COHOLLOW'S X-MEN LEGENDS 2 CATALOG

[nathios]

This ultimate is perfection!! =o

   Air Raid   

I'm really happy with how the new Xtreme turned out!

[Cohollow]

   Now We Wait   

All the updates to Angel are complete! The only thing now is to wait on BaconWizards amazing new skins and Icons. Heres a quick rundown of the improvements. I may go into further detail upon release.

- New voice lines https://marvelmods.com/forum/index.php/topic,10887.0.html
- New and improved effects
- New power names and descriptions
- Fixed the inaccurate descshort descriptions
- New Xtremes
- Coding cleanup and reduction
- Removed unnecessary files
- Damage and EP cost re-balanced
- Minor bug fixes
- Improved power execution
- Improved ai use of powers
- New skins https://marvelmods.com/forum/index.php/topic,10629.msg199182.html#msg199182
- New Icons
- Improved special finisher
- New buff
- re-balanced passives
- New combo names
- Other little touches

In short, nothing went untouched XD

[Daniel Kings]

   Now We Wait   

All the updates to Angel are complete! The only thing now is to wait on BaconWizards amazing new skins and Icons. Heres a quick rundown of the improvements. I may go into further detail upon release.

- New voice lines https://marvelmods.com/forum/index.php/topic,10887.0.html
- New and improved effects
- New power names and descriptions
- Fixed the inaccurate descshort descriptions
- New Xtremes
- Coding cleanup and reduction
- Removed unnecessary files
- Damage and EP cost re-balanced
- Minor bug fixes
- Improved power execution
- Improved ai use of powers
- New skins https://marvelmods.com/forum/index.php/topic,10629.msg199182.html#msg199182
- New Icons
- Improved special finisher
- New buff
- re-balanced passives
- New combo names
- Other little touches

In short, nothing went untouched XD

Fantastic. Super Dope. Keep it up.

[Cohollow]

   Beast Sound Fix Update   

Spacedude pointed out a dumb mistake i made that resulted in Beasts voice lines not working. This is fixed! Download the new update and get those call outs working properly!

https://marvelmods.com/forum/index.php/topic,10753.msg197119.html#msg197119

[Cohollow]

NOPE

I'd like to start off by thanking all of those who have been extremely supportive and encouraging. You have really made all the time and effort worth it. While I wish for this thread to stay about my mod releases and updates on my ongoing projects, this is something I wish to address out in the open. I've had many messages that can come off as entitled, rude or aggressive but this one takes the cake.


  "please we are still waiting for quicksilver mod its taking too long man many people must have died waiting already i thank GOD am still alive pls i dont want to die waiting as well remember you gave us your words thta you will be relesing quicksilver soon and its like you skipping the issue and attending to older mods its not fair think about it put yourself in our shoes"


The people behind these mods that you get to use for free have lives. We don't get paid to do this. We don't have to share our mods. I started modding this game for me. Now I spend all my time modding instead of playing because I really love the game and want to share my toys with all the fine people here who also love the game. My mods take a very long time to build because I'm very meticulous. This is also why I go back to older mods for improvements. If you follow my thread, its been made very clear that what I release and when I release it is very sporadic. I mod what I wish to mod when I wish to do it, because that's how passion projects such as this work. I'd like to be able to share updates on my ongoing projects without it locking me into any promises of a release to come "soon". Remember that all the people behind these mods have real lives and real struggles. "put yourself in our shoes" we don't owe the entitled or the selfish a damn thing and your lucky to have so many people working hard to put out new and exciting content.

Again, to all of those who are respectful, supportive and encouraging, we make these mods for you because you deserve it! I'm sorry to those of you (most of you) that the above rant doesn't apply to.

I'm really happy with whats been done with the upcoming Angel update. Due to the assistance of my fellow modders, I believe this new Angel mod will be my best release yet. I just started getting back into working on quicksilver while we wait on the assets being made for Angel. Unfortunately I can't even be bothered with him right now. He'll get released one day. I don't know when and I don't much care.

[Cohollow]

Follow Up Thoughts

I don't want the issue addressed above to discourage people from reaching out with requests and suggestions. I am more than happy to receive posts or massages asking about plans to release certain fan favorites if done so mindfully. Even the more insistent or repetitive messages I very much appreciate! Such requests and feedback are very important as I do take what people want seriously and hold requests in high regard. Requests for certain characters let me know that people are still interested in my work and help me to know what people want to see (Jean, Psylocke, Mystique XD). The weight of MUA's much greater popularity overshadowing XML can be a bummer, but the continue interest of all you XML2 fans keeps me in good spirits!   


Now let's get back on topic with some fun stuff! I am currently doing a play through of the game with just Angel. I do this far more thorough test with all my builds as it's very revealing. Toxic Plume has been rebuilt to be far more versatile and less of an OP spammable. There are many other small changes I'm doing that should greatly increase the fun had playing as this character!

Something else that has me really excited about the new wings is the possibility of getting a skin for the classic Mimic. For those who don't know, he appeared very early in the original run of X-men comics. With his ability to copy the powers of nearby supers, he often had Angels wings, Beasts brutish build, Iceman's Ice, Cyclops' beams, and Jeans mental powers. My very first post on this site was a request to see this character realized. I hope to be able to build him myself, so keep your eyes peeled for that to come down the pipeline someday! 

[Cohollow]

   Bullying Mobs   

Decided to play around with Jean while we wait on the final pieces of Angels overhaul. Progress is slow as always, but I think I've laid out most of the power set I wish to build. I put myself in your shoes and figured it wasn't fair to keep putting her off when so many ppl are looking forward to her release. The below gif features her new radial lift and targeted lift and slam powers. She's not an easy one since I'm going for a full mental build (not including the Xtreme and buff that will be phoenix force based). Remember that these are the early stages of these powers so expect that the effects and execution may change. Its also very likely that I will get distracted by something yet again and put Jean down for a time.

Another character thats in popular demand is Sunfire. Since he's in the default roster, I do feel I should get to work on him soon. I want him and Pyro to serve similar roles on the team but also feel unique from one another. This means I may update Pyro at the same time that I build Sunfire. Working on them in tandem just feels like the right move u know?

[Daniel Kings]

   Bullying Mobs   

Decided to play around with Jean while we wait on the final pieces of Angels overhaul. Progress is slow as always, but I think I've laid out most of the power set I wish to build. I put myself in your shoes and figured it wasn't fair to keep putting her off when so many ppl are looking forward to her release. The below gif features her new radial lift and targeted lift and slam powers. She's not an easy one since I'm going for a full mental build (not including the Xtreme and buff that will be phoenix force based). Remember that these are the early stages of these powers so expect that the effects and execution may change. Its also very likely that I will get distracted by something yet again and put Jean down for a time.

Another character thats in popular demand is Sunfire. Since he's in the default roster, I do feel I should get to work on him soon. I want him and Pyro to serve similar roles on the team but also feel unique from one another. This means I may update Pyro at the same time that I build Sunfire. Working on them in tandem just feels like the right move u know?

My my, this day just keeps getting better! I love how your Jean is turning out. Love that Levitate that hits more than just one target and also knocks the adjacent enemys back. I hope you don't remove Mental Guardian though haha Also, OMG, my beloved Sunfire is gonna get some love. Thank you, mate. This is incredible work.

[Cohollow]

   Balancing Struggles   

My boy Danny decided to give some input that I very much appreciate! "I hope you don't remove Mental Guardian" This brings up an interesting talking point that I feel like addressing. Due to some of the poor damage balance that exists in the game, balancing is hard! First, let's break down what makes this power so effective and y it can be a point of struggle. The Mental Guardian power costs EP only once in order to spawn an entity that fires homing projectiles at enemies for a time and requires no further input from the player once spawned. Its a very set it and forget it sorta power. The damage on this power is even higher than most, if not all, high damage single target powers like gambits card throw or cyc's optic beam. It does this damage continuously and doesnt require the cost of EP to do so. So how do I got about balancing something like this with the rest of her powers without nerfing it? Cause nerfs are no fun! For one I will be increasing the EP cost to be on par with more high EP cost powers like the heavy radials and the like. I could reduce its fire rate or I could reduce its damage. I could also leave it be so as to not take away from a power thats been ingrained in peoples playstyles for years. Fortunately this power is unique in that it is a set it and forget it power that can only be spawned one at a time. This means it won't render her other powers mute as while it does it's work, the player can move on to use other powers at the same time. I think any nerfs I do will be very slight. Minor things like the before mentioned EP cost increase. I think even with mild nerfs, what I add to Jean should more than make up for it. My boosters are somewhat unique in that they focus strongly on rebalancing existing power sets as well as adding to them. I hope that what I decide to do in the end will be a positive for most people, but I can never be sure. Any feedback on this matter and other balancing issues within character builds is more than welcome! I don't always incorporate feedback, but I do always take it in and apply to my decision making. Hopefully next time I have more fun gifs and less long winded blah blah blah XD     

while we wait on angel, heres a tune to help get us hyped about his eventual release! I listened to this a stupid amount of times during his development.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJFxrX4nNXk

[BaconWizard17]

Speaking of Angel, the next batch will hopefully be ready tomorrow! After that, I'll just have 12 skins to go for him!

[Cohollow]

    Going Mental   

I think I've decided on 5 powers now. I think the 6th and 7th will be a repurposed version of ironmans tractor beam, and some sort of confusion power than may take the form of a forward cone. One thing I am sure of however, is that Bacons skins are he best part! XD I've also decided to make mental guardian feel more at home with her mental powers than the phoenix force. One step at a time, baby.

[nathios]

I'm so happy!! Thank you for updating my favorite character. I can't wait to see what you do with her powers and passives.

What do you think of her boost skills in vanilla xmen legends 2? I think they pale in comparisson with her TK shield she had in X-Men Legends 1. I think all boosting skills are kinda lame in XML2 specially because how little they affect the gameplay even when they cost so much EP.

Thank you, have a great day !!

    Going Mental   

I think I've decided on 5 powers now. I think the 6th and 7th will be a repurposed version of ironmans tractor beam, and some sort of confusion power than may take the form of a forward cone. One thing I am sure of however, is that Bacons skins are he best part! XD I've also decided to make mental guardian feel more at home with her mental powers than the phoenix force. One step at a time, baby.

[Cohollow]

Discussing XML2's Boosts

I tried to organize this post so that people can jump to the bits that interest them. The bottom covers the comparisons between XML and XML2 boosts and the role they play in each game. Its a rather long post, but I think many players will find this information a huge game changer in how they approach the games various boosts.

The Question At Hand

"What do you think of her (Jean) boost skills in vanilla xmen legends 2? I think they pale in comparison with her TK shield she had in X-Men Legends 1. I think all boosting skills are kinda lame in XML2 specially because how little they affect the gameplay even when they cost so much EP."

What Makes XML2 Boosts So Messy?

Oh boy, there's a lot that can be discussed on this one. Let's start with what's wrong with the boosts present in XML2. The boosts are all over the place. as stated by Nathios, all boosts cost an insane amount of EP and don't vary too widely in their cost. The biggest difference in EP cost depends on the combat style of the character. Striking based characters tend to lack the Mutant Master passive which increases EP regen. This means their powers, including boosts, cost less EP on average to activate. This doesn't mean that the cost of the striker's boosts isn't still incredibly high. The problem with this is that boosts are very different in terms of what they do, how versatile they are, and how useful they are. A boost such as Wolvies Scream which only makes enemies flee for a short time and reduces their DEF will smash his EP reserves just as much as far more useful buffs like Toads Secretion boost which greatly increases the damage and movement speed of the entire team for a considerable amount of time. Here we can see the terrible job done by the developers in balancing boosts between characters.

Over Powered Boosts

Many characters have some pretty OP boosts due to oversights, bugs, and just poor balancing on the part of the developers. These boosts can render some aspects of a character and even certain game mechanics utterly pointless as they can push one aspect of a character or even the entire team through the roof. Below I will cover some boosts that can turn your team into an unstoppable wrecking ball.

Team Melee Boosts (energy combat, elemental combat,etc) - Theres a couple things that can makes these boosts pretty insane. First is the fact that nearly every single one of these boosts actually adds far more damage than its supposed to due to a typo in the talents file. It adds an extra 100% damage on top of what its suppose to. If the description says it adds 50% damage, it actually adds a whopping 150% damage. I discovered this once I started my deep dive into each character for my boosters and the upcoming patch. The other thing that makes these powers OP is that it adds this boost to the entire team and it scales with other damage bonuses. A striker like Juggs who's dishing out 200-300 damage per hit can be pushed up into the thousands when using these buffs with the right damage boosters. Other bugs include Bishops Energy Combat applying the boost to not just melee but also energy damage. This means that characters like him or cyclops get this insane boost to their actual powers as well. Icemans Ice gloves also have a bug that makes them cost 0 EP to activate.

Speed boosts(includes the most OP boost in the game) The speed boosting buffs in XML2 can increase your characters speed by insane amounts and many also give damage boosts. Remember that Movement speed refers to how fast they are across the board whereas attack speed only affects attack speed. Boosting movement speed has many advantages. It allows the player far greater control over the field by giving them the ability to be anywhere they desire in seconds and also increases the rate at which a player can dish out damage. This leads to some insane DPS. There is a drawback to increasing the rate at which the player can use powers however. This DPS increase comes at the literal cost of EP as it leaves very little time for EP to regenerate naturally. There are some standout speed boosts i feel i should cover, including what is by far the most OP boost in the game. Wolverines speed boost only affects his attack speed making it one of the less OP speed boosts, but is still very effective. with this boost adding up to 86% extra attack speed, it nearly doubles his DPS. It combos well with claw furry, allowing him to cover a great deal of ground instantly with this radial travel power. Toads increases movement speed up to 52% and damage up to a whopping 87% FOR THE ENTIRE TEAM. need i say more? Gambits Energy Form has the greatest movement speed boost of up to 109%. But by far the most insanely OP boost in the game is Ironmans Motion Amplifier. Not only does it increase his attack speed by up to a whopping 150%, but it also increases all his damage by an absolutely insane 700%. its meant to only increase melee damage (which would still be an insane amount of damage) but due to developer error adds this damage to all his attacks! Im sure u can imagine what happens when u combo this boost with Bishops bugged Energy Combat. Ironman can take out the top enemy bosses at lvl 99 within a fraction of second using this buff with his Repulsor Rays!

EP Regen Boosts Both Scarlet Witch and Jean have a boost that affects the entire and makes EP drain nearly non-existent. These boosts allow the team to turn 20% of the damage they deal into EP gain. It doesnt take long for the damage characters deal to become multiple times higher than the EP it costs to execute those powers. These buffs will return the cost of using a power back to the play and then some. It makes for unlimited power use at all times. Imagine combining that with ironmans boost.

Magneto's Polarized Shield I've never had much use for defensive buffs as an NPC is never able to even come close to killing me. This is still an insanely powerful boost that makes Magneto the ultimate tank at later levels. It can have up to a 67% chance of blocking ALL incoming attacks. This on its own is xtremely powerful but he has something else that really pushes its capabilities over the top. His Magnetic Deflection passive increase his chance to block incoming projectiles by up to 50%. When used in tandem, only rarely will he be damaged by the odd melee attack and even most of these can be dodged by specking into the speed trait.

Theres much more that can be said about the various OP boosts but I don't wish to prattle on forever at everybody. With the right set of boosts, you can absolutely spank this game. I once beat the game in about 2 hours. This was not a speed run. I KO'd every enemy I came across and did every mission and side mission in the game except for the anti-metal side mission in Avalon. I think the team was Toad for his movement speed and damage boost, Jean for unlimited EP, Bishop for an even greater damage boost, and Nightcrawler as my main. Gambit may be able to beat the game just as fast or faster, who knows?

Comparing XML And XML2 Boosts

After all that, you may be surprised to hear that I actually find the boosts in XML1 to be far more beneficial than the ones in XML2. Let me explain. XML and XML2 play very much the same and yet offer very different gaming experiences. XML2 is very forgiving and allows the player a great deal of freedom. The game can be played efficiently and is easily beaten with little to no strategy. It even allows the player to let the game decide where to allocate points so that new players dont get overwhelmed by the huge amount of poorly explained RPG elements. XML on the other hand doesn't pull any punches. From the very start of the game, the player will need to employ well thought out combat strategies and combo's just to survive the first mission. The game is unforgiving and will punish mistakes made by the player with no remorse. The players options are more limited due to there being far less powers and characters. All characters are slowly added to the team over the course of nearly the entire game. This means that making good use of the games boosts is extremely beneficial to the player. While XML2's boosts can be far more OP, they are not at all required to breeze through the game. I'm not saying boosts in XML are a must but I am saying they make a HUGE difference.

Jeans boost in XML is highly defensive and very useful in a game that can take a careless players health from max to 0 in a matter of moments. In XML2  she has 2 very powerful boosts (psionic fury and mental vortex) but they are not nearly as necessary due to the ease of the game they are in. In conclusion, I too would have to give the point to Jean's XML1 boost for being far more useful in the game it appears in.


If you made it this far, thanks for reading that super long dive into the boosts of XML2. If anyone is interested in hearing my thoughts on the less useful and down right crap boosts of XML2 let me know and I'll make a post about it. Also let me know if u have anything to add to the discussion or disagree with my assessments. I luv discussions like these!

[nathios]

Hum, I see things differently now. You made me realize how much I prefer XML1 hehe Even though XML2 was the game that introduced me to the franchise I think too easy/forgiving sometimes also the game throws so much at you from the get go (power, skills and characters) that you finish the game 2 or 3 times and never even touch boosts for example. 

One of the things I think its a little bit broken (even in XML1) is psionic combat passive. To this day I don't understand why my 50-60lvl Jean Grey deals WAY more melee damage on enemies than Colossus or Rogue. Its not like I don't like my options, I love building my offensive Jean with that radial skill that criples enemy damage (by a lot) and meleeing them to death super fast. Its just that its kinda sad when I want to play as Colossus (wich is also one of my favorites chracters) but Colossus is not only slow he also deals way less damage than jean and don't have half her EP to use his skils in a fun way.

I think Cyclops is one of the most balanced characters because if you actually try to use him on hard mode as a pure melee damage you are pretty much dead, however his longe range abilities shine when he is used as a ranged character (as he should be) BUT with the right build you can make his melee atacks hit just as hard as Colossus while still being able to use skills effectivelly because of mutant master for example.

Do you also feel like some melee oriented characters like Colossus and Rogue are a little underpowered in this game? Colossus can tank but its pretty much the only thing he cand do, his EP is low, his melee is slow and his boosts consumes too much EP. 

Discussing XML2's Boosts

If you made it this far, thanks for reading that super long dive into the boosts of XML2. If anyone is interested in hearing my thoughts on the less useful and down right crap boosts of XML2 let me know and I'll make a post about it. Also let me know if u have anything to add to the discussion or disagree with my assessments. I luv discussions like these!

[Cohollow]

How My Mods Fix Melee Damage

One of the things I think its a little bit broken (even in XML1) is psionic combat passive. To this day I don't understand why my 50-60lvl Jean Grey deals WAY more melee damage on enemies than Colossus or Rogue. Do you also feel like some melee oriented characters like Colossus and Rogue are a little underpowered in this game? Colossus can tank but its pretty much the only thing he cand do, his EP is low, his melee is slow and his boosts consumes too much EP.

This is something that I very much dislike as well. The melee damage that characters with passive melee boosts and energy, psionic, and elemental buffs is WAY too high. It doesn't help that strikers and bruisers don't have anything like this, causing their basic combo melee damage to be nearly useless. Strikers also require some extra specking into speed so that basic melee attacks will hit enemies at higher levels whereas the melee buffs talked about earlier increase ATK to the point that specking into speed isn't needed. The one thing bruiser characters like colossus have over other characters is that they use the wrestling fightstyle. This fightstyle has the added bonus of boosting the melee damage bonus from the striking stat. This bonus however, is so low that its nearly pointless. Also characters like wolvie who use the hero fightstyle don't get this bonus at all.

I have done a few things with my boosters that rectify this imbalance. As many fans of my work know, I have a mod that makes some changes to the games shared talents that I highly recommend downloading in order to get the most out of my boosters and character mods. This mod adds a new passive called Striker which is present in all my striking based characters. The Striker passive adds up to 150% bonus melee damage to all non-powered melee attacks. Another thing I did was fix the bugs that caused melee boosting passives and buffs to add an additional 100% damage each. This bug is y Jean, Bishop, Gambit, Iceman, etc end up doing insane amounts of melee damage. I also made other small changes to these melee buffs and passives to help balance them better. This new set up means that non-striking based characters need to speck into the melee boosting passive AND buff in order to get their melee damage on par with a striking based character with points in the new striker passive. Its still possible for these non-strikers to get high melee damage, but its far less over the top and requires a greater focus on specking into all melee boosts to pull off.

Unfortunately no matter how hard I math and test, some imbalances are so ingrained into the games design that it will never be perfect. How does one even begin to try and fix the terrible balance that comes with some characters having powers that scale in damage with the striking stat, and other characters that are stuck with a set amount of damage for their powers? I have some ideas but one of the things i try very hard to do is build boosters and character mods that feel in line with the games default characters so that people can combine my mods with the existing characters without ether of them feeling out of place. Trying to build well balanced characters for a game thats infamous for its terrible balance is not an easy task, but I think I've done pretty well so far. I hope that others feel the same and get a lot of fun outta my mods! I also hope people understand how much time is spent just considering all these balancing factors and trying to make all the pieces fit. I wish I could finish them faster than i do, but I dont have it me to turn a blind eye to the things that most people have an easy time overlooking.