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linkmaxwell

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Developer Testing Protocol

I used to trust that the developers had our best interests in mind when they were balancing the powersets. Now, I'm not so sure.

Here is Statesman's post about how well scrapper secondaries did compared to each other. Read on, though, and you can see that their builds ignored the primary rule of scientific experiments- only introduce one variable. Each of the scrappers uses the same primary set (Spines), while at the same time, each varies widely in powers taken and enhancements used, and each of these battles is including half a tray of store-bought (read: tactically chosen) inspirations. It's almost as if they're purposly skewing these results to justify massive nerfs across the board. Now, people on this board know me as somebody who loves City of Heroes, but the way that the developers have been acting lately is concerning (even gearing their tests to "reliably take-down" players).

TRIUMPH
Darkpool- lv 50 Kat/Regen Scrap
Experiment 409- lv 7 En/En Blast
Link Maxwell- lv 4 Peacebringer
Mr Jingle Jangle- lv 4 Psi/Psi Dom

Global @Darkpool

Signature by [url http://www.gameamp.com/death_fetish]Death Fetish[/url]

04/27/05 11:24

RonJ73

GameAmp Staff
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Joined: 01/10/2005
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Re: Developer Testing Protocol

IMO, it should have been done with no inspirations and no enhancements. It wouldn't have been pretty, but it would have been accurate. Plus, some secondary powers have synergy with other primary powers, so that's a tough call there too. The scientific method doesn't work well here at all, unfortunately. Not to mention the skill of the player comes into account as well. The person or people testing it might have been more experienced with Spines/Regen and not with Spines/SR, for example.

City of Heroes/Villains
Onion - L50 - Katana/Super Reflexes/Body Mastery Scrapper
Scotch Bonnet Girl - L50 - Fire Aura/Fire Melee/Pyre Mastery Tanker
RonJ73 - L50 - Stone/Energy Aura Brute
Aurora Australis - L50 - Willpower/Energy Melee Tanker

04/27/05 11:29

Grifter0408

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Re: Developer Testing Protocol

I say whatever happens, Happens. If they change the hero, then adept. Adeption is the key to survival, no change to changes made around you and perish. I don't understand why people get so upset when they change a hero, cries of "nerf" are screeched across the boards. So they made a mistake and they need to fix/change something, oh well. If you want to play a game where you can be a god, then get a platform system and learn cheat codes!

(This is by no means any "flame" directed at linkmaxwell. I am just stating my feelings toward the issue.)

Everyone has their own opinion and that is good, you should. But sometimes, those people can take it a bit too far. Mistakes are a part of like, humans make mistakes and Im sure more mistakes will be made in future parts of the game. Enjoy the game given to us, just think what would like be like without City of Heroes. Play the game and have fun. I will get off my pedestal now!

04/27/05 11:40

linkmaxwell

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Re: Developer Testing Protocol

No flame taken, Grifter. And I agree that if something is horribly broken, it needs to be fixed.

On the other hand, the devs haven't provided us with actual proof that things (especially /regen) are in need of fixing. While I applaud their efforts to provide proof, their first pieces of evidence were used by the player base to show the Devs that they actually were playing in a flawed test environment, something the programmers had failed to catch before it was pointed out to them on the official board.

My concern comes because nerfing requires players to min/max their characters just to survive, forcing "cookie-cutter" builds. Seeing the builds that the Devs used for this test shows us that they are using heroes who have maximized defense (allowing them to put up more impressive numbers) at the expense of endurance. In essence, they are using builds geared towards killing large mobs (backed up by the mob-killer of scrapper sets- spines), which explains the 20+ for minions while dropping to 1-3 bosses. Inspirations only increase this problem. While the Devs can just spawn a massive mob and use all their insps at once, most players need to be frugal about what they use in a given situation. 3 lucks turns a regen scrapper into a regen + reflexes. Almost any type can put up impressive stats when boosted by a couple of skittles.

I'm not saying that certain scrapper secondaries are broken/gimped, but more thorough testing needs to be conducted before the nerfs go through.

TRIUMPH
Darkpool- lv 50 Kat/Regen Scrap
Experiment 409- lv 7 En/En Blast
Link Maxwell- lv 4 Peacebringer
Mr Jingle Jangle- lv 4 Psi/Psi Dom

Global @Darkpool

Signature by [url http://www.gameamp.com/death_fetish]Death Fetish[/url]

04/27/05 11:54

RonJ73

GameAmp Staff
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Joined: 01/10/2005
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Re: Developer Testing Protocol

Oh, I don't much care one way or another. I'd like to see the damage cap raised for blasters and a few defensive powers added or some of the other damage reworked (being able to shoot without being rooted would be nice) but all in all, I love the game exactly the way it is, if it changes, it changes. I still can't imagine it getting worse, just different. It was like when I used to play Magic: The Gathering. Restrictions and Bannings would happen, rules would change, players would adapt.

04/27/05 12:20

Grifter0408

GameAmp Staff
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Re: Developer Testing Protocol

Let me ask this because I think I am confused:

QUOTE

Numbers indicate number of enemies to bring hero down reliably

Level 45 (Super Reflexes)

+2 hero level Behemoth Minions/Lieutenants/Bosses (20+ / 20+ / 1)
+2 hero level Rikti Minions/Lieutenants/Bosses (20+ / 7 / 4)
+2 hero level Carnival Minions/Lieutenants/Bosses (20+ / 17 / 2)
+4 hero level Behemoth Minions/Lieutenants/Bosses (20+ / 5 / 0)
+4 hero level Rikti Minions/Lieutenants/Bosses (20+ / 6 / 0)
+4 hero level Carnival Minions/Lieutenants/Bosses (13 / 7 / 0)

Ok so what this is saying at level 45, a 1 +2 Behemoth boss can take down a hero but at 0 +4 Behemoth boss can't? From what I am reading:

QUOTE

Numbers indicate number of enemies to bring hero down reliably

that is the numbers at the end of the villian list?

04/27/05 12:22

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