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Community => City of Heroes => Topic started by: GuyPerfect on June 19, 2014, 12:30:43 AM

Title: The Days Before Toxic
Post by: GuyPerfect on June 19, 2014, 12:30:43 AM
I've been working on a project collecting all the data I can on City of Heroes on launch day. Most of the data is right there on the piggs from the original installation CDs, but one key thing that's missing is the list of effects for each power. Mr. Emmert strictly intended for power numbers to be invisible to players, and as far as I know, it's the only data that was excluded from those launch-day piggs.

Most other information has been scrounged up thanks to some endeavoring data collectors, including the original XP rewards and debt numbers by level. But those power effects are lost to the ages, so they need to be reproduced as accurately as possible. As I started playing in Issue 6, I've got a few questions.


Knockout Blow

I hear this power once sucked. How badly did it suck? My usual approach is to refer to NPC powers of the same name and steal the numbers from there, but Knockout Blow has me a little confused. No NPCs had any version of Knockout Blow at launch. It wound up being owned by a few signature characters, redside Ancestor Spirits and apparently there was a power for it for use by Capo Muscle, but the oldest one I was able to find is Totem's Forceful Slash (http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/powers/power.php?id=BanishedPantheon.EndgameTotem.Knockout_Blow).

Here's the thing. Forceful Slash has a damage of scale 1.4. I was able to find the "brawl index" of Knockout Blow as far back as December of 2004 (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?160279-CoH-Let-s-Talk-about-the-Tanker-Scrapper-Changes&s=49b519bd36dfe38330ded31ae999f725&p=3236959#post3236959), and doing the math I found that the damage scale was 3.56, which it still was when they shut down the game. If Forceful Slash used the same damage scale as Knockout Blow, then KO Blow did absolutely miserable damage.

Was that the case, though? Did Knockout Blow's damage get boosted by more than 250% in Issue 2?


Toxic Damage

Toxic damage wasn't in the game at launch. I hear stories of Cadavers dealing Fire damage or what-not, but I'd like to keep a nice running list of everything if anyone can help scrounge up the details.

The following powers were present at launch and were since updated to deal Toxic damage:
We do have one hint, though. Paragon Protectors / Ripper (http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/powers/power.php?id=Crey.Crey_Boss_Hero_Clone_Quills.Ripper) seems to have slipped under the radar, and all the way up to the end still dealt damage of type Special, which was ye olde "untyped" damage back in the day. It was the same damage type dealt by Quantum Array Gun (http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/powers/power.php?id=Nictus.Hunter.Quantum_Array_Gun), and later was supposed to only be used by Hamidon's attacks because Essence of the Earth (http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/powers/power.php?id=Inspirations.Special.Essence_of_the_Earth) provided immunity to it.

I can't help but notice that Special damage is not Fire damage. You guys happen to have enough really old chat logs or whatever that we can use to build a good full list of what types these attacks really dealt?
Title: Re: The Days Before Toxic
Post by: eabrace on June 19, 2014, 01:37:54 AM
Quote from: GuyPerfect on June 19, 2014, 12:30:43 AMI was able to find the "brawl index" of Knockout Blow as far back as December of 2004 (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?160279-CoH-Let-s-Talk-about-the-Tanker-Scrapper-Changes&s=49b519bd36dfe38330ded31ae999f725&p=3236959#post3236959), and doing the math I found that the damage scale was 3.56, which it still was when they shut down the game.

If it's any indication, here's the description of KO Blow in the original manual for the game:

QuoteA slow attack that deals little damage, but can knock out most opponents.

So, initially, it wasn't a very powerful attack.
Title: Re: The Days Before Toxic
Post by: Angel Phoenix77 on June 19, 2014, 01:51:14 AM
I can admit I  2 slotted brawl when I first started  :P
Title: Re: The Days Before Toxic
Post by: MWRuger on June 19, 2014, 09:42:41 PM
Wish I had been playing then, but even if I had I'd likely be useless. I just wanted to beat up bad guys and do missions and enjoy the ride. I usually only noticed what a power did if it sucked and then i would just spec out it. Unless it look cool then I might keep and try and fix it.
Title: Re: The Days Before Toxic
Post by: Nyx Nought Nothing on June 19, 2014, 10:19:23 PM
Quote from: TheDevilYouKnow on June 19, 2014, 09:42:41 PM
Wish I had been playing then, but even if I had I'd likely be useless. I just wanted to beat up bad guys and do missions and enjoy the ride. I usually only noticed what a power did if it sucked and then i would just spec out it. Unless it look cool then I might keep and try and fix it.
Don't worry, early on the only way to spec a power out or change your costume was to make a new character. Oh, and there were far fewer sliders and costume pieces to work with. But you could easily slot for perma-Hasten with SOs.
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