The life and times of a Superhero

Ok the idea of heroes turning into mobs and going around to kill everything and everyone in sight is absolutly sickening. Last night I had a team of 8 walk up to me, kill me and steal the scientist. The leader of the SG had a mission in Warburg, so I decided to stay and help him out. Missionwise, everything works out fine. When going through the zone looking for scientists to get their launch codes, a blaster comes up and snipes the good Dr. Physix. Right in the middle of battle with environment. The blastard (not a typo) takes a good couple of hits from me and runs. I lead the scientist out, but the same blastard is following me. I get a couple of more hits in on him, and he runs off like a chicken. Following that, a claws scrapper comes up to me and starts to attack. I put my sword between her eyes, but then she trains on Dr. P instead of me.

My point is that this behavior is completly unacceptable. I've encountered it in UO, I certainly used an expolit to safely harbor guests and friends from roaming PK bands. Now I have to play bodyguard again because of this?

The current arguement is that it is a FFA zone. Do not wander in unless you want to be attacked. Frankly, I don't give a rats ass that it is a FFA zone. Attacking other heroes is just bullying and being a general asshole about it. What gets me is the amount of cheap shots people will take. I got caught up in a battle where someone aggroed me. I took the opposing party out, but the fight only left me with 5 hp. Then some scrapper comes along and takes me out.

Heroes vs. Villains, I can understand. Heroes vs. Heroes, the arena had some element to it. There is Honor in Combat, there is no honor in Warburg. Everyone is going around there like madmen, and they say if I go there, expect it? Well then expect me NOT to TEAM with your sorry ass when you need to get to level 50.

The developers created this with the intention of getting more people to team with eachother. From my perspective, this is only creating animosity amongst the heroes. Alienation will follow shortly.

I have to say this, the COH Staff has turned into the UO staff. With this latest issue has made it reflect UO in more ways than one. Sure there is PvE still, but after what I saw in Warburg, there is no way I will help a fellow hero outside my SG anymore. It's almost like sleeping with the enemy.

Go ahead and link this to otherplaces.

In regards to City Of Heroes.

If you look up hero in the dictionary, essentialy it says - "A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose" from dictionary.com

If you look up Superhero in the dictionary, it says - "A figure, especially in a comic strip or cartoon, endowed with superhuman powers and usually portrayed as fighting evil or crime." from dictionary.com

When referencing Freedom Phalanix, the signature characters are known as Superheroes.

When referencing the rest of us, it's just heroes.

My point is that with the many nerfs to my toons, why not just take their powers away from them and make it true to the game? Are we heroes? Are we Superheroes? One thing is for sure, my toon does not feel like he is either or. He feels like an experiment in an ongoing struggle between playerbase and developer.

Over the course of one year and one month, my toon BS/Inv Scrapper has rolled with the punches. Issue 1, he was getting used to things, defenses were ok. Issue 2, his defenses took a dive, but he rolled with the punches and continued on. Issue 3, Defenses raised somewhat, Now I can play more easily instead of Min/Max. Issue 4, defense drop, but haven't noticed much. Issue 5, defenses drop even more, but I'm still able to do what I do the best. Issue 5.5, Enhancement Diversification takes place.

The only thing I had to do was change my playstyle for the various issues. If the developers didn't want us to be superheroes and just plain heroes, then take away our powersets. Let Freedom Phalanix do everything. They're supposed to be superheroes. Let them rescue Jim "Thunderhead" Bartlet. Let them take care of the Praetorians. I am sick and tired of their "view".

Over the years, my view on things have changed. Some good, some bad. But when you have the lead developer spouting, I have a vision for my game, chances are, you didn't. You just want to prevent people playing their own way and adopt your style of play. Two words about that: Board Game.

Superman or Booster Gold? Spiderman or Aquaman? Captain America or the Real American Hero?

Balancing.... You wish to balance the game for PVP? Well let's put this in prospective for you. WoW created different servers for two things, Role Playing and Player Vs. Player. I do not do PVP for a few reasons. One is the general additude of the participants. I do not care who has the overpowered set. I care if I can hold my own against Ruladak the Strong. I care if I can protect my teammates from the overpowered Rularuu. I care if I can at least take the death shot away from my team and faceplant so that they don't incur any debt. I care about my team. I do not care about "Oh my build is best."

I built my build because around issue 1, BS/Inv scrappers were the road less travelled. If I had a nickle for every BS/Inv scrapper other than me in the game up until now, I would have $0.35. I took two powersets and I made it. I made it to 50 in solo and team play. 867 hours of gameplay.

And regarding the comic book, It is utter trash. I liked the old comic with Apex, Warwitch and Horus. It is because they were also heroes. My toon can relate to them. My toon cannot relate to Statesman or Freedom Phalanix because they are superheroes. Very pompuss assed superheroes I might add.

We strived in the game, we rolled with the punches. Got kicked in the crotch and got little back in return. Now you are redesigning the game to appeal to a playerbase that has already moved to WoW? Did you go through a company restructuring under the cloak of night? What happened when it was about the casual player? The ones who didn't have time for a TF?

Are you going to make the very same mistakes that plagued all of MMORPG's since the dawn of time? Lest you forget that the PVP zones will look like Ultima Online with the droves of roaming PK'ers.

-Awesom e Man.
Level 50 BS/Inv Scrapper
Victory Server
Allegiance to the Guardians of Paragon as well to the protection of Paragon City.

10.27.05

Issue 6: Along Came a Spider

New events in the far off Rogue Isles are beginning to have an effect on Paragon City.

PvP Zones:

The contested zones of Bloody Bay, Siren's Call, and Warburg are open for exploration by Heroes. There are a number of new missions available in these zones. Eventually, both Heroes and Villains will have access to these zones and be able to compete for the prizes they offer. These are PvP zones. If you enter these zones, you will be subject to attack by other players, except for small safe zones.


Supergroups:

Characters in Supergroup mode can now gain Prestige and Salvage. These will be useful to players who own both City of Heroes and City of Villains in base building.


There are new Badges that can be earned by Supergroups.
Newly expanded Supergroup ranks and Supergroup permissions.
Supergroup Leaders can change the colors and emblem of the Supergroup after creation.
Players can now choose to hide their Supergroup emblem when in Supergroup mode.
Graphics:

More levels of graphical detail available.
Character texture quality and world texture quality can be set separately now.
New refresh rate and vertical sync options.
New graphics options to enable Depth of Field and Bloom visual effects on supported video cards.
Changed World Detail slider maximum to 200%.
Game:

Improved game stability
Arena

Gladiator Arena: you can now earn Badges to gain followers who will fight for you in special Arena competitions.

UI

New Options window with many newly available player options.
The confirmation screens for adding and deleting enhancements can be now be disabled.
New pet window available from the Options window that displays the health of your pets, and grants the ability to unsummon specific pets.
Macros can now be edited directly from the power tray.
You can now give inspirations to teammates by dragging them on to the team window.
New targeting commands: /target_custom_near, /target_custom_far, /target_custom_next and /target_custom_prev. To get a list of parameters, type the command without any parameters.
UI changes to Trade Window. You can now trade salvage and type in the amount of influence to be traded.

Powers:

Fixed a bug in the Thunder Clap power. It was Auto Hit, meaning Defense based characters had less chance of mitigating its effects than intended. This change affects Defenders and Controllers Storm Summoning sets, Banished Pantheon Witch Doctors, Circle of Thorns Air Casters, one of the Heroes Captured by the Devouring Earth and Skyfall from the Tsoo.
Super Reflexes Auto powers now add some minor damage resistance that improves as the caster loses HP.
Reduced the Endurance cost of Dark Melee/Siphon Life and Dark Blast/Life Drain.
Pool powers: Stealth, Grant Invisibility, Invisibility, Combat Flight, Weave, Maneuvers, Vengeance, and Combat Jumping now Buff Defense to ALL attacks. This change was also made to all Primary and Secondary Stealth and Invisibility powers (including, but not limited to, Cloak or Shadows, Cloaking Device, Superior Indivisibility, and Group Invisibility). All Defense powers should now stack properly with each other. All powers short and long Help Text was updated to indicate this change.
Improved Damage DeBuff of Tanker/Ice Armor/Chilling Embrace.
Defender/Controller Empathy Resurrect Powers Endurance cost reduced.
The Lightning Storm pet was generating Detoggle messages erroneously.
Sonic Repulsion and Sonic Dispersion:

Sonic Buff/Clarity and Sonic Dispersion powers have been switched in the order in which they can be chosen. This change affects Defenders and Controllers.
Glue Arrow should no longer fade when the target dies.
Poison Gas Arrow should no longer fade when the target dies.
Disruption Arrow no longer accepts Damage Resist Enhancements. They were extraneous and had no effect.
Flash Arrow should have Debuff FX more visible throughout the duration now.
Changed Long and Short Help of Moment of Glory to clarify which Defenses it offers.
Martial Arts/Eagles Claw critical hit now properly does smashing instead of lethal damage.
Fixed bad short help text in Spines/Taunt. It said it was an AoE, but it is a Single Targeted Taunt.
Fixed Dark Miasma/Tar Patch cat animation from sometimes locking you into an animation loop.
Fixed Empathy/Adrenaline Boost animation from activating before the power was recharged.
Removed Resist Damage Enhancements from Acid Arrow.
Some Electrical Blast, Electrical Melee and Electrical Mastery powers now have a chance to return some of the endurance they drain back to the caster.
Force Field/Insulation Field now also buffs defense to AoE Attacks. Dispersion Bubble now also buffs defense to Melee and Ranged attacks. This will allow Force Field powers to better stack with all defensive powers, even Super Reflexes, and even with multiple shields from multiple allies.
Slightly Modified some Scrapper Martial Arts damage scales, end costs and recharge times.
Reduced the Terrorize duration of Dark Melee/Touch of Fear.
Slightly reduced Perception Radius buff from Leadership/Tactics.
Dark Embrace no longer accepts Taunt Enhancements.
Death Shroud now accepts Taunt Enhancements.
Stores:

Most stores and contacts that only sold 10 types of Enhancements of a given type will now sell all Enhancements of that type. (In other words, we fixed key stores that were selling just the Power 10 to sell all Enhancements of that type).


Debt Cap:

We have cut in half the amount of Debt you can carry at a maximum at any given time. Previously it was set at 10 defeats worth of Debt, it is now set at 5 defeats. (Defeats inside a mission map count as ½ a defeat since they generate only ½ the Debt). If your character has more Debt than the current cap when they log in, they will have their Debt lowered to that of the current cap.


Enhancement Diversification:

This is a new system being implemented into City of Villains and City of Heroes (when City of Villains launches) to promote the use of more different types of Enhancements in powers. Using a system of diminishing returns, when slotting the same type of Enhancement into a power, you will begin to see less effect of that Enhancement when the bonus reaches a certain threshold. The effectiveness of Enhancements you are slotting in can now be seen in the Enhancement Slotting screen.


What does this mean?

Simply, if you are slotting Enhancements and your bonus to a single attribute reaches 70% through Enhancements, you will begin to see a drop in the amount each Enhancement should be giving you. If you exceed 100% bonus, then the drop will be more severe. We have added to the Enhancement Slotting screen a display of how much bonus you are getting from your Enhancements. When you are adding in Enhancements that will be reduced in effectiveness you will be able to tell.

Note that this only affects Enhancements of the same bonus. So you can have a Damage bonus of 66.66%, and an Accuracy bonus of 66.66% (from 2 Single Origin (SO) Damage and 2 SO Accuracy Enhancements) and you will not be affected in any way. Adding in another SO Damage Enhancement will not give you a 99% bonus, but a 94% bonus, because the damage bonus now exceeds 70%.

A good rule of thumb is “2 Single Origins Enhancements (SOEs) = No Reduction. 3 SOEs = Slight Reduction. 4, 5 or 6 SOEs = Major Reduction”

(Also note that the above examples are for Enhancements that are +8.35% bonus for Training, +16.6% bonus for Dual Origin (DO), and +33.3% bonus for Single Origin)


What if I don’t have more than 2 SOs of any one type in my powers already?

Then you have nothing to worry about, your character will function exactly as they did previous to this feature being added.


Does this affect Dual Origin Enhancements (DOEs) at all?

Yes. If you have 5 DOEs of all the same type you would normally get an 83% bonus. Because of Enhancement Diversification your bonus will actually only get an 82% bonus. If you have 6 DOs of all the same type, instead of a 100% bonus you will have a bonus of 95%.


Are Hamidon Enhancements affected?

Yes. The bonuses that a Hamidon Enhancement gives you that exceed 70% will be reduced. Because of this change, Hamidon (and other dual-purpose) Enhancements are now combinable. You can only combine dual-purpose Enhancements that affect ALL the same bonuses (so you can combine Damage/Accuracy with another Damage/Accuracy, but not with a Damage/Range Reduction).


This totally cripples my character! I thought you were done balancing the game?

All the Issue 4 and 5 balance adjustments were done with this system in place internally here at Cryptic. All playtests, QA checks, difficulty adjustments and balances have been done with Enhancement Diversification in mind since March 2005.


What about Stamina? I need this to make sure I have enough Endurance to power my powers.

Because of the effect that Enhancement Diversification has on the Stamina power, we are lowering the Endurance cost of every non-Auto power in the game by 13.33%.


What if a power only takes one type of Enhancement to begin with?

You have a couple of choices. You can respec the character and only go so far as putting a couple slots into the power, or you can go with more slots and eke out a little more effectiveness out of the Enhancements.


How can I tell when I am not getting full effectiveness out of an Enhancement?

On the Enhancement Slotting Screen you will now see what bonuses Enhancements are giving you, and what effect slotting the next one will have. This will help you make the choice as to what Enhancements to slot over what.


Does it matter what order I slot Enhancements in?

No. The reduction in effectiveness is calculated off the total bonus you are receiving, so it does not matter what order you slotted the Enhancements in.


How is combining Enhancements affected by this?

Enhancements that are higher level than you give you a bonus above normal Enhancements, if you combine Enhancements to get a higher bonus, this may put you over the point at which a reduction in effectiveness takes place.

Some Enhancements give me a 33.33%/16.66%/8.35% bonus, and others give me a different bonus, how are these affected by Enhancement Diversification?

There are four categories of Enhancements, Schedule A, Schedule B, Schedule C, and Schedule D. The majority of Enhancements fall into the Schedule A category. This means that an even-level Training Origin Enhancement gives an 8.35% bonus, an even-level Dual Origin Enhancement gives me a 16.66% bonus, and an even-level Single Origin Enhancement gives a 33.33% bonus. All of the examples above assume using Schedule A Enhancements, since these are the most common.

Schedule B Enhancements are Defense Buff, Damage Resistance, Range Increase and To Hit Buff. These have a smaller bonus because a small shift in these values has a larger impact on gameplay. With these Enhancements a Training Origin Enhancement gives a 5% bonus, a Dual Origin Enhancement gives a 10% bonus, and a Single Origin Enhancement gives a 20% bonus. Enhancement Diversification for these bonuses kicks in at 40% with a severe drop at 60%.


What Enhancement Types are what bonuses (schedules)?

Schedule A Enhancements (33.33%, 16.66%, 8.35%) are:

Accuracy, Confuse, Damage, Defense DeBuff, Disorient, Drain Endurance, Endurance Discount, Fear, Fly, Heal, Hold, Immobilize, Intangible, Jump, Recharge, Recovery, Run, Sleep, Snare, Stun, Taunt, To Hit Debuff

These bonus types start to see reduction when the bonus is 70% or more, and a severe reduction at 100% bonus or greater. So your bonuses when slotting in multiples of the same Single-Origin Enhancement work out to:

1 SO: +33.3%

2 SO: +66.6%

3 SO: +95%

4 SO: +100%

5 SO: +105%

6 SO: +110%


Schedule B Enhancements (20%, 10%, 5%) are:

Range, Defense Buff, Resist Damage, To Hit Buff

These bonus types start to see reduction when the bonus is 40% or more, and a severe reduction at 60% bonus or greater. So your bonuses when slotting in multiples of the same Single-Origin Enhancement work out to:

1 SO: +20%

2 SO: +40%

3 SO: +56%

4 SO: +59%

5 SO: +62%

6 SO: +65%


Schedule C Enhancements (40%, 20%, 10%) are:

Interrupt

This bonus type starts to see reduction when the bonus is 80% or more, and a severe reduction at 120% bonus or greater. So your bonuses when slotting in multiples of the same Single-Origin Enhancement work out to:

1 SO: +40%

2 SO: +80%

3 SO: +112%

4 SO: +118%

5 SO: +124%

6 SO: +130%


Schedule D Enhancements (60%, 30%, 15%) are:

Knockback

This bonus type starts to see reduction when the bonus is 120% or more, and a severe reduction at 180% bonus or greater. So your bonuses when slotting in multiples of the same Single-Origin Enhancement work out to:

1 SO: +60%

2 SO: +120%

3 SO: +168%

4 SO: +177%

5 SO: +186%

6 SO: +195%

Does this look like your living room? Chances are that it is not. So why do you insist that you should talk through a movie like you are in your living room?

To the people who talk during movies, I shall say this to you, and I mean it in the most sincere way,


Shut the Fu*k UP and watch the MOVIE.

There is no open discusion about this. Talking through a movie is just plain rude and inconsiderate of others. If you have been warned by the Theatre manager and still proceed to do so, do not act suprised when my soda accidently gets flinged onto you.

Don't give me that "I'm a paying customer" bull crap. That's all you are, a customer. A person who paid $8.50 to see a flick. Does that make you special? Maybe in the most half-wittet, lamebrained mindset. Go ahead and take your $8.50 elsewhere. I'm sure that will impact their revenue.

I'm pretty sure that the people who talk through a movie are also responsible for going into a Library and playing their boomboxes.

To all those who talk during a movie, let alone cell phone users, Go Away. Fuck off and Die. The world does not need anymore of your stupidity crawling around and voting the fate of this country, let alone the world. Do us all a favor and just jump off a bridge and make the biggest splash you can. Make sure they are shark infested waters too.

Ok, I can understand if you're a salesman trying to make a sale to avoid the next alpo dinner, but jeeze! I tell you I am not interested, but when you keep insisting to me about your 90 day trial and how it will not cost me anything, it makes you look like a dick. When I encounter those people, I will have fun. This person, the latest victim in my ever present vigilant behavior against sales drones and marketeers, I took a can of blow-off and started to spray in the mouthpiece, thus making it like a cell phone breaking up. Then I hung up. He deserved it after the fifth time I said "I am not interested."

The reason sales calls will never get by on my watch is that my boss makes it clear to me what he wants and who to filter. So anyone not on that list, don't bother calling, you will not get through.

Have a good day and enjoy your alpo dinner.

Last night two heroes and myself cleared out Siege. An android blaster who's invasion of of dimension needed to be offset. We were successful with no deaths, got close a couple of times though.

Thank you Vitandy Hartwel and Fyrestar.

My sword is yours when you need it.

-AeM

First off, here are my credentials: A 26 year old Young male of mixed race(white, philippino). I had a Colecovision, NES, N64, Apple IIe clone for my Infocomm games, XBOX, Sony Playstation and a PC. Also had some board games like Aggravation and Scrabble.

I really think that Jack Thompson is not genuine about his current actions. He is doing what he does because that's what pays the bills. If he really cared about the safety of the children, then he really should start off by advocating parenting and education.

I grew up in good ol Vallejo, CA. Just 35 minutes from San Francisco, CA. The only thing about it is that you can compare this place very well to East Oakland. The one thing I saw from my experiences is that video games has absolutly NOTHING to do about violent behavior. The gangsta punks up the street didn't learn how to load and fire a gun from a video game. Video games may reflect shooting people, but the real reason behind kids pulling triggers against others has been that they often hated each other and have no respect for human lives. I hardly see how video games such as GTA:San Andreas makes a kid hate others at his school. It would give them idea's on how to dispatch with their enemy, but the idea has been in there a while and was not set in by a video game.

Parenting comes into play here. If you are a parent, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to teach YOUR KID the differences between right and wrong, even if you have to resort to drastic measures. What will happen 20 years down the road and you do not have controll over them? For example, My father was diagnosed with ALS(Lou Gehrigs Disease) I moved back in to help out. I still play video games, but I have had no inclination to murder anyone. I value human life because of how short it can be. Teach this to your children and you will see some changes for the better.

Oh and as for Mr. Jack Thompson, The reason you didn't win in Florida under the GOP bill is that you value Safety over Personal Responsibility. Remember, Personal Responsibility is the cornerstone to the Conservative part of the political system. To put Safety as such, you should have ran as a Liberal instead.

If you plan to call me names, I remind you that adults do not do such things. If you plan to make a suggestion about my mental state, only a Doctor of Medicine and Mental health can make that assertation. Last time I checked, you aren't a doctor, but a stinkin lawyer.

-Awesom e Man
City of Heroes - Victory Server

Just came from an onsite and here's my gripe. If you think you can troubleshoot it better, why in the depths of Norrath or the slums of Kings Row did you call me to troubleshoot it for you? When I work, I use a baseline. This baseline is what I beleive a computer can acheive when working properly. It has not failed me in troubleshooting yet. To whine and complain that it is the hard disk only makes me ignore you.

Oh wait, you didn't have time?

Well you seem to have plenty of time crying to me.

You say you're an engineer?

Well la-de-fricken-da! Congratulations! You have a degree that has absolutly NOTHING to do about PC Repair or TCP/IP network setup. I cannot engineer stuff out, I leave it up to those who know. Not whine about how to get a 3/4 inch flow pipe through a 5/8 inch opening without any loss of volume in the pipe.

is now patrolling Paragon City. Headed by PB kitten, her goal is to scratch out the stink and bury the enemies of Paragon City.

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea." -- Robert Heinlein

Since the dawn of the internet popularity, Wallace and Gromit were there. I plan to see this film. I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of British comedy.

Such a plesant ISP. The Hold times are a little long, but the tech's on the other end are very competent. I usually never have to tell them what needs to be done. I love my 6Mx608k connection. City of Heroes runs nicely.

This is a very beautiful movie. Bizzare and so forth. I recommend see it. Or if you live 300+ miles away from the nearest theatre, have someone cam it for you.

Tape backups. I hate them with a passion. But they are the only thing that makes a truly safe backup. Why did they have to make such a thing very difficult to work with?

Myself vs. Battle Maiden.
Yes, I soloed her.