New efforts!

[Goddangit]

And on that cheery thought......anyone have a perfshifter proc and a regen tissue regen proc? I need to install them in myself to speed up my healing from a fight I was in the other day.

Cheery thought... Okay, I do have one.

SCoRE.  I put my faith in SCoRE.

[Twisted Toon]

Controllers tended to rule everywhere else besides woooooo.

*giggles uncontrollably*

That still get me... :P

[Ryo Kinsaru]

one of their big problems will be cash. the money for this deal is sitting idle. how long will investors sit on their capital before they go somewhere that actually has promise? you might not like a vo, but they at least have progress. coh is a dead issue at this time. I would love to see that change, but my expectations are pretty much nil at this point. the nexon takeover seems to be a dead issue. time to fish or cut bait.

If the money behind this deal goes by the wayside, there are those of us who will step up without hesitation so long as it is the last hurdle. Another thing to think about... the kind of people who can invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into a video game are not the kind of people who will suddenly have to back out because it will cut into their grocery budget. You don't try to bring CoX back with your next mortgage payment. This money comes from somewhere closer to disposable income or investment capital.

[Ryo Kinsaru]

The five levels of City of Heroes:

Level One: The team needs a tanker

Level Two: The good teams don't need a tanker

Level Three: The great teams don't need any archetype

Level Four: The best character builds don't need teams

Level Five: The best players know there are no best character builds

^^ This brought a tear to my eye!

[Illusionss]

I don't know, the longer this drags on the more impulse I have to go somewhere public and scream something about my dark/dark Defender all shiny and chrome at the gates of Valhalla, WITNESS ME!!!!!

I'm not going to actually do any such thing. But the heart wants what it wants, and I feel we are very much being manipulated. What better way to stop our mouths, than fear of souring a deal they never intended to go through with?

Much like the Saudi Arabians and the whole Middle East [except for Israel], I can't wait till new technology renders their stranglehold on us obsolete. Alternatives to gasoline, declining consumption and goodBYE Middle East and may that "religion of peace" straighten things out for ya. We and our money are LEAVING. Enjoy those camel spiders btw. Alternatives to CoX, goodbye NCSoft and your leverage is now gone, you missed out on the money and I hope Bits And Tits makes you all multimillionaires.

But I won't hold my breath on that latter case, as in B&T working out for em.

[Blackgrue]

If the money behind this deal goes by the wayside, there are those of us who will step up without hesitation so long as it is the last hurdle. Another thing to think about... the kind of people who can invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into a video game are not the kind of people who will suddenly have to back out because it will cut into their grocery budget. You don't try to bring CoX back with your next mortgage payment. This money comes from somewhere closer to disposable income or investment capital.

I myself am perfectly willing to spend every last frigging penny of my subsistance existance with the exception of enough for food, electricity, a computer, internet, and a roof to get this back. Seriously, I can live without nearly anything else.

[Solitaire]

3. Current deal they are Tapping the Deal now. They are just stringing it along not to waste time but because the guy selling it is afraid Nexon will fire him if they win the struggle for the company control. If you do even a little research the reason Nexon gives for trying to takeover NCSoft is some of the older software. What I see while not on the inside is the tapping to keep a little life in the deal and the possibility still in place but no intent to close and finish the deal at this time, due mainly to Nexon and its efforts.

Hope this isn't the case as the power struggle between NCSoft & Nexon could go on for years!

[Auroxis]

The five levels of City of Heroes:

Level One: The team needs a tanker

Level Two: The good teams don't need a tanker

Level Three: The great teams don't need any archetype

Level Four: The best character builds don't need teams

Level Five: The best players know there are no best character builds

While teams never really "needed" any archetypes or powers, I really liked having team synergy. So if I'm on a tanker, and the team just recruited another tanker and is a bit low on damage/-res/-regen i'd log on my sonic/mental blaster. Not because the team needs it, but because I liked playing a character that heavily contributed to synergy.

[Azrael]

Level 6.  Synergy.

Azrael.

[Aggelakis]

Level 6.  Synergy.

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=entropymag.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F04%2FMeeting_Synergy.jpg

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[brothermutant]

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=entropymag.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F04%2FMeeting_Synergy.jpg

?

LOL  :D

[Joshex]

so, I know we have alot of speculation as to the reasons why NCSoft may or may not be delaying the deal because of Nexon, and I realize they are a very educated speculation from a rather reliable person  "Ironwolf", so.. well, we never heard the exact words from Nexon themselves about what they plan to do with the game titles (city in specific) should they ever take over NCSoft.

Now is the time to ask before that topic is under NDA if it isn't already.

should we ask? the worst they can tell us is "we wont answer that at this time"

[Pseudo42]

More than likely, Nexan has their own NDAs in regards to it's merger with NCSoft and all it's properties.  I believe the best we can do is look back at the company's previous interests concerning NCSoft properties or how it handled previous mergers, if any, before this all began.

[Azrael]

Quote
I really hate how the level shifts and incarnate powers trivialized level 50 content and broke sidekicking. In avoiding raising the level cap, I believe the end result was worse than if they had. What if they'd extended the cap to level 60 instead?

First, the implications for existing content:

No permanent in-character level shifts. You just level up. Level shifts as a mechanic are retained for use in trials, but they're just that: a trial mechanic that provides a massive debuff or buff. For example, in the Magisterium trial you'd be a level 55 player facing against a level 65 AV, and picking the lights would apply level shifts to make you 55+9 -- but you'd never be something like "50+1" by default in a mission.

All level 50 Task Forces would exemplar players to 50, meaning players won't have access to powers they acquired over level 55 under the current exemplar rules. This is a massive nerf to player power while running those Task Forces, though they are pre-incarnate content so they were never prepared for that level of power to begin with.

A lot of already existing content would need to be shuffled around to take place at levels 51-60. Off the top of my head, this would make Apex and Tin Mage be level 50-55 Task Forces, BAF/Lambda/Keyes Level/Undeground/TPN 50-55, Diabolique/Mayhem/Magisterium level 55-60. Dark Astoria would be a 51 to 60 zone. The Brickstown and Cap Au Diable arcs would see the more dramatic change, going from 30-50 (being the worst timeline breakers) to 55-60. The Incarnate arcs (Vetrano, Number 6) would be placed around 50-60 where appropriate based on story progression.

Similarly, a bit (though not actually a lot) of content would need rewriting to remove references to things like Incarnate Shards. The intro Ramiel arc would just say the Well of the Furies has 'noticed' your rise in power and you will get new abilities, but that's it.

The Rikti Mothership Raid critters would need to be level-less so level 60s don't stomp them into a pulp while still making the raid available to 50s. Hamidon is already level-less, so no changes there. HOs would start dropping at the level of the player again, so you could get HOs up to level 60.

Invention enhancements would keep increasing in the % they buff; Purples would drop in the 50 to 60 range. Enhancement Boosters already had buffed level 50 enhancements to this point, so thank Statesman that ED exists to make it less ridiculous.

To avoid losing a lot of value in existing enhancements, enhancements could be attuned (the mechanic used by Paragon Store SOs to scale with your level). By attuning the purples you already have slotted, they'd remain usable as you level instead of requiring you to upgrade to level 60 stuff.

Now, how the progression would work:

New power picks at levels 51, 53, 55, 57 and 59. Three slots at levels 52, 54, 56, 58, and 60. Those power and slot picks are not limited to Incarnate-only stuff; if you don't care about, slotting, say, Hybrid, you could put those slots in a lower level power that needs them. If you dont care about getting Hybrid at all, you can get another power from your primary/secondary/pools.

Level 51 - Judgement, Interface and Hybrid unlocked. You can pick one of them or pick a power from earlier stuff.
Level 52 - 3 slots.
Level 53 - Power pick. Again, from any powers that are unlocked, incarnate or otherwise.
Level 54 - 3 slots.
Level 55 - Power pick, same as 53.
Level 56 - 3 slots.
Level 57 - Destiny and Lore unlocked. Pick either, or pick from earlier powers.
Level 58 - 3 slots.
Level 59 - Power pick, either from whatever you missed at 57 or anything earlier.
Level 60 - 3 slots.

So three things jump to the eyes: what happened to Alpha? Why is Hybrid an early power now? How do I get up the trees?

First, why no more trees: think of Judgement as a power pool that is limited to one power pick. All the basic powers will be there (meaning, the tier 1s) and you pick one. Pyronic, Cryonic, whichever: you now have a Judgement power that is part of your build. No such thing as an incarnate "tree".

How will the power grow in strength without the tree? Same as every other freaking power you got before: slots. Each Judgement power will be slottable. They will take TOs/DOs/SOs/Generic IOs as appropriate, so from the start you can put something in the power to improve it, without having to wait for specific trial drops.

But what about their special, branching effects? Simple: special enhancement sets that can be slotted only in those powers. If you have the Rebirth Barrier, for example, you can slot regular enhancements to improve its stats, the "Core Ephipany" invention set to add +HP or the "Radial Epiphany" set to add +Regen. The more pieces of the set, the stronger the effect, replacing the uncommon/rare/very rare tier of stuff. Note that there wouldn't be a different enhancement set for each power; the same "Core Epiphany" set could be slotted in Barrier and then it'd add buff duration, and the same "Radial Ephiphany" in Barrier would add the ally rez x2 effect.

Second, Hybrid and Alpha: Hybrid is a very lame ability to end the tree with. My personal theory is that the power developers realized how absurd the power creep had got with the previous 4 slots, and Hybrid was trying to get things back under control. It also has a similar end-use effect to alpha: it's just a buff, while Alpha was passive, Hybrid is a click/toggle. So rather than spend 2 power picks on the same thing, they're rolled into one.

Another reason to move it to 51 is to put the two "big ones", Destiny and Lore, at 57 and 59 -- just outside of the exemplar range of a level 50 TF. So while running a Statesman/Lord Recluse/Lady Grey, you would have access to Judgement, Interface and Hybrid only -- one big nuke and two support powers, not the multiplicative team-buff or the nasty pets. A level 55 TF (the first two being Apex and Tin Mage, remember) would have access to all the powers.

The Alpha part of the boost would be in the enhancement sets for Hybrid. The base ability for Hybrid would be the same (say you pick damage) and the IO sets you can slot in Hybrid would include the "enhacements for all powers that ignores ED" bit.

All those enhancement sets would drop from regular content and be tradable in the AH like any other invention, because that's all that would be. The Well is giving you extra powers, you're using your existing knowledge to make them better, just like you improved all your previous abilities.

TL;DR: Incarnate power picks while leveling up. Incarnate powers can be slotted. The tree goes away, and powers are instead improved through enhancements and enhancement sets, same as all other powers. 51-60 as a natural progression from 1-50, not a separate system with different rules.

A collossal post, Leandro.  Articulate, creative and well thought out and IN the spirit of the original game.

That's the way it SHOULD have been done instead of the fractured, unintuitive design Kludge Legion grind fest we ended up with.  The incarnate idea was a good idea.  And while I don't advocate a raise of the level cap to say '100'...  It should and could have been done to 'L60' (and no further, perhaps...) to give the 'Incarnate' idea the 'breathing space' to spread out, pile in the solo mission content, acquire the powers and slot them in true City of Heroes fashion rather than trying to almost create a different game out of it. 

Paragon's design intentions may have been 'honourable' but the result was a constipated, squashed jam sandwich +1 or +2 level shift with relentless in grind fest.  ('SHARD!')  Dreadful.  I must commend Paragon on many sound issues releases and their expansive work on CoH since the NC takeover.  However, 3 things sucked under their watch.  Beam power set.  Mushroom affinity power set.  And the incarnate WWTT?!

I always had an issue with the original Epic power sets.  They didn't feel quite 'epic' enough, not in terms of big L50 (or beyond?) heroes like Statesman.  They seemed like a feeble after thought that provided some utility to a weakness in the build.  But hardly 'EPIC.'  And I always felt that just as I was collecting up my last two epic powers I had just a few or '1' level to enjoy that power before getting my 'Golden Handshake' and being retired to the L50 retirement home (re: 'lack' of end game?)

So, in theory, the powers for incarnate and the rest we didn't get, were what the 'Epic' powers should have been.

I can't say much more.  Nice idea meets design car crash.  If SCoRE ever get the game up and running again?  I'd love them to rip out the entire implementation of the interface and re-align some content and INTERFACE re: Leandro's post to make it the natural extension to  CoH that it SHOULD have been.  Which would be valid for those that enjoyed the original pick up and play feel of the 'standard' (and understandable) Coh interface.

I've read the 'implications' of why 'not to' up the level cap indefinitely.  Yes.  Point taken.  You can stretch the content out too thinly.  But Maths doesn't seem to have been Cryptic's strong point before ED and maybe it wasn't around L50.  You can always get escalation which, in itself can be boring.  However, ten levels to enjoy your epics to L50, and 10 levels to enjoy your Incarnate 'true end game' to L60 isn't unreasonable for me.  That would have provided an nice 'end cap' to the game along with the refinements they had with i24.  I don't think what they implemented was any better than what Leandro has suggested.  He's broken down the design problems and provided reasonable solutions.  It would have been far less 'alien' to me.  If they wanted to design an interface for CoH 2 then they should have shoved the 'Incarnate Interface' as was...there. :P 

Paragon and NC Soft maybe seemed clueless why the people 'liked CoH being there' but were actually playing other MMOs (fickle bunch those MMO gamers?  Even my Duo partner was always taking breaks and playing other games, Conan, Eve, Neverwinter...Champions: god forgive him...)  Moving to 'less dated' graphics (see Atlas Revival...), more interior mission types and raising of the Level cap to 60 with a properly graduated 'end' game rather than the panic stricken incarnate system should have been a matter of priority for a '2nd' development team while the 1st team put out the issue updates rather than working on two other projects which weren't bringing home the bacon.  Even the criticism of game play being 'slow.'  Make SB a clickable 'turbo button' inherent for game play speed freaks or a whole server on 'turbo mode' for gamers who like fast play though I found 'this is how we roll' IO'd out teams rather hard to keep up with.  (Was great, sometimes, to have a whole team on that...but not all the time.  I liked my CoH graceful and balladic on solo play...)

In short, Leandro said it best.  Top post.

Azrael.

PS.  As for Nexxon.  Maybe.  But NC will have a price.  Either the buyout team can meet that fee or not.  It involves negotiations because NC's name is associated with it.  Deals can take time even if you are Apple and have 180+ billion in the 'bank.'  It's not even a year since the 'official' announcement broke? 

In the meantime, I'm thinking if Codewalker is saying 'soon' on Icon 2.0(?) then I'm targeting the 3rd anniversary of CoH's closure to bring us something 'new' to play with.

Given the context of other MMO reverse engineering efforts it's still early days in Coh's return.  Though that doesn't provide much comfort at the moment.

[umber]

I must commend Paragon on many sound issues releases and their expansive work on CoH since the NC takeover.  However, 3 things sucked under their watch.  Beam power set.  Mushroom affinity power set.  And the incarnate WWTT?!

Nature Affinity was a set I'd not got around to exploring before the doors closed, was it really that bad?  What was wrong with it?

Beam Rifle... has a Beam/Traps corr in the 30s at closing and wasn't loving it.  Beam did come across as a little slow, a little low-damage, a little AoE-light for what I was expecting from the set.  But maybe saddling it with a set I didn't love hurt it unfairly, Traps bored me but fit the character concept.

The only thing about the Incarnate content that concerned me was the perception of dividing up an already small community. 

[Auroxis]

Beam was fine IMO, offered decent -regen and -res. I don't think Traps was the best fit for it though since it already had very powerful regen and res debuffs.

[HEATSTROKE]

 Incarnate definitely did not suck. It allowed me to really expand the ability of many of my characters as well as shore up a weakness or two..

[nicoliy]

In the meantime, I'm thinking if Codewalker is saying 'soon' on Icon 2.0(?) then I'm targeting the 3rd anniversary of CoH's closure to bring us something 'new' to play with.

I hope we get the teaser/hints soon soon...I've been going crazy thinking about what may be on its way. Yes I know it's not a return to the game in full, but still excited about whatever functionality may be coming.

[Joshex]

More than likely, Nexan has their own NDAs in regards to it's merger with NCSoft and all it's properties.  I believe the best we can do is look back at the company's previous interests concerning NCSoft properties or how it handled previous mergers, if any, before this all began.

from their history? probably buy out and sell off then. Typically that's the way hostile takeovers go. Naturally they might hold a short meeting to discuss if it's worth the time, money and effort to restore or renew the games, but for games like ours they will deem the bugs, old code system and outdated graphics to be not worth the effort and inferior to modern games and therefore not a threat to sell off.

It could be to our benefit, so even if NCSoft doesn't sell, Nexon will. That might be the end-line of all this.

typically auctions are held, but if we stake our claim ahead of time I'm sure the Them could negotiate for it. Unless the unlikely occurrence happens that Nexon actually decides City is worth the effort to restore because of all our ruckus.

meh, we'll find out when we find out what happens. if anything happens. maybe the Them will find some way to close the deal before Nexon does anything.

[JanessaVR]

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=entropymag.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F04%2FMeeting_Synergy.jpg
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Ah, yes.  Gem and the Holograms.  Loved that when I was a kid.  :)