Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
randombattle
Oct 16, 2008

This hand of mine shines and roars! It's bright cry tells me to grasp victory!

Asimo posted:

Yeah. I love the idea of those, since it's a fun way to make interesting effects and throw on fun weapon gimmicks. But the lack of stats is often crippling, and the fact the weapon replacement powers are at the item's level (at least for the munitions types, rather than the "chance of effect on hit" martial arts types) means they go obsolete incredibly quickly unless there's some unique damage type or effect, and even then they don't have much lifespan. Just kind of sad really.

I just don't understand why the power replacers don't appear in the costume editor with the right effects. Or at least do what STO does and have them scale with your level.

I mean drat dudes it's a feature of your other game! On the same engine! With the same code! With literally the same people working on it!

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Crocoswine
Aug 20, 2010

Is Antiproton still around? Because he was loving terrible and I hate him and he never did anything worthwhile except be a useless piece of poo poo bent on making every item in the game worthless/awful.

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

My Millenia Rangers spin-off never caught on.



LordSaturn
Aug 12, 2007

sadly unfunny

FlyinPingu posted:

Is Antiproton still around? Because he was loving terrible and I hate him and he never did anything worthwhile except be a useless piece of poo poo bent on making every item in the game worthless/awful.

Briefly perusing the Items & Crafting forum reveals that he may have disappeared. Good news, right? Except that he was replaced by... nobody. Seems like all the dev attention is on powers and not items.

Aphrodite posted:

My Millenia Rangers spin-off never caught on.



That's not a color! :argh:

Pimpmust
Oct 1, 2008

There I was, feeling like a total bad rear end goin' all Black Dynamite on a small army through the jungle instance to save my UNTIL bros. Demons? Demons in my base? I can dig. This aint so hard. Just need to kite and pick off the right targets first. AK-47 versus the world, allllright.

Oh.

Boss fight.

Let's do this :black101:

About ten minutes later:
:gonk:

Turns out that Despair Incarnate is a pretty hard boss fight for a level 10 soldier :ohdear:

Pimpmust fucked around with this message at 17:02 on Jul 19, 2011

Rocketlex
Oct 21, 2008

The Manliest Knight
in Caketown

Pimpmust posted:

There I was, feeling like a total bad rear end goin' all Black Dynamite on a small army through the jungle instance to save my UNTIL bros. Demons? Demons in my base? I can dig. This aint so hard. Just need to kite and pick off the right targets first. AK-47 versus the world, allllright.

Oh.

Boss fight.

Let's do this :black101:

About ten minutes later:
:gonk:

Turns out that Despair Incarnate is a pretty hard boss fight for a level 10 soldier :ohdear:

Indeed he is. I think I was about the same level when I fought him (though I'm pretty sure that whole thing scales, anyway). I really only won because for a while he bugged out and just let me wail on him. Using a shield really helped, too.

The main thing which makes him hard is that the room is so small you can't get away from both him and his minions. With the amount of health he has, hit-and-run tactics are necessary, but you kinda need to hope he and his buddies get stuck on a polygon somewhere for it to work.

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

LordSaturn posted:

That's not a color! :argh:

Yeah well, you spelled Milennia wrong.

Pimpmust
Oct 1, 2008

Problem is that if they get stuck for too long they (or well, the boss, the henchies goes down quickly) start to regenerate / breaks combat.

Encountered another hard boss, a certain Maniac leader, she shot me for 350+ damage in a single attack which is nearly half of my full HP. Normal groups of goons are easy enough to gun down but jeesh, loving bosses.

delfin
Dec 5, 2003

SNATTER'S ALIVE?!?!
When you're at low levels, you're especially vulnerable to bosses because you probably don't have much of anything in the way of defensive powers yet. Archetypes don't get a block power 'til level 14, and even in freeform it's easy to get caught up in "I need this attack, this attack and this attack" and then wonder why you're getting knocked around.

Later in the game, bosses are (mostly) no big deal because you've got some defensives and/or heals in your repertoire; they're just bigger piles of HP that hit harder than most.

Also, work on your blocking. Those big FREEM! BAM! BOOM! FOOM! icons aren't just there as a homage to 60's Batman.

Pimpmust
Oct 1, 2008

I block what I can, but it doesn't always register in time (depending on prior animation length I guess). Doesn't help that the boss normal attack does like 100 damage and even blocking that 350 damage attack will not do much of a difference.
As you said, I can't out-tank them because I don't have any heals or defensive powers yet and the soldier is kinda frail.

rocketrobot
Jul 11, 2003

Sounds like you need a platoon or a squad, if you know what I mean.

Rocketlex
Oct 21, 2008

The Manliest Knight
in Caketown
I just threw on all the devices I had. Healing patches, shields, grenades, a wierd...flamethrower thing I didn't even remember picking up. Of course, I'm playing Behemoth, so I was able to tank him a little. Still probably my hardest fight so far. I think he killed me twice before I got him.

DivineCoffeeBinge
Mar 3, 2011

Spider-Man's Amazing Construction Company
Yeah, that fight is a bitch. My Inventor fared pretty well, but IIRC I'd put that quest off for ages, so by the time I reached him I had Attack Toys, and was able to hide behind stuff and heal up while he attacked my pets. Popping a force field and/or HOT Bots helped too, as did the Sidekick I had from getting the game pretty much as soon as it hit Steam.

Jan
Feb 27, 2008

The disruptive powers of excessive national fecundity may have played a greater part in bursting the bonds of convention than either the power of ideas or the errors of autocracy.
edit: derp wrong Despair Incarnate encounter, disregard this.

Asimo
Sep 23, 2007


Yeah. Even scaled to solo, the boss fights of the comic series and the adventure packs are pretty grueling. Unless you're custom-making a build to farm certain low-level items for resale, you're usually better off waiting until the 20's, where you have a more solid build and probably several utility/defense powers now that you've filled out the core competencies. Archetypes... well, probably depends on which archetype, but may just be better off with a group really. None of it is unbeatable or unfair, but it's definitely tuned a lot higher than content you'll run into at lower levels.

MelvinTheJerk
Jun 4, 2001

I'm still here.
I keep getting disconnected from the server. This happening for anyone else right now? My internet connection seems fine.

Mewnie
Apr 2, 2011

clean dogge
is a
happy dogge

FlyinPingu posted:

Is Antiproton still around? Because he was loving terrible and I hate him and he never did anything worthwhile except be a useless piece of poo poo bent on making every item in the game worthless/awful.

AFAIK he's gone. Although a couple of folks say they moved him over to work on NWN. If that's true, gently caress that game.

I still remember when the VB costume drops first came out, and people were working out that some parts had drop rates of a hundredth of a percent and AP was like 'Yo, lemme check those numbers... yup, they match up. Working as intended. HTH, HAND!'

Him and Balseraph were terrible. Both seemed to actually hate dealing with player feedback, and probably even contempt for us players. Of course, Balseraph was a poster on :siren:Silverspar's:siren: blog, SO...

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

Saw these guys hanging around the tailor.

Their supergroup is called "The Marvel Ultimate Alliance"

The Iron Man is called Stony Tark, the Luke Cage is Luke C., the Spider-Man is Spidey-Man and the Deadpool is The Undercover Hero. He's also the black armored guy in the Iron Man picture. Not sure who that's supposed to be.

They're all pretty bad, but there's something to be said for the organization.





Rocketlex
Oct 21, 2008

The Manliest Knight
in Caketown
As bad as they all are, that Iron Man really isn't even trying.

So I rolled an Alt today, and I learned something: the teleport travel ability is nuts. I don't know how many people have tried it, but it's definitely the most fun travel power I've played with, and definitely fitting if you're playing any kind of mysticism character (like my alt is). Now I'm teleporting everywhere I go, even if it's just a few feet. I'm loving Ganon over here.

Asimo
Sep 23, 2007


I'm not all that fond of Teleport honestly, even if it is incredibly effective. It doesn't "feel" faster than flight, and while you go from zero to full without a charge, there's also the annoyance of doing so and getting hit by combat at the wrong moment and having to stand around for ten seconds while it recharges. You also can't just point and laze back with autorun like you can with a flight power, and if I can't do that I may as well just take Super Leap or Swinging. They've also finally fixed the semi-exploit of being able to block while zipping off using it too, I believe.

That said, it's still one of the better travel powers, and I certainly won't fault someone for abusing it.

Infinity Gaia
Feb 27, 2011

a storm is coming...

On the other hand, Teleport is incredibly amusing to use to get into combat. My current alt is basically a stylishly dressed skeleton guy with single blade/darkness set, and it's incredibly amusing to teleport behind a group of goons and just stand there for a while, imagining the scene. Then I kill the entire group with Scything Blade.

Man I love Scything Blade.

Bloody Pancreas
Feb 21, 2008


Earlier someone asked about a single blade/Darkness hybrid build, and I was wondering how a Dual Pistol/Darkness build would work? I would think DEX/INT would be the key superstats, but beyond that I can't see how the two would fit together.

Asimo
Sep 23, 2007


Bloody Pancreas posted:

Earlier someone asked about a single blade/Darkness hybrid build, and I was wondering how a Dual Pistol/Darkness build would work? I would think DEX/INT would be the key superstats, but beyond that I can't see how the two would fit together.
Hmm. You'd probably really want to cherry-pick some of the utility powers from Darkness, since those in general tend to be set-agnostic. Unfortunately going dual pistols makes this a little trickier, since you can't exploit Gatling Gun's fear-Advantage and the like, but that's not insurmountable. Lifedrain would give you one way to heal yourself for example, Void Shift could be a fun charge power for Bullet Ballet after Breakaway Shot or Evasive Maneuvers (... probably the latter), and both Void Horror and Summon Shadows would work alright, although the second is probably better. Obviously you'd want to go for a damage-type agnostic passive like Quarry or Defiance.

There's probably someone who can make better suggestions here, though.

Bitchtits McGee
Jul 1, 2011

Aphrodite posted:

He's also the black armored guy in the Iron Man picture. Not sure who that's supposed to be.

Warmachine, maybe? Or whatever that guy's name is, the one who was in the movie. Obadiah something. Hell, just going through the tutorial level on my first couple of toons, I saw a Capt. America, a Son Gokuu, and no less than three different(ly named) Hulks. :ughh: I'm halfway tempted to make a bright-yellow-and-red Dual Pistols 'bot named The Throwaway Killer just to see if anyone calls me out on it.

Completely unrelated n00b question: are Blade powers supposed to not make any noise, or is that something I should be ticketing?

Asimo
Sep 23, 2007


Bitchtits McGee posted:

and no less than three different(ly named) Hulks.
The only good Hulk-ripoff I've seen is H.U.L.C., the robo-Hulk I linked in the OP. It's almost uncanny. Sadly, I don't recall whose it was and I'm pretty sure they weren't a goon.

quote:

Completely unrelated n00b question: are Blade powers supposed to not make any noise, or is that something I should be ticketing?
That... yeah, they're not the most noisy powersets, but there should be some "whooshing" and "clanking" noises to go with the powers. There's a long-running but rareish issue with the sound engine that causes problems with effects only being audible from certain camera angles, and I think it can be fixed or worked around by setting your windows audio preferences from "surround" to "stereo" if they're set to the former. As for how to do that, uh, go poke around on the official forums. :v:

whatspeakyou
Mar 3, 2010

no fucks given.

Aphrodite posted:

Saw these guys hanging around the tailor.

Their supergroup is called "The Marvel Ultimate Alliance"

The Iron Man is called Stony Tark, the Luke Cage is Luke C., the Spider-Man is Spidey-Man and the Deadpool is The Undercover Hero. He's also the black armored guy in the Iron Man picture. Not sure who that's supposed to be.

They're all pretty bad, but there's something to be said for the organization.







those are all awful. Cage is semi-close, but how hard is it to gently caress up a t-shirt and pants? I'll post my War Machine later on. It's probably the best Iron Man suit you'll see in-game. I don't get how some people make ripoffs and then screw them up so badly at the same time. I've made Thor, Venom, Iron Man, War Machine, and Deathstroke before and they're all spot-on. I saw a hulk the other day in long tights. with spiked hair. and a smile on his face.



If you're going to have no imagination, at least do the ripoff some justice.

Sherry Bahm
Jul 30, 2003

filled with dolphins
But that's not Luke Cage. It's Luke C.

Bitchtits McGee
Jul 1, 2011

Asimo posted:

That... yeah, they're not the most noisy powersets, but there should be some "whooshing" and "clanking" noises to go with the powers.

Turns out the sounds really were there all along, I just couldn't hear them until I'd turned everything else off. So, yeah, thanks, but never mind, I guess. :blush:

Also, "Tin Can Hit Man" is such a superior name that I'm packing that idea right back in the box.

doomfunk
Feb 29, 2008

oh come on was that really necessary
all over my fine carpet!!

Bloody Pancreas posted:

Earlier someone asked about a single blade/Darkness hybrid build, and I was wondering how a Dual Pistol/Darkness build would work? I would think DEX/INT would be the key superstats, but beyond that I can't see how the two would fit together.

Asimo posted:

good advice

You're pretty much spot-on with what I'd advise, Asimo. It's an awkward combo but you can make it work.

If you really, really, really, really want to use Dual Pistols powers with darkness, then:
0) superstat dex/int, equip for endurance as well
1) choose Quarry or Defiance, as Asimo advised.
2) If you chose Quarry, take Two-Gun Mojo for your Enrage for Bullet Ballet. If Defiance, just take the Enrage power.
3) Bullet Beatdown
4) Evasive Maneuvers, Void Shift, Killer Instinct, Lifedrain.
Note: Even though there is an advantage on Lock 'n' Load that reduces its cooldown time when you hit with a melee attack, this will be worthless for you as its damage/crit buff only applies to ranged gun attacks and 2GM kinda sucks aside from its Enrage stack at range (and the ability to fire and kite).
You will require an AOE. Whether you go with Shadow Embrace or Lead Tempest is up to you. Shadow Embrace is a much better power in terms of DPS, but Lead Tempest looks p. cool and has much longer range.
For your energy builder, you probably want Gunslinger for the dual pistols 'look' but Steady Shot or Shadow Bolts are more utilitarian; steady shot grants an on-next-hit crit buff, and shadow bolts carry fear for your darkness powers. Note that Lifedrain is MUCH more potent when used on a Feared target, and also note Shadow Embrace is one of the best powers in the game at applying a fear and then exploiting it all in one go. Choose wisely.

Pet powers are optional but useful. Breakaway shot looks cool as hell but is less useful than EM. Holdout Pistol - if it crits - hits like a loving truck and heals you for a ton but don't rely on it; also it has a sideways roll that can and will carry you into, say, the lava in Andrithal if you're not careful (true story).

The point of Dual Pistols is your ability to deliver some really nasty, low-energy melee attacks that crit often and refill your endurance via Killer Instinct. Void Shift brings you in close to do this, 2GM/Enrage keeps them nasty and chaining to nearby targets. But basically, yeah, ironically Dual Pistols are best when not fired. :confused:
So, in short, rage up, flip back, blink in, beat down.

Have fun! :thumbsup:

doomfunk fucked around with this message at 15:47 on Jul 20, 2011

delfin
Dec 5, 2003

SNATTER'S ALIVE?!?!
All I know about Darkness right now is that getting Summon Shadows at level 14 with a pure-Darkness build is just NASTY.

Fly, my easily recyclable minions, fly! (three Shadows run out and bulldoze henchmen and feed a sliver of health back to me with every hit) Whoops, one got killed? No problem, since I'll be making three new ones every 20 seconds...

Crocoswine
Aug 20, 2010

doomfunk posted:

Holdout Pistol - if it crits - hits like a loving truck and heals you for a ton but don't rely on it; also it has a sideways roll that can and will carry you into, say, the lava in Andrithal if you're not careful (true story).

If this was true, it's not anymore; whenever I use Holdout Pistol my character does a little roll animation, but doesn't actually move.

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

The Druidic Sanctum is really nice. It's a big change to the design of the Sanctum hideout.

The Cave one suffers a bit because they accidentally released all 4 locales, when each pack should have come with one. By already having the locales this ends up being just a furniture pack so it's not as cool.

The Djinn device just annoys me. It uses a bunch of existing powers mechanically, but with Wind animations instead. Why can't we do that, Cryptic?

Tornado Flight isn't flashy enough. You can't change the color of the tornado itself so it never stands out because it's brown. The effect is also diminished quite a bit when you move. It should have used the animation that the Djinn have naturally, but then I guess there would be issues with any animations that use feet.

Asimo
Sep 23, 2007


Aphrodite posted:

The Druidic Sanctum is really nice. It's a big change to the design of the Sanctum hideout.

The Cave one suffers a bit because they accidentally released all 4 locales, when each pack should have come with one. By already having the locales this ends up being just a furniture pack so it's not as cool. I was hoping they would just be additions to the current HQs rather than extra cost as well, but I guess they have to stay in business somehow...

The Djinn device just annoys me. It uses a bunch of existing powers mechanically, but with Wind animations instead. Why can't we do that, Cryptic?

Tornado Flight isn't flashy enough. You can't change the color of the tornado itself so it never stands out because it's brown. The effect is also diminished quite a bit when you move. It should have used the animation that the Djinn have naturally, but then I guess there would be issues with any animations that use feet.
drat, I was going to comment on this stuff this morning, but it wasn't activated yet. :argh: That explains why caves had so many "looks" to them though, way more than the other HQs. As for power SFX, they've explained some things before that implies that changing anything besides the color basically requires making an all-new power (due to poor foresight when making the game engine I guess), which is why they're hesitant to do SFX change advantages like Giant Growth on Enrage out of worries of making things too complex on their end. Still, an elemental air powerset would be a nice addition.

Tornado Flight... I quite like the subtle effect, but it really needs to not fade when you move, definitely. The Djinn device meanwhile does explain why they added a "summon mystic flaming swords" AoE power to Sorcery on the PTR though. (And does anyone actually use those items? They're a nice novelty, but...)

doomfunk posted:

You're pretty much spot-on with what I'd advise, Asimo.
:mmmsmug:

quote:

steady shot grants an on-next-hit crit buff
Be a bit wary picking this. Steady Shot at the moment is the only energy builder that fires every second rather than every half second. That doesn't sound like a lot, and it does mean each shot has a higher return, but sometimes it still feels like it takes forever and the crit buff isn't that noticeable.

Also, if you're taking advantage of Bullet Ballet (and you probably should as it's amazing, just be sure to grab its Advantage ASAP), you might want to look into Form of the Tempest. Enrage has higher boost to your damage since it'd work on your ranged powers, but you'll be critting quite a bit and the energy return from Focus is both reliable and easy, and the damage boost in melee is quite noticeable. Regardless, you almost certainly want to take Howl from Supernatural, as it both applies/refreshes Enrage for your pistols powers to exploit (although it doesn't stack it), but it also drops fear on everything around you (making your darkness powers better). Even with a 25ish second cooldown, it is literally perfect for a Munitions/Darkness hybrid build.

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

I would probably take Tempest for AoE over Shadow Embrace for Pistols/Darkness. If you're using Quarry or Defiance the bonus to Shadow Embrace is nothing, and it already has lower damage to compensate for its control advantages.

Besides, Lead Tempest is 90% of the reason you'd want to be Dual Pistols instead of just general Munitions. The other 10% is Bullet Ballet.



Regarding Tornado Flight, one thing I didn't get to try on the PTS is the environmental effects. Apparently it acts like Earth Flight and picks up an effect depending where you cast it. In the Powerhouse there were some stones in the tornado, but people on the forums say it picks up leaves, sand and fire too.

If it was dynamic and picked stuff up as you traveled over them I'd be all over that, but as it is it's too boring to spend money on. Maybe if a Wind powerset ever comes out, but right now it's not enough for me to make a character for, nor do I have any who would use it.

Aphrodite fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Jul 20, 2011

doomfunk
Feb 29, 2008

oh come on was that really necessary
all over my fine carpet!!
Whoops, forgot to mention Form of the Tempest as an absolute requirement. Killer Instinct already procs from crits, double energy on each crit is juicy.

Did Lead Tempest get some kind of buff or something that I missed, turning it from a poo poo power with great range into some kind of awesome power? That's several goons now who've been praising it when every time I've ever had it in a build it's underperformed colossally.

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

It wasn't terribly recent, but they smartened up the targeting AI and raised the chances a bit. It will actually kill minions 90% of the time in a single maintain now, and any it doesn't are usually low enough to be killed by a tap of Assault Rifle or Mojo.

Also it looks awesome, and as I've explained before, that's what's most important.

Bloody Pancreas
Feb 21, 2008


Wow thanks for all this advice, I can't wait to give it a whirl.

Asimo
Sep 23, 2007


I still sort of suggest SMG or Gatling Gun over Lead Tempest if you aren't holding totally to the dual-pistols theme. Lead Tempest's a lot better than it was, and it has an advantage that syncs well with Quarry (and BCR+RR), but the damage isn't that exciting and it's as far as I know the only attack power in the game that can theoretically do no damage. Okay okay, it's really unlikely, but there's still a 25% chance to miss each tick even with close-range targets and it is incredibly annoying to have some minion just not die after a full maintain. I find the cone attacks a lot more manageable too, since you can use them at range easier, even with Lead Tempest's giant AoE.

That said, it's still basically the best power in the game for catching AoE aggro with Challengine Strikes. And it does look spiffy.

Aphrodite
Jun 27, 2006

SMG shares some models with the pistols I think, so if you're really set on the theme that's an option. It's mostly the pistol models that already look like SMGs, though.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

RUM HAM
Sep 25, 2009

whatspeakyou posted:

those are all awful. Cage is semi-close, but how hard is it to gently caress up a t-shirt and pants? I'll post my War Machine later on. It's probably the best Iron Man suit you'll see in-game. I don't get how some people make ripoffs and then screw them up so badly at the same time. I've made Thor, Venom, Iron Man, War Machine, and Deathstroke before and they're all spot-on. I saw a hulk the other day in long tights. with spiked hair. and a smile on his face.



If you're going to have no imagination, at least do the ripoff some justice.

This a hundred million times. What is it with pubbies, horrible knockoffs, and picking the most over-saturated color on the palette? At least get the coloring right if you aren't creative enough to use the costume pieces to the right effect. :gonk:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply