BBQ_Pork

AE=Aerobic Exercise. The good weather is killing the game because people are going outside for fresh air.

In Washington State, there was a bill proposed to make throwing containers of human waste from a moving vehicle a crime that would add "points" to your driver's licence. There, they have a system where points add up towards a suspension of your licence and presumably, different offences would be worth different points.
The news crew doing the story interviewed a man whose job was picking up highway trash (D.O.T. worker, I think) who claimed to have picked up a quart jar of #2.
The bill was killed by lobbying by the trucking industry, which makes ya wonder, how hard would it be to drive an 18-wheeler while trying to balance your aim (for a duece!) like that?
I've worked around truck drivers for 15 years and yes, they are that dirty.
"Professional" Drivers, they like to be called.

And since many (long-haul) are paid by the mile, stopping to pull over to use restrooms costs them money.

Think about that next time you are driving close to a semi on the freeway, and be sure to give them plenty of room.

You sir, have led me to places where Google was not meant to go.

And later, Google: Images. I hate myself now.

Poopsocking.
*shakes fist at Inokis*




At least the sock used in the practice is for external use, not as some kind of plug.

[ QUOTE ]
I heard someone say theres a new one called poosockin.

Much worse than what Cartman had his Mom doing.

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Ugh. I just got back from Google.
That's just wrong.


























I mean, socks are not waterproof, y'know, and would make poor....nevermind.

Ah, I see. That makes sense. Thank you.

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good lord. Do games really damper sense that much?

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I knew people who would cath to camp spawns in Everquest.

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Geez. A widemouth jar and a window are one thing....

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Paragon City has an AE building in every zone . . . but only one university.

Disconcerting.

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I agree, lack of education is disconcerting.

There will be another one next month.
Or an old one that has been gone for a while will resurface.

Anyone else miss Power?

Well, I saw "Kid-Friendly" as one of the tags, so I wondered what would qualify an arc for that. And what arc would not qualify for that tag, but still not hit the threshold for Inappropriate Content.

In a mission where all the foes have Dark Blast or Dark Melee, limit Dark Miasma to Bosses only or skip altogether?

Actually "Disconcerting" is playing a short character (like 4ft or so) and fighting Tuatha De Dannon. Put some pants on already, you freakin' mutant reindeer!
*grumble* I don't have to see that in my face when I fight werewolves.

[ QUOTE ]
Paragon City has an AE building in every zone . . . but only one university.

Disconcerting.

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Every zone?

Boomtown, Crey's Folly, Eden, The Hive and The Shadow Shard?

Well, the Shard isn't within city limits of Paragon, so I guess we don't have to count it.

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Plaques . . . in a mission . . . Plaque in mission!

[/ QUOTE ]
Reduce Plaque! Use Aqua-Fresh Tartar Control!


But seriously, please elaborate a little, rather than just spout a couple of vague words and hit submit. You could very well be onto something...or not.
We may never know.

1) What makes an arc qualify for the "kid-friendly" tag? A failure to add anything that would be considered offensive material?
Not getting too graphic about the form of "defeating" foes you will have?
No top-heavy, bikini-clad custom critters spouting lines from ERP?

2) Would a custom group that uses various Dark powers (a mix of Dark Blast, Dark Melee, Dark Miasma, Etc. in the group's foes) be too obnoxious in the level of ToHit DeBuffs upon the players? Assume a L30-50 or L40-50 arc.

[ QUOTE ]
<QR>

I can see it now:


Oh damn, I cut myself really bad there. I'd better apply a tourniquet.
Hmm... I wonder how much longer I can keep playing before I have to get to the hospital... I'd better ask.

[/ QUOTE ]The rest of the guys on this TF will never believe me why I'm gonna AFK so long.

Instead of L22-29, upgraded versions could appear in the L30-39 range.
There would have to be a couple of story arcs written for them to appear in, but that's what the AE is for.

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... you know, I never really noticed it before, but doesn't saying "Rularuu" out loud make you sound like Scooby Doo?

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Those giant floating eyeballs were just helium balloons, illuminated by a hidden movie projector.
And that Elite Brute? That was just Old Man Jenkins from the haunted amusement park. Terrible shame that you and I hit Headsplitter and Full Auto on him at the same time. Oh well, he lived a full life.

"I just bought this game and everyone is doing the thing that was advertised on the front of the (Architect Edition) box but I can't! False Advertising!11! I was lied to!"
The box does tout the AE system pretty heavily.

I think that a different solution is the key, but unfortunately, I'm not exactly sure what that is.


Regarding the "what to do about the AE noobs", how about teaming with them through one short AE arc and midway saying "After this, how about going to <other zone> and doing <other activity>?". It could pique the interest of the new players who hadn't experienced anything other than the same farms over and over, and broaden thier play experience.

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Now since I haven't started a new character since I14 dropped it was news to me (or so I'm told, still haven't made a new character since I14) that the contact for the AE tutorial pops up when you first zone in from the new character tutorial, bumping your normal first contact off of your nav bar as the waypoint. This leads new players who don't know better straight to the AE building.

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The AE contact pops when you hit level 5, not when you zone from outbreak.

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The "LFAE Farm" spam pops when you zone to Atlas, whether from Outbreak or elsewhere.

Here's one of Memphis Bill's cut and pastes on the topic of vehicles: Just ignore the "How to search" part. I'm too lazy to edit it.



Disclaimer

Yes. This is a cut and paste reply that I keep handy, as well as a quick bit of instruction on how to search. Neither are meant to cause fights or to be insulting. The search instructions are in, not just because forum rules say flat out to search, but to help you and anyone else reading this use the search tool effectively.

The body of the cut and paste reply is the way it is because we've seen these arguments numerous times before. They're a summary of the salient points that come up each time. They are not here to insult you, make you feel stupid or otherwise "bring you down a peg." Instead, they are meant as instruction and information. Please read through the points and the explanation behind them to see the issues that are commonly brought up in response. They may not always match your suggestion 100% - in fact, you may have explained around one or two of them - but they're there for consideration and refinement of your idea.

Yes, I do look forward to the time, with some of these suggestions, that someone not only addresses all the points, but does so exceptionally well. It'll probably be added to the end of the cut/paste reply, with credit. For now, though, read and consider the points. They really are just there to help you, and move discussion along to help ideas evolve.

If you're going to see this and say an "evil forum vet is just shooting down your idea," or "You think you're the last word because of your post count," you're wrong. Heck, if you say the second, you've just worried more about my post count than I have in the last four plus years. Tongue-in-cheek comments in here are meant as humor, not put downs.

Searching Effectively

1. Click on "Search" up at the top of the forum.
2. On the left, under "Forum(s) to search," select "Suggestions and ideas."
3. On the right, Keyword Search Terms. This is probably where your problem was if you did search. Try the following, exactly as typed:

+vehicle -"re: "

This will search for anything with the string "vehicle" in the title.The -re: portion of it removes replies, so you'll see the root of every thread that comes up, letting you see just how many threads there are on this. (The last helps for other subjects, as well.)

Be sure to put the space between the colon and last quote.

4. Click the "In subject" radio button. This is a search, not a cute blonde in a bikini. Here, you want to ignore the body.

5. Leave Username Search blank.

6. Date range, Newer Than, change the 1 to a 3, and the time to Months.

7. Result format doesn't matter. Click on "Submit."

The subject at hand: Vehicles.
Vehicles as travel powers. This gets brought up a lot.

Short answer, don't expect it.

Long answer:
There are a lot of problems with the idea.

1. Movement.

Forward and back,even turning - ok. But you can do things that a vehicle can't - such as strafe (direct side to side or angular movement.) It doesn't work with a vehicle. There are also issues such as drift and "realistic" handling. We can go side to side, as mentioned, and make immediate right angle turns. Cars... not so much.

2. Movement, part 2.

Go stand in the road. No, not you personally. Take your character out and stand in the road, if you're heroside. Or even in the path of civilians. What happens? You get pushed. While not as big an issue with a motorcycle, perhaps, a car would have issues. What happens if two cars meet head on - yours and an NPC, or yours and another player's? Do you just pass through each other? Would you be satisfied with that very odd result? Or would you get stuck? How about those NPCs, can they walk and push your car, or are they walking through it? Neither answer is very satisfying, and intelligent, dynamic pathing is too computationally expensive.

3. Terrain.

Not every place has roads, or even makes sense for "off roading." Go look at Founder's Falls. Go look at Crey's Folley. Or Eden. Try to get to the north islands in Talos. What, do you have a kubelwagen? Look at the Pit in Sharkshead. Try to use your travel power (car) to get up to some of the doorways in high caves. Cars and motorcycles would be more like Superspeed - horizontal movement, period. And look - I'll be blunt - flat out *stupid* tied with, say, Combat Jumping or Superjump.

4. Combat.

You get ambushed on the way. How do you fight? Just have your powers blast out of the rolled up windows? How do you buff or debuff? EVERY power would need a new animation. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Then you want people with motorcycles instead of cars. Redo ALL the animations AGAIN. And they still wouldn't make sense - how do you use Footstomp in a car? Or Stalagmites?

5. Customizing.

Yeah, it would come up. Not everyone would want a sports car, or a mid-70s Buick boat, or an exotic, or a minivan, or whatever else.

6. Making "sense."

This was touched on in terrain - how do you get across water? How about the Shadow Shard? And if you want downright ridiculous looking, go do the heroside 25-34 Respec. Look at the Sky Skiffs inside of rooms or the reactor room. It makes no sense and looks *ridiculous.* Something that, yes, the devs try to avoid.

That's just a quick overview of why vehicles as generally envisioned aren't a spectacular idea for a travel power.

Sci-Fi vs. SyFy?

I was mad when McDonald's came out with thier slogan (plastered all over thier products) of :[ QUOTE ]

i'm lovin it

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No period, no capitolization and I'm not even sure that they used the punctuation in the middle of the contraction for "I am" at the beginning. Do you hear me, McDonald's? *shakes fist*
You are glorifying the bastardization of the English language that text-messaging is doing. The message I get behind it is "Write like this when you apply for jobs. That way, you'll be desperate enough to work at McDonald's after no one else will hire you."
Way to go, McDonald's. Glorify the dumbing-down of our language and culture.

[censored]

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yes, good thing nobody ever farmed before AE.

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*chuckle* Of course not. The Dreck and werewolf missions were timered just out of the blue.

What is really different about AE farming and P.I. farming, other than?
AE Farming: Often happens in a starting zone, as opposed to a zone that a completely new player would first have to go well out of thier way to find.
AE Farming: Farm missions can be custom-built to the users powersets and preferences.
AE Farming: Has to generate more {(Rewards per Unit_Of_Time) divided by Risk_Or_Inconvienience}, or the farmers wouldn't use it in preference to existing high-value missions.

So long as you don't spam the bejeebers out of Broadcast and produce new players who quit after a month because they thought that hitting L50 a few times in a week in a single zone was all there was to CoX.
Or freshly-minted L50's that have never been outside of Atlas and don't know what an enhancement is...

Now if you want to quietly grind out the "phat ExPees" and as much loot to dump on the Market then go right ahead, I'll enjoy the price-lowering effect that added supply makes. But when you start behaving in a way that is detrimental to the long-term survival of the game, or blatantly ignoring the agreement that you click [I Agree] every time you log on, then you can expect limitations placed.

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I can't imagine what it must be like at Paragon Studios when Devs suggest new ideas...(oh the fights that must ensue)

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I imagine some spirited discourse, but without it going to "fight" level. After all, there would be a chain of command structure and some knowledge of the overall "vision" for the game.

Arc name:To Settle A Bet
Arc Number: (don't remember)
Author: @BBQ Pork
Keywords: Pork, LFMA. (There's not a lot of arcs with the word Pork in them)
Faction: Villianous
Level Range: Any, but lowbie-friendly.
Synopsis: A Supervillian has hired you to prank Paragon City, involving it's water supply.
Difficulty: Easy
Estimated Time to Play: pretty short. There are 4-5 missions, but all in small maps. 1 hour or less.

Arc Name: Operation Super-Wedgie
Arc Number: (Ummm....yes.)
Author: @BBQ Pork
Keywords: Wedgie, Comedy, Kid-Friendly
Level Range: Pretty much any. I use Security Guards and Longbow.
Difficulty: Easy. There's a Custom Boss who shows up after you rescue an Ally, but shouldn't be a problem.
Synopsis: Dr. Johansen has another prank to play on Paragon, and give it the wedgie it so desperately needs.
Estimated Time to Play: pretty short. There are 4-5 missions, but all in small maps. 1 hour or less.

In Non-AE missions, Defeat boatloads of minions (and perhaps higher).
Grab AoE character, set to difficulty 2 (for more chances per hour to get the drop), and go-go-go.
I got my last two versus L48 Hydra Men and Nemesis, both in normal missions.

Foes must be able to drop L50 recipes, so L47+ should do it.

The chance is really low, so don't focus on getting Purples, focus on fighting a lot of foes. And remember to sell all of your unwanted drops. The Market is the other way of getting them.