ohh.. so ImaGideon is talking about HIGH levels...
what im wondering is:
Wich honorable Crat are you comparing yourself to???
I didnt know there existed any crats lvl140+!!
I thought dfield was one of the highest lvl Crats with Humor . On the 15th of Novemer he was lvl 106.
Ive heard rumors that there exists two other crats 100+...
How many fixers are lvl140+? they greatly outnumber Crats 140+ i would assume, since ive actually seen fixers 140+!
If theese numbers are correct, I fail to see how you can make any form of comparism between fixers and crats 140+, and you are posting fiction and sould post your rants in the RP threads wich you can find here!!!
If i am wrong, I deeply appologize :(, and ask you with tremendous humility:
Please tell us wich Crats you have been teaming with?
For the rest of this thread:
Please keep the discussion on topic! I am really tired of reading through opinions of ppl that have no clue what so ever they are talking about :mad:
Response to Proposed Bureaucrat Changes
Overall, I am quite pleased with the proposed changes. My detailed comments are in italics below:
From In Progress as of November 21:
Bureaucrat Changes
The Bureaucrat XP gain line bonus has been increased to 3, 6 and 9%.
New single-target psychosis nano for the Bureaucrat: Contemplation. Also increased the duration of the bureaucrat's single-target psychosis nanos by 40%.
All psychosis (mezz) nanos will now play their hit effect continuously for the duration of the nanos, or until it is removed (such as by being attacked). This should make it much easier to determine which monsters are under the effects of psychosis and which are not.
The first of the bureaucrat Motivational speeches are in. This set increases general offensive and defensive abilities slightly.
Made some changes to the bureaucrat pets: Increased speed of attack and increased AC and evade skills.
I think these are all good changes, especially the mezz nanos displaying their effect continously and the increase in pet abilities. The Motivational speeches are a really cool idea but I'd like more details on what they actually do.
From Envisioned as of November 21:
Charm
The way charm works is going to get a small overhaul. First, understand that there were always meant to be 2 charm lines for the bureaucrats – one with ‘low’ resist, and one with ‘high’ resist. The high resist charm was meant to allow the bureaucrat to charm a second monster, albeit with some difficulty. That hasn’t worked out too well in the past, but is still the plan. We’ll call the low resist charm the stable charm, and the high resist charm the unstable charm.
I always wondered why there were two charm lines. Never used the high resist line in the past since it wasn't worth the little extra duration. This change seems to make sense.
The first charm change is that, for both charm lines, a percentage of the bureaucrat’s Psychology skill is going to be added to the attack roll, above and beyond the existing check. So, the higher your Psychology skill, the better chance you have of landing your charm. Second, the duration of the stable charm is going to be dramatically increased. Roughly every 50 levels, it will be increased by 5 minutes. So, a level 200 charm would last for roughly 20 minutes.
I think it is a good idea to get some use out of psychology, but a couple of things need to be considered. First, since psychology has had no real use until now, no one has raised this skill. So a lot of 'crats are going to have to spend a lot of IPs to increase this skill. This is going to be very difficult given that IPs are very tight for 'crats. (IP redistribution or some other compensation?) Second, I would like to know if the better chance of landing your charm is a result of lower the psyche check or lowering the resist or both. Increasing the duration of the stable charm is a great idea. I think this has been suggested a number of times before, but I like the idea of some kind of a message informing us of when a charm is about to wear off (maybe just for the stable charm).
The duration of the unstable charm will be slightly extended, but not in the same way. It will still have the same, short, duration it currently has, but will have a random element to the duration added. So, you will know the minimum time the unstable charm will last, but not know exactly how long it will last.
Why not, a little risk never hurt anyone.
We are also going to revamp the way mind control works so that mind controlled monsters are treated as pets in terms of what they can attack (the change where they cannot attack family members will be going away).
This is a very badly needed change.
New XP loss reduction nanos
The bureaucrat will gain a line of nanos that let them reduce the amount of XP lost upon death. These will be a short-duration emergency nano (probably around 30 seconds in duration). They are meant to be used in the "OMG OMG OMG I’m going to die! Buff me, buff me!" situation. They will be single-target nanos, not team versions.
I like this. It would be a drag fumbling this nano the moment before you or a team member die, but that is always the chance you take. I think this will help make 'crats a welcome addition to teams. I would like to know how much the XP loss reduction is. I think you will need to reduce the loss by more than 50% of the XP gained since the last save. My suggestion would be to make this a quick, low NCU, moderate cost nano. Don't make it high NCU because people may not keep enough NCU free on the off chance that they need it for this nano. And make if quick so we can cast it in time to help our teammates/selves.
Pet Taunting
The bureaucrat will gain a new nano that allows them to increase the taunting ability of their pet (but only their robot pet, not any mind controlled pets). This will make it more likely that the pet will tank more often – NOT that it will tank 100% of the time.
Good.
Speech nanos
There will be some new lines of buffs and debuffs, affecting the area around the bureaucrat. Motivational speeches will do things such as increase the chance of a critical hit, or increase nano AC. De-motivational speeches will do things such as lower nano AC, lower the chance of a critical hit, or reduce current nano points. Like the engineer nanos, the effect that is placed on other people will have a very low NCU cost; the buff on the bureaucrat will have the normal NCU cost.
I really like this. See comments above.
Pets, part 2
We are also going to look into the possibility of giving the bureaucrat pets some limited nano ability. With the existing pet AI, this may or may not be possible. What is envisioned is that the pets will get some combat buffs like the enforcer’s Challenger line of buffs. They won’t use them all the time, however, just some of the time (sort of a "Woot! My pet buffed.")
Good.
Paperwork
A set of paperwork tradeskills is going to be added. (More info coming)
I'd need to see more information on this, but I like the idea of getting some tradeskill stuff. However, please use the skills that 'crats would currently be inclined to raise like computer literacy. I think you could tie in the paperwork tradeskills with the briefcase (see my comments below).
Suits and Briefcase
Some special items are going to be made for the bureaucrat. Special, executive suit-and-tie items will be available, as will a suitcase. The suit will give some buff effects (such as increasing psychology and max nano energy, for example). The briefcase will allow the bureaucrat to open their personal bank from any location. How the bureaucrat will obtain these items has not been finalized.
Call me vain, but I am really excited about this. I would like to suggest that executive suits come in a variety of colours (nice black, grey, blue suits for us Omni-Tek execs, a plaid sports jacket for the Clanners;)) since we don't all want to look alike. I would also like to see it go in the back slot over other armor. If it has some AC as well as the psychology/other buffs I would considered replacing my nano cloak. If the suit is going to be composed of multiple pieces like the existing Omni executive clothes, don't make people have to choose between the clothes or armor or else give each piece AC comparable to say nano or waitt armour. Please make this bureaucrat only to help with recognition.
I like the briefcase idea, but would make a few suggestions. First, as has been already mentioned, accessing the bank by using a briefcase seems like more of a fixer type of thing. How about making the briefcase the tool that you use for the paperwork trade skill? (The harried bureaucrat rumages through his/her briefcase looking for Form 1029848-B in order to ...). Second, the briefcase should NOT be a weapon. I know it seems tempting to make it a 1-hand blunt weapon but I doubt if many existing 'crats have raised any melee-type skills. Third, make it equipable in either hand. I'd like to be able to run around with a briefcase in one hand any my trusty pistol (cough cough) in the other. Finally, because I am vain as noted above, how about a few different styles of briefcase. You know, the nice black leather or shiny alumimum for Omni and a green nylon bag for the Clanners.
Finally, here is the new design for how mind control is going to operate:
Mind Control Design
When a monster is mind controlled, it needs to be considered exactly the same as a normal pet in terms of what it can attack. This includes it being able to attack friends (both on the same side and in the same NPC family).
When the mind control on the pet wears off, the following needs to happen:
The combat it is engaged in stops. It will stop attacking, and if the thing it is fighting is a monster, that monster should also stop attacking.
The hate lists of these two monsters are modified in the following ways: assume that there is a monster A, a charmed monster B and the player Z who charmed monster B. If A and B are fighting and the mind control times out, the entry for B on A’s hate list is removed, and B then inherits A’s hate list – except for the hate B may have towards Z (B keeps its own hate towards Z rather than inheriting A’s hate towards Z). If B is not in a fight when the mind control times out, then don’t do anything to its hate list. We do it this way so that when the mind control times out, B will most likely attack Z, but can still be taunted off Z; while A goes back to fighting whoever has annoyed it the most. This means that at the end of the mind control, B and A will have the same hate list, with the exception that B will also have some additional hate towards Z.
Example: players are X, Y and Z (monsters are still A and B, B mind controlled by Z). A’s hate list looks like: X=1000, Y=1500, Z=200, B=3000. B’s hate list looks like: A=2800, Z=1800. The mind control on B wears off, and A and B stop fighting. A’s hate list then looks like: X=1000, Y=1500, Z=200. B’s hate list looks like: X=1000, Y=1500, Z=1800.
Ouch, my brain hurts.
Any damage that is done by a mind controlled monster needs to be counted towards the caster in terms of who is recognized as getting the kill on a monster (both for loot and XP purposes).
Good stuff.
Mind controlled monsters do not follow through zone lines.
Okay.
It needs to be possible to have more than one mind controlled monster at the same time.
Definately.
Finally a few things that didn't make it on the list:
Player-Created Missions
I would also like to suggest that player-created missions be added as a bureaucrat specialty. This could go a long way in improving role playing.
Direct-Damage Nanos
I don't have a problem with the existing direct damage nanos, but there are some mysterious gaps between some nanos. For example, I have been using Monofilament Whip forever and I still have a way to go before I can use Searing Bolt. Sure there is Stinging Reminder in there, but it is no better than Mono Whip.
Beria
Level 64 Omni-Tek Bureaucrat
RK1
a sugestion for paper-tradeskills and briefcases
Quote:
I would like to suggest that executive suits come in a variety of colours (nice black, grey, blue suits for us Omni-Tek execs, a plaid sports jacket for the Clanners)
...
the nice black leather or shiny alumimum for Omni and a green nylon bag for the Clanners.
LOL!.. glad im not a clanner crat with you as my personal desiger, Beria!!:D
Well.. i hate to say this, since i really liked the idea of the briefcase beeing the bank... buuut... the function of it sounds like something the fixers should have... *sigh*. But i do insist that the Crats get to keep the briefcase itself but with a different purpose/function.
How about making it some sort of paper filing device.. but it is ment for paperwork-tradeskills. A nice tradeskill would be to make "insurance-forms". We could travel to the hunting areas to sell insurance to the ppl hunting. To file the insurance we have to put it in the briefcase. The insurance papers should have Quality as everyting else. a Q50 form could take out an insurance on a lvl50m player. Could be quite a nice thing!
With this filing device the possibilities of new paper-tradeskills could be near limitless. How about leting crats file
-Marriage License
-Divorce Papers
.
.
.
Of course there MUST be limits. The effects or advantages of this type of tradeskill should not be so good as there is a MUST to find a crat... like having to have a drivers license to det into a car and only crats can issue them... that would be _way_ to much.
And the briefcase (filing device) MUST be crat only.. not any FP-agents whopping it out at will.
To limit the benefits of crats on such a device, I would accept and even recomend that Crats could NOT file papers on them selves.
Re: ohh.. so ImaGideon is talking about HIGH levels...
Of course there are no crats level 140+, I just compared some basics. Most crats quit way before high levels, because they suck at low/mid levels, and one day there was this insane pistol nerf...
I never said anything different, geez.
What I said was, and what you kindly ignore of course, this
- a generic level 120 player regardless of profession with dark blue shotgun skill, for example a Crat, outdamages me with his shotgun alone. Fact. Teamed with players that use vectors.
Fixers using maussers deal the least damage at high levels.
- A player that uses higher QL root spells than me, as in all professions that can root other than fixers, gets less resisted than me with my <ql 100 root, period.
- A pet, even one that sucks like the crats, adds some damage, and gets aggroed for some time at least, so it helps more than no pet, anyone want to say anything against that ?
- A DD spell does more damage than no DD spell, anyone wants to say something against that too ?
In clan is one semi active fixer that is higher than me, Ayeka. In Omni I don't know, maybe LLandi if he still plays, I highly doubt that though. Other than that, I bet what you saw were mostly agents in false profession.
And I did not start anything, you only rushed in and called me crazy when I said fixers at high levels are worse off than crats.
I said "Sounds really cool, go for it. " to the needed crat changes.