Messages

31

Screenshots and Vids / Re: My 'final' screenshot

« on: June 04, 2021, 12:21:29 pm »

Like Draggynn I rarely logged into the game after Black Friday, and the few times I did it was all in September. I was, and honestly still am, pretty upset with NCsoft about how they handled the shutdown and just never bothered logging in even for the final day. Though I did keep close tabs on forums and communities during that time about the various efforts to save the game though of course as we know they all went nowhere.

32

Video Games / Re: Which game is better?

« on: June 02, 2021, 06:13:32 pm »

Propaganda of Cole wishes to remind everyone that failing to choose Praetoria (City of Heroes: Going Rogue) as the best is a sign of insanity. Fortunately The Emperor and Mother care greatly about everyone, even the mentally ill, and all who displays such symptoms will be automatically referred to the Mother of Mercy Hospital for free psychiatric evaluation and treatment.

33

General Suggestions and Feedback / Possibility of Forum Calendar showing game schedule?

« on: June 01, 2021, 07:45:13 pm »

So I noticed our forums have a calendar option, which is honestly a bit useless as I have a million other ways of knowing the date and when major holidays happen. However if the calendar was to automatically show scheduled Rebirth activities, like the reset, weekly PvP, itrials, etc. then I could see myself actually using it. Sure the Event Herald is useful for knowing what's coming up but that requires either Discord or logging into the game. If all that stuff was in the calendar then users could more easily know whats going on. I admit even if it was done by an admin or something that it probably wouldn't be widely used but I think it would be convenient for some people.

34

General Suggestions and Feedback / On group fly and group TP

« on: May 31, 2021, 12:33:39 am »

Even on live group fly and group teleport have always been... less popular then other pool power choices. Their cost is so high to their benefit to be almost useless and what uses players do have for them are essentially niche. They are used so rarely that often when I do try to use them I get asked not to because it messes players up despite usually being high enough they could have long since visited Null the Gull. These suggestions are just the ideas I've come up with so far and am really curious if anyone has other ideas.

Group Fly - I think this one is the "simplest" to fix (sans spaghetti) is to make group fly a map wide power.  This would make it the way I think it was meant to be, allowing one char to allow others to fly. However given the current range it is too easy for those following to "fall out" of the range. Especially since the char using group fly probably has a faster fly speed. By having it be map wide it allows player to grant their entire team flight capability (if they want it) and also allows MM's to not worry about their pets dropping out of flight behind them.

Group Teleport - This one is trickier. The only real option I can think of is to turn it into "recall all" where it behaves like assemble the team but with a much shorter CD. I might increase the CD of ATT to balance it out. I'm not really thrilled with this idea but it's the best I've been able to think of. One thing I would change though, assuming group TP is essentially replaced, is to make regular teleport affect MM pets so that melee MM's can use it to still jump into a group without having to worry about minions closing in.

35

General Suggestions and Feedback / Re: On the "tanker touchup" mentioned in the roadmap

« on: May 27, 2021, 07:28:21 pm »

Hmm... not a bad idea, I do like the idea of tankers getting some sort of bonus based specifically on the number of other tankers on the team. If a tanker is alone, they're doing their specialty of holding aggro by themselves which they excel at, if a tanker is in a group then they're synergizing with each other and not being completely redundant. Possibly do some strange stuff on leagues and itrials and all tanker groups but with work balance can be kept.

While I do like the idea of tankers getting a bonus based on the number of tankers I am hesitant to make it a damage bonus, though that is the obvious choice. Thinking about it I can think of 2 variations of your idea that might work better. The first, and probably simplest to implement, is a passive stackable damage aura. This aura wouldn't apply to the tanker generating it, but would apply to all teammates, including other tankers in the group. The more tankers on a team the more passive damage to the rest of the team.

The other idea, and this might be too difficult or wacky, is to have all tankers in a team and on the same map share part of their damage with each other similar to how masterminds and their pets work. The more tankers in a group, the more what damage does get through is diversified protecting against spikes. The downside there though is that all the tankers live and die as one which again may make this idea a bit too extreme. This is all brainstorming anyways though.

36

General Suggestions and Feedback / Re: On the "tanker touchup" mentioned in the roadmap

« on: May 27, 2021, 01:22:34 pm »

Bruising already exists in the game, per the wiki https://wiki.cityofheroesrebirth.com/wiki/Bruising

Bruising is a damage resistance debuff that was added to the game in Issue 18. On a successful hit, any tier 1 Tanker secondary power set attack will bruise an enemy target. This bruising effect causes a resistible 20% damage resistance debuff which lasts for 10 seconds. Bruising cannot stack, even if there are multiple tankers attacking the same target; thus, it is a good idea for multiple tankers to spread attacks out on the whole spawn.

I agree that a tankers priority *shouldn't* be damage, however there is a point where more defense doesn't help. Extra control, extra buffs/debuffs, extra DPS, these are all useful. However extra defense becomes... pointless, which is my concern. I very much do not think the fix is giving tankers some sort of damage increase, makes them too similar to brutes, but I am uncertain as to what a 3rd or 4th tanker should bring to a group besides redundant defense and piddling damage.

37

General Suggestions and Feedback / On the "tanker touchup" mentioned in the roadmap

« on: May 27, 2021, 12:42:48 am »

So with the newly proposed "tanker touchup" mentioned in the recently posted roadmaps I wanted to get a conversation going about some concerns I have about it. Overall I like the idea of increasing the aggro cap on tankers, makes them better tanks then brutes, however it brings up a possible issue I've noticed with tankers, namely that they're the one AT that's good to have 1 of in a group, but having more isn't as useful. With almost any other AT having more of that AT is useful to a group. However tankers are heavily defensive and focus on keeping others alive by keeping all the aggro on them. The problem is that there is only so much aggro a team is likely to encounter and generally having just 1 tanker is enough. Adding a 2nd tanker doesn't usually make the team any safer then 1 and the DPS of the 2nd tanker is pretty minimal compared to other AT's. Bruising helps a little bit by giving a out -res to some of the enemies but a debuffing defender can do that even better.

By increasing the aggro cap by itself this will exasperate the problem as 1 tank by itself can protect the team even better, making a 2nd tanker even less useful then they currently are. Some other servers (most notably Homecoming) "fixed" this by removing bruising and increasing the damage tankers do which I would oppose here. While that change does make Tankers more useful, it also makes them too similar to brutes. Now the roadmap does mention possible changes to bruising, which I'm hoping the dev discussions are taking this issue into account. Sure any team can work, even a team of all Tankers, but it would be better to not have an AT that's "redundant" if you have more then one on a team.

I admit I don't really have any suggestions or solutions right now, if I think of any I'll add them, but I just wanted to get a discussion on this going and see what others think. Does anyone else think having more then 1 tanker on a team to be redundant, especially if the aggro cap is increased? If not why? If yes then any ideas on possible changes to tankers to make extra less redundant without making them too similar to brutes?

38

General Suggestions and Feedback / Re: Feedback and Discussion Thread - State of the Game: Spring 2021

« on: May 26, 2021, 02:57:35 pm »

Wow, this is really exciting stuff to see. My one concern, and I'm certain you've heard about this from my discussions with Bee, is to be careful of too much homogenization between the RM (reward merits) and AM (alignment merits). If they become too similar then, even with a conversion ratio, one of them becomes irrelevant. Since people love AM's my suggestion is making certain that even if the RM and AM markets sell 99% of the same items, that there are some special items that can only be purchased by one or the other. Personally I'm leaning towards having signature summons be an AM only purchase because it would be thematic and also make signature summons available again.

It would also tie into my proposed "long term alignment revamp" suggestion I've posted in another thread on these forums.

39

AE/Mission Architect / Re: Donkyhotay's AE missions

« on: May 24, 2021, 04:57:54 pm »

So I finished cleaning up The Many Lives of Lord Recluse. Since this change was much smaller and only took a little time I was able to simply edit what was there instead of taking taking it down and republishing it so it's still the same arcID: 774 it had before. I reformatted the text, mostly breaking up the info dumps so they are easier to read and converted the text to use the same coloring scheme the official missions use (orange for NPC actions for example). This is also something I did for The Shining Stars: The Search for Dillo as well. I also made the Anarchy Alliance a bit more obviously villainous rather then confused heroes, toned down Fusionette's bio, and did change the alignment to vigilante since it's strongly hinted you kill at least one of the major characters you "defeat".

As always, any and all feedback is appreciated.

40

AE/Mission Architect / Re: Donkyhotay's AE missions

« on: May 24, 2021, 03:28:56 pm »

So I've rewritten The Shining Stars: The Search for Dillo and managed to eliminate that 3rd mission that was sorta just "tacked on" at the end. I'm much more pleased with this version as I was able to keep all the character interactions I wanted (especially with Dillo) despite the limitations of the AE without resorting to an extra mission. Honestly in hindsight I'm embarrassed it took me so long to figure out. It's been republished with arcID: 797 for those that want to try it out. Let me know what you think.

Also I am taking the feedback I've gotten on The Many Lives of Lord Recluse and am cleaning it up as well.

41

AE/Mission Architect / Re: Donkyhotay's AE missions

« on: May 19, 2021, 11:00:45 pm »

Thanks for the feedback, The Many Lives of Lord Recluse is meant to be somewhat dark given that you're diving into the various possible ways Lord Recluse (the big bad of the primal universe) could have turned out. It's a big reason why your encounter with Lord Footloose, the most light hearted of them, is last. Thinking about it though I probably should list it as a vigilante, rather then as a heroic, mission arc. You're probably right though that the debriefing from #4 could be toned down, or at least made more subtle, and I think I might rewrite that section. I'll also take Fissionette's bio into consideration since the darkness there isn't necessary. While most of the characters you meet are variants of primal heroes/villains (White Scorpion, The Mantis Corp., Penelope Yang) Dungeoness is not meant to be based on any primal character but is one I made up myself. Sure the focus of the arc is on the different ways people we know could end up in alternate universes but I figured I had to have least one character that is a complete unknown.

Emily Van Helsong has no perception boost abilities, she's a corrupter with ice blast primary with thermal for the secondary. She's actually set to a pacifist setting allowing her to die but she's not supposed to actually fight even if she is attacked so I'm not certain why she was running off for you. Originally she was supposed to help you fight but she had a tendency to get into fights and die which is why I set her to pacifist. Maybe I should turn her aggressive and just make her an optional objective to avoid frustration?

Most of the "Recluse" fights aren't supposed to be fair. One of them

(click to show/hide)

Lord Wreck Loose

is as absolutely *unfair* as I could make it without indirectly affecting the mandatory objectives. It's also why during the Lord Reclusive briefing you are advised to "request an emergency evac portal" (i.e. hit the exit button ASAP) after destroying the generator. During testing I also occasionally had issues with duplicated bosses and I blame AE limitations there. The AE allows you to create and add *groups* but not *characters*. Making multiple characters for the group helps, this is why

(click to show/hide)

Lord Reclusive turns out to have duplication powers at the end, no matter what I did I couldn't make him appear alone so I just ended up writing it in

but depending on the RNG duplications still sometimes happen. More so the higher your teamsize is.


You're absolutely right that the 3rd mission in The Search for Dillo is shoe-horned in and I'm not thrilled with it myself but I'm uncertain how to fix it. When I originally planned out the arc I had intended it being just the first two missions and with it ending after

(click to show/hide)

defeating Flambeaux

. However it felt unsatisfying to find and rescue Dillo but never get to even talk to him. If the AE wasn't so restricted I would have

(click to show/hide)

had Dillo help you take down Flambeaux while still under the spell. Then after Flambeaux is defeated the spell is automatically broken and you would have a short conversation with him while he's talking normally

. However since there is no way to despawn an NPC or allow a real conversation with an NPC in the AE the only other alternative was a 3rd mission. I did consider making the 3rd mission be teaming up with Dillo to get the urn back but that felt even *more* shoe-horned in and more the start of a completely different arc since it had nothing to do with rescuing Dillo. Again, I don't really like having the 3rd mission shoe-horned in like that but I think it's better then not really getting to see Dillo at all.

It seems like I always miss things while proofreading no matter how careful I am. Thanks for pointing them out, I'll go over the text more closely and try to fix them.

42

Player Help/Guides / Re: A Guide to Using Event Herald

« on: May 18, 2021, 08:55:07 pm »

Yes great guide, a few points to mention. You can also friend, or global friend, the Event Herald in game and he will always accept. This allows you to more easily send him tells. Also, when selecting your role on rebirth to enable it you must click on the rebirth button *below* the list. What appears to be a button to the left of the words "City of Heroes: Rebirth" is actually just a picture of what the button looks like.

If possible Draggynn I would suggest possibly putting a red circle or something around the button in your picture so it's more obvious. I've seen a lot of newsupes joining rebirth and get confused about exactly where the button is.

43

General Suggestions and Feedback / Proposed long term alignment revamp

« on: May 18, 2021, 06:06:03 pm »

So this idea came about after a *really* productive brainstorming session on the discord. I'm not even the one who came up with the original suggestion (kudos to Erpmario!) and it still needs a lot of details figured out but I like the overall idea enough I'm posting it here to keep the discussion going and to avoid it getting forgotten on discord. In a nutshell the basic idea is that we take the how alignments work in Praetoria/goldside, and expand that to work throughout the entire game.

So just like in Praetoria, a character would actually have two alignments. The external/public alignment, and an internal/true alignment. At the beginning of the game players would choose their internal/true alignment, just like you currently do when starting in Praetoria. Though unlike Praetoria's binary loyalist/resistance choice players can choose the current 4 hero/vig/rog/vil alignments. As players go through the game they are given moral choices that are affected by, and can change, their public alignment just like happens in Praetoria. Also just like Praetoria, this does *not* change your true alignment. If you're a true hero and turn public vig/rog/villain then like Praetoria certain options open up for doing things a little differently. For example a true hero that is a public villain may have the option to secretly report back to the Freedom Phalanx about what's going on in the rogue isles. Or a true vig but public hero needs to arrange an "accident" when taking out Lord Bloodthirster the Genocider instead of simply executing him like a public vig would.

One big difference though between the current Praetorian system and this new proposed one is that there has to be a way for players to change their true alignment as well. Characters evolve, players come up with different ideas to play existing characters, and eventually there is going to be a point where people are going to want to change the true alignment so that they can continue to go undercover for their new alignment and not forever be stuck only doing undercover work with their initial alignment like with Praetoria. With Praetoria this isn't too bad because it's only the first 20 levels and then it's a non-issue. With this suggestion you will have a true alignment all the way to the end game and it would be bad for people to get "stuck" without being able to grow their character as they want.

Doing this would not only open up a LOT more options with how alignments, swapping sides, and AM's work, but it also give us the possibility of breathing new life into old missions. Now instead of just being a hero rescuing Fusionette yet again as you go through the Faultline arc on your billionth alt. Your public hero could be doing secret stuff *while* rescuing Fusionette in order to arrange smuggling Sands/Nocturne/Castillo (which one determined by your true alignment) into Faultline. Then at the end you have the option to *choose* who you give the PsychoChronoMetron to, either Yin, Sands, Nocturne, or Castillo (with corresponding public alignment change) at the end! Your true villain public hero decides he doesn't care about his cover anymore but also doesn't care enough about Arachnos to give it to Nocturne (villain choice) so you sell it to Sands (rogue choice). Now you're a true villain public rogue because the world sees publicly that you're looking out for yourself and will be treated accordingly. Now imagine lots of little stuff like that throughout all the various arcs in the game. It would be absolutely awesome and glorious.

Now, is this idea very ambitious and going to take a ton of work? Absolutely, there is no way this is going to be RI2 or even RI4, But I'm hopeful that this idea will gain traction as a long term goal and that with a bit of luck we'll see RI7 "Undercover Alignments" for the overall alignment revamp itself and RI8 "Stories Retold" for the mission rewrites.

Edit: A few details to consider and need resolving. What about tips and collecting AM's? I'm personally leaning towards 4 types of AM's, one for each alignment type. AM's are not lost if you change your public or private alignment, however each type of AM can buy things slightly unique to the alignment type (alignment specific signature summons being an obvious choice IMO) and don't convert, or if they do there's a fee. So if you have 7 vig AM's and 1 hero AM then you're still not buying that 8 cost purp until you get 1 more vig AM. I also think you get AM's based on what kind of tips you do as it's representing people treating you based on how they view your actions, regardless of your internal reasons for different actions. Want that vig AM? Better start doing vig tips and publicly start acting like a vig.

Another question is, what, besides alternative side stories in missions, does a players true alignment give them? The public alignment is obvious since the game treats them as that alignment similar to what alignment does now. But what, besides RP reasons, does a person have for being a true hero public villain rather then a true villain public villain? I'll be honest, RP is good enough for me but I feel like there should be some sort of gameplay change around it. Maybe you always keep the alignment power of your true alignment regardless instead of your public alignment? Maybe you can use any saved up signature summons of your true alignment? So if you're a true villain public hero then Captain Mako will be willing to help since he knows where your true loyalties lie, though that may be a little odd on teams if your fellow teammate "hero" turns out to be close pals with Lord Recluse.

44

(Almost Tested) Bug Reporting / Re: Economy revamp review

« on: May 17, 2021, 07:53:44 pm »

So after a *lot* of back and forth on this on discord, the devs have said they are planning on rediversifying alignment merits again at a later time. Essentially having some items that can only be purchased with alignment merits and other items that can only be purchased with hero merits. Details of when and what those items will be are unknown but that is the plan. Since this future change will no longer make alignment merits obsolete and redundant, I agree they should stay instead of being eliminated.

45

General Suggestions and Feedback / Re: What should be our vision for the wiki and the obsolete user data?

« on: May 17, 2021, 02:30:15 pm »

So far every response I've gotten about this issue, especially on discord, has agreed they should probably be wiped. It's been long enough that if someone had a reason for us to hold onto them they would have spoken up already so I'll start cleaning them out. Thanks for everyone that did respond here and on discord on this matter.