said that the reason there was only three versions of each AP boss was because that making one for each possible team size would be more work. This was at a time when Cryptic seemed to have more resources available to them, and what we're discussing here now, enemies with more powers, different AI, etc, for higher difficulty levels, isn't much different, and of a much larger scope.
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
It's a well held opinion that Burger King is better than McDonalds. Now, you can see this as simply an opinion or you can chose to try to understand the events that led up to it. At which point, you will find yourself pulling up the buns of hamburgers and realizing that Burger King factually just makes better burgers. They use better meat, often more meat, and cook it better. The other ingredients used are usually a bump up as well. This could change overnight, and it can be better or worse depending on the restaurant and the competency of its employees, but overall you're now looking, at this point in time, at the facts that led to that opinion.
Actually... A "Whopper" makes me gag if I look at it. "Charbroiled meat" grosses me out because I don't like "burnt" food. I -can-, however, eat a Quarter-Pounder With Cheese.... So I'd have to say that your "fact" isn't even a very good opinion. (is this thread derailed enough yet?)
One of the biggest mistakes our society has made is the prevalence of people who can't see that opinions and facts are inherently linked due to the simple well known fact that actions have reactions and thus there is a reason for everything. Including opinion.
It's a well held opinion that Burger King is better than McDonalds. Now, you can see this as simply an opinion or you can chose to try to understand the events that led up to it. At which point, you will find yourself pulling up the buns of hamburgers and realizing that Burger King factually just makes better burgers. They use better meat, often more meat, and cook it better. The other ingredients used are usually a bump up as well. This could change overnight, and it can be better or worse depending on the restaurant and the competency of its employees, but overall you're now looking, at this point in time, at the facts that led to that opinion.
Although, in this case, much of what I'm saying is indisputable fact. The primary argument, one of the reality of resources and difficulty of production, has proven itself repeatedly, and the only thing that would change this would be allocation of greater resources to Cryptic studios, for use on this game. Until a sufficient change of direction proves otherwise, one can only (at least logically) expect that previous trends will continue undisputed.
Appeal to (questionable) authority: You and many others are of the "well held" opinion that something is true/fact, therefore it must be an irrefutable fact.
PS: Where I live its a well held opinion that McDonalds is better than Burger King (I'm not trolling--the comments/claims above actually vary by geographical location, are not universal by any means, and where I live they're actually the opposite).
If anything the biggest mistake our society has made is not invest enough in education and the development of critical thinking skills in particular (as opposed to focusing primarily on natural sciences and technology), so that people can better understand the differences between widely held opinions and fact, and understand the pitfalls of confusing widely held opinions with facts.
Actually... A "Whopper" makes me gag if I look at it. "Charbroiled meat" grosses me out because I don't like "burnt" food. I -can-, however, eat a Quarter-Pounder With Cheese.... So I'd have to say that your "fact" isn't even a very good opinion. (is this thread derailed enough yet?)
The burger joint down the street from me makes better food than either of them. For some reason they don't serve billions. I'm going to keep eating there though.
Champions Online: Be the hero you wish you could be in a better game.
*Spams two broken moves. Complains the game is too easy.*
1) Define "broken" moves. A list of powers we're not allowed to use in order to claim that the game is too easy would be good. This should be interesting as (IMO)...
*Spams two broken moves. Complains the game is too easy.*
Oh look it's THIS again.
This is on par with the "argument" that all you need is Ebon Void and Regen to be "good" at PvE.
2 big problems with your arguement:
1. Dragon Claw and Devour Essense arent broken nor overpowered, there are powers far greater than those. Note i use absolutely no synergy too. I would agree if you said that DE gives too much healing when your opponent is bleeding and youre using Phlabotemist, but quite frankly i didnt need it AND DIDNT USE IT, i could just use Dragon Claw all day and the outcome woulda been the same.
2. I dont think you realise that it can be done with absolutely anything in the game, it just takes longer. Could kill Vikorin with Defensive Combo...or weaker..it just takes longer but it wont change the result.
Thought you would have known that by now if you know how a lot of this game in freeform works.
Were you just spamming 2 heals as well as Epidemic, and running in Defiance?
Defiance + Focus (a weak combination in todays CO standards), Conviction, Resurgence Reiki + 'Insert ANY power here'
Vikorin is clearly not threatening enough for me to bother bringing some kind of supertank, that combination i used in the video, is very very basic defense.
1) Define "broken" moves. A list of powers we're not allowed to use in order to claim that the game is too easy would be good. This should be interesting as (IMO)...
2) All you need is (almost) ANY AoE and (almost) ANY Passive to be "good" at PvE.
1) Broken as in overtuned. Epidemic and Devour Essence were the ones that stuck out to me in the video.
2) I was referring to the last time someone got on a soapbox and claimed CO was too easy. His evidence was that he claimed he could solo Resistance with nothing but Regen and Ebon Void at level 11. Therefore: the game was too easy.
You build for high survivability and high damage...and now you're mad because that's what you got.
I watched some of the video posted...and you can see the users health going down...and then they heal.
You clearly picked a power to heal yourself...to increase your survivability...and now you're pissed because that's what you got...increased survivability.
1) Broken as in overtuned. Epidemic and Devour Essence were the ones that stuck out to me in the video.
Compared to multiple Power Armour combinations that can top over 8,000 DPS, or 25,000 dmg Sniper Rifle shots and lotsa more things i coulda done, you sure complain a lot, its like the last video i did a while ago, Mega Terak with NO powers but Regen and Elec shield and people were still bitchin...dear god seriously grow up, these power choices on this video are weak, my Dragons Claw crits for 3k, and DE / Epidemic was critting at 500....thats pathetic by level 40 standards and you think theyre overtuned? You should look around at other powers more before coming out with that.
2) I was referring to the last time someone got on a soapbox and claimed CO was too easy. His evidence was that he claimed he could solo Resistance with nothing but Regen and Ebon Void at level 11. Therefore: the game was too easy.
Compared to multiple Power Armour combinations that can top over 8,000 DPS, or 25,000 dmg Sniper Rifle shots and lotsa more things i coulda done, you sure complain a lot, its like the last video i did a while ago, Mega Terak with NO powers but Regen and Elec shield and people were still bitchin...dear god seriously grow up, these power choices on this video are weak, my Dragons Claw crits for 3k, and DE was critting at 500....thats pathetic and you think theyre overtuned? You should look more before you say this rubbish.
He'd be right.
I mention two specific moves you were using are overtuned and all of a sudden I'M the one who complains a lot and needs to grow up? Unprovoked insults are uncalled for and frankly they don't put your or what you say in a positive light.
Perhaps the next video you make should be one where you solo Elite Resistance with a level 11 using only Ebon Void and Regen. It's gonna be time consuming to finish but I think the time away from the forums would do you a world of good.
Comments
Figure out all the cute mechanics later. Let's just make the tech work and stop releasing content that is incompatible with the slider...we have enough alerts.
That can be done without debating whether or not the game is too easy.
So to be suitable for everyone, adding different option into the diffulties selection will be good. The dev team can add tough and elite tough into the difficulties selection. Moreover, Cosmic type of boss with enhanced ability can be added to adventure packs or cosmic series for diffculties selection.
This idea is just plain bad. Sorry but it is.
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
In a nutshell, what this meant was nearly every mob group in the game had some way of tanking your defense. This is why SR softcapped beat the hell out of invuln softcapped, or really any other set with defense: It had MASSIVE defense debuff resistance. 95% is enough that you'll practically never see your defense drop more than a percent or two.
Vhaz had pitiful damage. Doesn't matter whether you resist it when they hit like puppies in the first place. See: Why Arachnos Toxic Spider robots were so much worse, they hit like a truck. And for my willpower, that was literally the only thing that phased him in Arachnos.
Freaks were easy. No matter what you say, this was a known FACT. Even Blasters laughed at Freak Tanks, despite they could do their health in one hit, because they had absolutely no range besides a weak little buzzsaw on a medium recharge.
You also show your lack of experience with the game when talking about Carnies. Carnies doing Psi damage wasn't even half of what made them bad. Some of them (illusionists specifically) did non positional Psi damage, as in damage that couldn't be dodged unless you had defense specifically tagged "Psi" since it wasn't Ranged, Melee and AoE. Don't forget that the masked chicks had MASSIVE defense debuffs that would drop the defense of anything that wasn't SR into negative numbers or at least close, and that same attack would also hammer your energy regeneration. Which was bad because EVERY SINGLE CARNY you killed drained your energy.
And you know what? They weren't hard. They weren't really that hard, not at all. The problem here, is you're mistaking hard content, for a hard powerset: Very few characters were particularly threatened by everything the group did, and most of your average or above average builds at least had a way around them. I don't think you understand just how lopsided Invuln was as a set, SR, Regen, Willpower for the most part, Dark Armor for the most part, even Firey Aura to a lesser extent, all were more even than Invuln. Just about everything had a weakness or two, but Invuln was the only set in the game that was so horrifically specialized. Either you were practically invincible, or things would level you.
Just quit. You have no idea what you're talking about. You've played it more recently, and off the top of your head you don't even know half of what the groups did and what it meant for the player, or else you would have gone on further to mention it already. You think Psi and Toxic damage was the end all be all and the worst stuff in the game, it wasn't. It's nothing compared to what non positional attacks could do, and it doesn't account for stuff that just hit hard, or bypassed defenses that it should apply to, or otherwise just screwed over the player.
If you understood any of this, you'd understand why CoX wasn't harder by a long shot, it was just more situational, as I mentioned earlier. It was situational in a way that is bad, too: When you died, you usually didn't die because you did something wrong, but because you were fighting something that just straight up ignored your abilities. On the other hand, when you succeeded, it was because you just happened to walk in with the right pair of shoes on. The end result of this was that when you understood the game properly, you could pick your powersets to minimize your weaknesses, which led to a lot of powersets becoming largely redundant.
To summarize, CoX was really no different than CO: It was hard if you didn't know what you were doing, it was easy if you did. The devs there were smart, they didn't mess with that, and most of the players were wise enough to accept it. Hell, my casual as hell friends who came over here and repeatedly died until they quit the game could do the endgame stuff they added after I left, and if they can do it, I can probably run through it blindfolded.
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
Think about how this would have to be done.
Realize why it wont be done, because it's hard.
They have enough trouble getting multiple AI subroutines to play nice with each other, let alone ones that only activate in the presence of a player with an invisible difficulty buff on them. How many times have we seen the AI for scripted events get broken to hell over and over?
That's not even getting into how limited their options are for that, in a game based on autohit attacks with a fair amount of random rolls involved.
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
Yes...i am, id rather you didnt try and put words in my mouth Xaugrunt, especially words in the opposite direction of what im trying to achieve.
Maybe i am mistaken but i thought you were leaving this topic because you simply have nothing to add to your delusional and pointless whining from simply misreading posts or throwing a wobbler and making yourself look like a troll and nothing else. Im sure i read that, oh here it is!
Buybye now!
Anything in development is hard. Regardless, the end result is that we have a difficulty slider that's pretty much been abandoned, which is a shame cause its the obvious feature that needs to be improved to satisfy a community so divided by game difficulty.
It would just...be nice...so nice.
If you want to talk about delusional, you're pretty much the king of it. I mean, you have a lot of people contesting you for that title, but out of all the people who can't see the reality of things as it stares them directly in the face, I think I have to hand the trophy for best in class to you.
Because not only do you ask for something that's unreasonable to expect in any cohesive and well designed manner that doesn't piss off everyone, the way you ask for it is completely ridiculous.
And FYI, no words were put in your mouth. I took what you said as you said it, and your opening post makes no mention of changes to the actual effect of the sliders. As such, the words rest squarely in your own mouth. Discussion of allowing the difficulty slider to effect more things has in fact been part of this thread, however that would have happened even if you weren't remotely involved because it's an issue that would need to be resolved if anything were to happen, and it's also something Cryptic has shown an unwillingness or inability to deliver in any capacity.
In fact, I'd go as far as to point out for much of the content in your video to be effected by such a difficulty slider, gaining what you describe in the OP, the difficulty slider would have to effect entire zones as giving enemies 3000% HP in the overworld is not something that can happen in any other way. The closest you could achieve would be a massive debuff on the players damage, which is a mechanic that we've suggested before- even if not at such ridiculous extents- and, once again, have not seen any ability for Cryptic to provide.
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
What about posting some videos of the newest exploits you are currently using ? :biggrin:
It's a matter of severity. As I just mentioned, we can't even get them to make the difficulty slider we already have act as a flavorless, odorless debuff on the player, which would be great for reasons not even related to what it effects.
This suggestion was made by many, repeatedly, since the difficulty slider was originally implemented, and I know I'm at least one of the first to make the suggestion.
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
I respect your posts alot, so let's not spend all your talents validating Cryptic's unwillingness to look at the difficulty slider. They ought to look at it. Just a look. A little peep-show. Just a "heyyy we're looking @ difficulty guys!"
Cause regardless of what you think of Snake...he's making the community think about difficulty. That's all Cryptic really needs to take from this thread.
It is as it is, whether one wants to accept it or not.
Even I have moments where my judgment lapses and I go "OH HEY, THEY SHOULD DO THIS COOL THING EVERYONE WOULD LIKE," before being smacked back down to reality by the facts. I recently did this with the foundry, but then I realized even if we did get them to hurry up and get us that, it would be in a very half asses fashion and would probably have some really sketchy monetization scheme attached to it. At which point I did what INTELLIGENT people do, and changed my stance on the matter.
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
Asking Cryptic to consider difficulty isn't a lapse in judgement. Its more of a sensible sentiment. :P
I have indeed followed the debuff and difficulty-zones suggestions and their reasons for their implausibility (*cough vehicles*). But just cause they can't do it (yet) doesn't mean that it isn't what we need.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkxmMPCVogc
I haven't said anything about gating the difficulty. Scaling it yes. It's needed. You know as well as I that a decently built freeform outperforms an AT of the same level. It's not fair to players to scale the whole game around one or the other which is what the difficulty settings are for. Scale the higher end of the spectrum for freeforms and the lower end for ATs. How is that a bad thing?
You are delusional, come back when you have facts.
Thats all im out to do. *thumbs up*
I'll add to this and say if difficulty in Very Hard/Elite (after an increase in difficulty) becomes a little too hard for AT's, would that make a customer think "i should buy a freeform/subscribe" ?
Its a very wise decision at a business level as well as a crowd pleaser.
Because that would have the unfortunate side-effect of 'gating' that option from the majority of the player base now that we are F2P. Sure ATs/Silvers could 'try' it if they chose to, but everyone that's been here a while knows exactly how that would play out in application. They'd try, they'd fail, there'd be a fire (particularly if there were any rewards tied to an Elite mode that's scaled for 5 freeforms). Is less of a problem with the suggestion and more of a problem with trying to cater to this hybrid model CO uses (F2P vs. Sub).
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Also increase the level cap and add some COSMIC type monsters with enhanced ability in adventure pack and comic series for elite, tough and elite tough difficulties will be interesting. Increasing the level cap will provide more advantage points so that tanks can add more points to Cripple challenge and some points to higher damage so that their role can be improve in protecting the group.
Increasing the level cap without the requisite content increase that usually accompanies it is a no go. And the odds of this game getting a significant content increase anytime soon is seemingly small.
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Serving since September, 2009 / 65 Characters, 63 Level 40's
.... are you kidding? One of the things I loved about CoH is that the Trinity was absolutely NOT required. The game didn't even have a dedicated "healer" class (the closest being a Defender with Empathy, but Empathy was only one powerset choice out of a dozen, many of which had no heals at all), nor a dedicated "DPS" class (most classes could put out good damage). Once the hero/villain division was removed last year, it didn't even have a real dedicated "tank" class (with Brutes filling that role almost as well as Tankers, and even Scrappers and Masterminds with a decent - not min-maxed, just decent - build and a taunt power could tank).
Blasters were an edge case - they were extremely weak on survivability, and possibly the "worst" class in the game. (Which Issue 24 was going to address by giving them incredibly potent regen and recovery powers, but that's water under the bridge now, I guess). I don't know why your Defender was having problems, but that depends on your Primary (some are more solo-oriented, some are more team-oriented).
... as for me, what I'd like in this game is the ability to turn it down a notch, below "Normal". (That is, in fact, what I eventually did with my Blaster in CoH - turned the difficulty down to -1/x1, turned Bosses and Arch-Villains off) Yesterday CO did nothing but frustrate me as it killed me a dozen times and made me waste all my healing and revival items, only to finally end the mission with a Super Villain that I couldn't beat because her demon pet was healing itself more quickly than I was damaging it. (And now I have to do it all again, only without the healing or revival items)
"It is unthinkable. But such is the nature of villainy, don't you think? To do the unthinkable, to challenge the impossible, to conquer all before you and make destiny your own." - Ghost Widow
And that's why I like villains.
Yeah I wish there will be some new content and I have suggested some new story to be added into the missions in the suggestion box last time. I am pretty sure we are far from getting new content. Put the hope in 2013.
As I said, your playstyle heavily shows from what you're saying and it does. Outside of mezzes, there was very little psi damage that didn't have a positional tag assigned to it and it would only be a threat to someone running a character that uses nothing but positional defenses. I know this because I also had a 50 SS/SR and a 50 Elec/SD. You won't shut up about how amazing SR was because it's massive defense debuff resistance and aren't even considering that it was an all or nothing type of mitigation or that, outside of elec armor, multiple forms of layered mitigation are always going to be better.
You can't stop talking about blasters either and seemed to think that ruin mages were the ultimate threat because of their AoE KDs? All it took to defeat that was hover. That's not even mentioning the fact that blasters were terrible DPSers as the game progressed and were outdamaged by practically everything. The power creep in that game made blasters worthless and this is coming from someone that loved playing blasters.
You mentioned pylons as well and seemed to think that was a great challenge. When I was bored I would screw with friends that were trying to organize mothership raids by throwing off their rotations and forcing them to start early by going out and soloing multiple pylons on the toon that you keep saying I know nothing because I played it. You must have missed the point where I said I ran everything at +4/x8 on that toon. Willful ignorance perhaps?
You've also talked about incarnate trials and seem to think that you could do them blindfolded because your friends said they were easy? Your vaunted SR toon would be torn to shreds in one of those. You needed a minimum 60% defense to be softcapped in an incarnate trial. From what you've said, you seem to think that your friends weren't as good as you. If that's the case, they thought trials were easy because people like me helped them. That Katana/Invuln you keep saying had to be garbage was described by other players as a one person league. Just so you know, leagues were gatherings up multiple teams that could form up to hold a total of 48 members. I soloed incarnate content on that toon. If people came over to help me with a mob I'd tell them to go find their own.
Regen was a terrible set and Willpower was the poor man's Invuln. The fact that you think Fire Armor and Dark Armor were good proves how little you knew. I'd educate you but, the game is shut down. There's no point now.
By all means, continue to explain to me how little I know. There are people reading this and laughing at you and they could use another laugh.
*sits, reads and watches for fireworks*
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This, I can understand. The issue I have with it is that I don't think the game should be scaled around either group and that a balance needs to be found between the two. If it's not through adjusting the difficulty then how? By making content geared specifically towards freeforms? That'd be a much bigger gate than adjusting the game's difficulty. While I can understand that it would cause some resentment among F2P players, the Freeform users are paying customers. Are we really saying that the fact that they're supporting this game with their money so means nothing?
I also want to take a moment to point out that I am against the idea of higher levels of difficulty giving better rewards. I think there should be an increased chance for some rewards and a higher amount of resources per kill but, I also think that those rewards should be balanced so that both players get the same quantity of rewards for their time played. No better gear or anything like that at higher dif. Just scale the drop rates along with the dif so the reward rate stays roughly constant.
Enjoy the show! I'll be here all week.
No, I'm done with this particular person. It's pointless to argue with someone so ignorant and idiotic, and seeing as we've got Jenny going 9gag/Reddit on the thread it's obvious that the ignorant mob is converging towards critical mass. In fact, I'm not even bothering to read his post, there's just no point to it because given past trends it'll be a complete and total waste of my time. There's no point in even talking about CoX, because the game is dead, and I pointing out the truth of the matter as it's relevant to CO so there's no point in continuing discussion of it.
You, at least got some of what was being said, apparently without even reading it. While some people are never capable of coming to intelligent conclusions, it's nice to know that some people can. Even Squee gets it, whether accepting it or not. That's all I really wanted, was at least a few other people to use their ******n brains for three seconds, which seems to be something you're hard pressed to find around here.
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
Xao... SR was a great set for normal content, and very easy to softcap... Invul was FAR better, period due to layered defenses. incarnate content? yeah... SR had a really hard time unless they were soft capped for itrials and even then it was harder than others. Energy Aura performed awesomely on itrials.
You also seem to ignore how the game was in the last months, so please do not continue with your attempt... you are embarrassing yourself.
I'm about as embarrassed here as I would be embarrassed for using a big word in front of rednecks or hoodlums.
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
I'm angry, but grudges have nothing to do with it. My anger comes from dealing with people who are as determined to make suggestions as they are clueless.
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
New Topic Anyone?
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Why do Supervillains or our Nemesis for example, have like...less than 4 powers?
Extra difficulty could also be in the form of more powerful attacks being launched
This would make enemies less predictable if theyre all given a full powerbar to use.
Imagine an enemy charging Sniper Rifle on you (at player strength, not weak current npc strength)
Or what if an enemy could hit you and your team mates with Torrent of Arrows with the extra advantage to knock you.
As well as extra figures, enemies are still using T1 powers and not much else.
I don't mind supervillains getting more powers at higher difficulties. The high damage charged attacks should still be telegraphed though.
You'd love to brush aside the truth. This forum would love that any day of the week.
You should know better than this, if you're such an "honest researcher." Let's list the two biggest reasons why:
1. More powers doesn't necessarily make them stronger. To ensure that the additional powers actually add something, the mobs using them as well as the powers themselves have to be crafted correctly. Simply throwing more powers onto a mob will not achieve this, as if the mob has say, a version of Force Cascade, with no cooldown, and you have say, eyebeams in their power list somewhere, any time they use that instead of Force Cascade they end up doing less damage. This is to say nothing of stuff like a mob using a weakish ranged knock to smack you out of the way of a melee haymaker, thus actually saving you.
2. Which brings me to: AI programming and crafting new mobs actually takes some work. Unless you're frankenstitching them together from existing powers, you have to tweak stats if not make new mechanics and maybe even animations as well. If you wish to give these mobs interesting and intelligent use of their newfound powers, they need to have AI, since anything between the mob gimping themselves in combat to being way, way more powerful than intended due to the wrong use of a special attack is possible.
Given this, the more interesting, unique and difficult a mob is the harder it is to simply take a bunch of existing mechanics and throw them together. Back in the day, Black Fang would hang you by your underwear if you didn't know what you were doing, because he had mechanics no one had seen before. In order to keep players challenged sufficiently in a game that's meant to have extended replay value, you have to continue throwing new stuff at them.
NPCs that are not bosses are not meant to be as strong as the player. Not only is this bad game design, to have a mook type enemy that can potentially one shot you with an extremely long range autohit attack, it's completely out of line with what you expect from the superhero genre. Even in dark gritty settings: In watchmen, it took a swat squad to pull Rorschach in, and even then he put up a hell of a fight. Now consider this is a man with no special powers, and not even the best gadgetry or training.
If you want random minions to be a serious threat to you, there's plenty of fantasy MMOs where you can fight bunny rabbits that can tear you a new one. But this is a Superhero game, that doesn't fly here.
It's called shotgun, and believe me you'll be wishing they DIDN'T do this after you get chain knocked up a wall a couple dozen times in Harmon Labs. Yes, that is correct, this already is in game to an extent. There's a list of problems with knocks in this game a mile long, ranging from how they interact with block, to how they chain. It should also be noted that it becomes horrifically unfun to fight, irregardless of whether it's hard or not.
That's all your common mook is supposed to have. Bosses and higher ranked enemies already use T3s and even T4s sometimes. This already exists as it's supposed to, albeit to varying degrees of effectiveness depending on what you're fighting.
In fact, that's an excellent example of why AI programming is often needed to make stuff work right at all: There are a number of enemies who use Unleashed Rage, and they do so when they have no enrage stacks. They do less damage than if they hadn't used it at all. In order for them to use this power right, you'd have to give them an AI routine that triggers the use of this power once they've reached a certain amount of stacks. If you want to do it interesting, you'd have them wait until a set amount of stacks and start making rolls to decide if they use it yet, or base the use of it off combat conditions, which is more work.
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
To highlight the issue here: Gravitar is an enemy that actually seems to have a little bit of AI. Not the best either, as a single smoke grenade was enough to trivialize the encounter for ranged characters. When they fixed this, they did so by completely stripping her of the ability to be effected by it, not by giving her a special reaction to it, or making special AI routines for bosses in general to use when effected by Smoke Grenade, or perhaps a different status effect that was a little less problematic.
This was considered big content. This was "featured content." The scale of what you seem to take issue with is far, far larger. We'd be lucky to see what little future content we get any time soon have special interactions with the difficulty slider, let alone any of the existing alerts, APs, overworld missions, etc.
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
No, what it would be saying is that smaller number of customers contributing money to the game are getting preferential treatment to the vast majority of customers/potential customers. F2P player does not equal non-payer or non-customer. They're buying stuff too. There's simply more of them so catering anything away from the larger group is bad for the game as a whole, particularly when the game is struggling with population the way this one is.
Yeah, when opinions start getting labeled as the truth it's a sure sign that things are snowballing downhill. Is it to early to play the "in before the lock" trap card?
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How to build a freeform character...the Kenpo way
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Serving since September, 2009 / 65 Characters, 63 Level 40's
One of the biggest mistakes our society has made is the prevalence of people who can't see that opinions and facts are inherently linked due to the simple well known fact that actions have reactions and thus there is a reason for everything. Including opinion.
It's a well held opinion that Burger King is better than McDonalds. Now, you can see this as simply an opinion or you can chose to try to understand the events that led up to it. At which point, you will find yourself pulling up the buns of hamburgers and realizing that Burger King factually just makes better burgers. They use better meat, often more meat, and cook it better. The other ingredients used are usually a bump up as well. This could change overnight, and it can be better or worse depending on the restaurant and the competency of its employees, but overall you're now looking, at this point in time, at the facts that led to that opinion.
Although, in this case, much of what I'm saying is indisputable fact. The primary argument, one of the reality of resources and difficulty of production, has proven itself repeatedly, and the only thing that would change this would be allocation of greater resources to Cryptic studios, for use on this game. Until a sufficient change of direction proves otherwise, one can only (at least logically) expect that previous trends will continue undisputed.
You yourself allude that you understand this, at least on some level:
Are you going to change what you said there in that last sentence, or admit that it's a fact that Cryptic has shown a lack of ability to produce quality results when it comes to difficult tasks? I'm sure you remember how they said that the reason there was only three versions of each AP boss was because that making one for each possible team size would be more work. This was at a time when Cryptic seemed to have more resources available to them, and what we're discussing here now, enemies with more powers, different AI, etc, for higher difficulty levels, isn't much different, and of a much larger scope.
...I just recently realized something really disturbing. We're all eating Sodapop3's "humble pie."
I am all for supervillians getting more powers as long as said supervillians are the following ones.
MYSELF.
That is all.
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
Actually... A "Whopper" makes me gag if I look at it. "Charbroiled meat" grosses me out because I don't like "burnt" food. I -can-, however, eat a Quarter-Pounder With Cheese.... So I'd have to say that your "fact" isn't even a very good opinion.
Appeal to (questionable) authority: You and many others are of the "well held" opinion that something is true/fact, therefore it must be an irrefutable fact.
PS: Where I live its a well held opinion that McDonalds is better than Burger King (I'm not trolling--the comments/claims above actually vary by geographical location, are not universal by any means, and where I live they're actually the opposite).
If anything the biggest mistake our society has made is not invest enough in education and the development of critical thinking skills in particular (as opposed to focusing primarily on natural sciences and technology), so that people can better understand the differences between widely held opinions and fact, and understand the pitfalls of confusing widely held opinions with facts.
The burger joint down the street from me makes better food than either of them. For some reason they don't serve billions. I'm going to keep eating there though.
Champions Online: Be the hero you wish you could be in a better game.
You: "Why? he cant harm anything...get up you wimp."
Oh hey! I made another quickie video to prove the game is too easy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TgmuoOHczU
Expect another few hundred
okaaay! :P
*Spams two broken moves. Complains the game is too easy.*
Oh look it's THIS again.
This is on par with the "argument" that all you need is Ebon Void and Regen to be "good" at PvE.
Were you just spamming 2 heals as well as Epidemic, and running in Defiance?
1) Define "broken" moves. A list of powers we're not allowed to use in order to claim that the game is too easy would be good. This should be interesting as (IMO)...
2) All you need is (almost) ANY AoE and (almost) ANY Passive to be "good" at PvE.
2 big problems with your arguement:
1. Dragon Claw and Devour Essense arent broken nor overpowered, there are powers far greater than those. Note i use absolutely no synergy too. I would agree if you said that DE gives too much healing when your opponent is bleeding and youre using Phlabotemist, but quite frankly i didnt need it AND DIDNT USE IT, i could just use Dragon Claw all day and the outcome woulda been the same.
2. I dont think you realise that it can be done with absolutely anything in the game, it just takes longer. Could kill Vikorin with Defensive Combo...or weaker..it just takes longer but it wont change the result.
Thought you would have known that by now if you know how a lot of this game in freeform works.
Defiance + Focus (a weak combination in todays CO standards), Conviction, Resurgence Reiki + 'Insert ANY power here'
Vikorin is clearly not threatening enough for me to bother bringing some kind of supertank, that combination i used in the video, is very very basic defense.
1) Broken as in overtuned. Epidemic and Devour Essence were the ones that stuck out to me in the video.
2) I was referring to the last time someone got on a soapbox and claimed CO was too easy. His evidence was that he claimed he could solo Resistance with nothing but Regen and Ebon Void at level 11. Therefore: the game was too easy.
You build for high survivability and high damage...and now you're mad because that's what you got.
I watched some of the video posted...and you can see the users health going down...and then they heal.
You clearly picked a power to heal yourself...to increase your survivability...and now you're pissed because that's what you got...increased survivability.
VARIANT
"Nearly all men can withstand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
-Abraham Lincoln-
He'd be right.
I mention two specific moves you were using are overtuned and all of a sudden I'M the one who complains a lot and needs to grow up? Unprovoked insults are uncalled for and frankly they don't put your or what you say in a positive light.
Perhaps the next video you make should be one where you solo Elite Resistance with a level 11 using only Ebon Void and Regen. It's gonna be time consuming to finish but I think the time away from the forums would do you a world of good.