Biostem

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I think the devs need to expand upon the invasions so we don't feel so helpless when they're going on. I think, when an invasion occurs, you should see Vanguard arrive on the scene as well. Have them set up AAA turrets that we can control, and let us take the fight to the drop ships themselves. It seems a bit out of place that there isn't even a response form the PPD when an invasion is going on.

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I think, if for nothing other than "flavor", they should show dropships launching form the mothership in the RWZ when the raids are in progress. They don't have to be targetable, but it would at least give an indication that they're launching.

I also think it'd be cool if the rikti activity, in zones where they normally appear, would increase during the times raids are happening, (other than the zones that are actually being invaded).

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Back on topic:
I'd like to know how robust the player-made mission editor will be, particularly in whether we'll have the option to customize enemies and other NPCs, and the same scripting tools the official mission designers get.

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I'd just like to say that one thing is obvious:I bet lots of people are going to make farming missions. I guess we will see freaks alot more often

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4 words: mole machine parking lot

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Hero 1

With the addition of the Villain Epic Archetypes in Issue 12 will we see the face of Arachnos change, by this i mean will the players start to encounter Female Wolf Spiders and Male Blood Widows in missions or is there no plan to update Arachnos's enemies the players will face?

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I doubt this: there are meat docs in Freakshow in CoV, but not in CoH. There are Succubuses in CoT villainside, but not heroside.

I would like to see females added for any and all villain groups that make sense...

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Hi Joe,

Ever since Issue 7 was announced, with its level 40-50 villain content, I had been looking forward to seeing the Praetorians on the villain side. I thought it would be fascinating to see just what happened to the Praetorian versions of the signature villains. Unfortunately, they weren't included in that issue and still haven't been in any issue since. Are there any plans to add a Praetorian arc into the villain side?

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I think, in order to do that, they'd have to delve more into Recluse's version of the portal technology. It seems, however, that his focus was more on time travel than alternate dimensions, though. Even still, this would be interesting.

We do know, from hero side missions, that Countess Crey is good in some alternate reality and that there is a "Carnival of Light". I wonder was Arachnos is like on Prawetorian Earth... the last refuge of peace and civilization, perhaps???

There are many "villain" groups that aren't necessarily evil, and I think that makes for a more interesting experience. Malta, for instance, come across as a "policing organization" who feel they are best suited to taking care the public, but w/a bit of a Machiavellian 'end justifies the means' mindset. Even the Vahzilok see what they're doing as "perfecting humanity".

One thing the game lacks, though, is that you really only get these insights from the flavor text at the end of missions. I'd like to see more of each group's character added to their speech bubbles/combat dialog/etc.

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Hey, Joe.

I'm a huge fan of the 5th Column. Even though I joined with City of Villains, their story has always fascinated me, and their archvillains are without a doubt my favorites. They had a cameo in i11 with mysterious hints, i12 will probably feature lots about the Path of the Dark and the 5th, but I'm waiting for the heavy hitter - Reichsman. What happened to him? Are there any hints you could share about the possible future endeavors of the 5th Column or their heavy hitter himself?

Thanks,

The Blackguard

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Isn't the Reichsman in cryo stasis in some old underground FP base in Faultline or something?

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I see. Well I understand the security reasons, but I just want to know why this person is at your unattended PC in the first place, logging you out of the game to maliciously delete your characters I mean its your own stupid fault if you leave a public PC (internet cafe) unattended, but I would have thought a majority of players would play from home.

Maybe have an option in the in-game options menu that allows you to turn this feature on or off by inputting your password to allow it. I dunno, maybe I should leave this for the suggestion thread lol

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The answer is quite simple - many people outside of America or Europe play at internet cafes. Even though it's easy to say "it's your own stupid fault" if you don't fully log out at such a place, those people would still yell or whine about it if and when it happened. It's simply easier to force you to have to log in again and avoid the whole scenario than to implement a logout to character select or even add an option to enable/disable that feature.

On a related note, and I'm sure I'll get flak for this - is it really *that* big of a deal to log yourself back in? I mean, how much longer does it take? 3 seconds? maybe 5?

I would say just have a special contact made available to military personnel and via email, allow them to simply be exempted form the name policy. I don't see why we need to creating sliding rules for names being freed up; let the GI's keep their names, and everyone else has to abide by the rules...

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Lets face it, a lot of us would rather play on more populated servers then get more character slots on a server that has less activity.

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I agree. How about consolidating some of the servers so we actually have enough people on some of them to form groups. As a from the start (actually from Beta) player I remember the days of so many group invites that was annoyed at the constant pings. No I don't expect that in a game as aged as CoX but it would be nice to have a few other servers (besides the 2 biggies) where you could get regular groups.

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Consolidating the servers would be a bad idea; not only would you force players who don't want a lagfest into one, but how would you handle duplicate names? The devs aren't going to rewrite the entire naming system to allow for duplicates, and it isn't fair to force one player to have to change their name because the servers are being consolidated.

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I am very surprised how people are complaining about not getting more free slots, and some going so far as to call the devs cheap or greedy...

This stuff is icing - we were never promised more slots. Furthermore, other MMOs charge a heck of a lot more than CoH does, and they don't even give you as many slots to being with.

If you already filled up your "home server" w/ 8 characters, (12 of you also have CoV), and you're unwilling to delete any of those characters, then it means that you've already invested a lot of time and effort in CoH/V, in which case these free slots are just what you need, and should you need more you can get them for a very reasonable price. It's not a matter of, "how dare they charge me for more slots", it's a matter of this being what the market will bare, and if you disagree w/ such charges, then demonstrate that by not using this feature. I'm not gonna ask to have your stuff, but I am just pointing out that if you need more than the 2 free slots you're getting, (barring vet status), then it's probably well worth the money for those extra slots.

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Two questions, since a free slot is given out every 12 months as a veterans reward; would they be a tab in the character selection screen saying there are free slots available or would it be activated like regular veteran rewards? And if they are activated as other veteran rewards; would they add to the server the player accepted by the character logged on or would it add a tab to all character selection screens to say X slots available?

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I can only assume it would be handled much like how the angel/demon wings are - no need to claim them via a badge and just available right form the get-go. I would go on to assume that you will have an option or category about getting extra character slots, which will indicate how many extra character slot tokens are available to you.

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This gets a big thumbs up in my book.

Just a side question, (and I'm sorry if it was answered elsewhere), but can we sort of hold onto these free slot allotments and use them sometime after i12 comes out?

Anyway, great work devs!

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You won't -get- them until I12 comes out? Or do you mean hold them indefinitely? (which I expect will be possible. It probably works something like the costume tokens, in so far as you use them when you want, rather than at the time, and simply renders the service free for the first however-many-free slots.

Dev confirmation on this would be neat, tho.

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The current implementation (that is subject to change during the iteration process of developing Issue 12) as I understand it is a token on. When you are granted your two free ones, they are tokens on your account that only you can use on the specific server of your choice to open up a single additional character slot on that server. Buying more simply adds to the number of tokens you can use. I'm not aware of any time limits of how long these tokens are available once you have them (nor can I really think of a good reason that they would decay or otherwise become unavailable).

Hope that helps to answer your question. Be sure to check it out when Issue 12 enters open beta.

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That's certainly good news! It means we can hold onto those tokens in case we decide to move servers at a later date and don't "waste" them on what is our home server atm...

This gets a big thumbs up in my book.

Just a side question, (and I'm sorry if it was answered elsewhere), but can we sort of hold onto these free slot allotments and use them sometime after i12 comes out?

Anyway, great work devs!

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I had a question about travel powers. I've noted that flight got some really good upgrades: End reduction and flight positions. I'm here to ask for some attention to Super Speed. It is the most unused of the The travel powers because of the difficulty on all terrains. I had an idea about that. How about when you get so hight a level with it or as a bonus to 50's you get the ability to run across water ala some of the speedsters of our favorite comics. I think hydroplaning on water is a super speed tradition and was wondering if any of my fellow heroes thought it might be a great idea for a power upgrade or change for a future issue. Anyone?

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The reason you won't see running over water is because the game doesn't keep track of the surface of the water. It basically flags an area as being in swim-depth water or shallow water. The only way to work around this, AFAIK, would be to make it so that while SS is on, all water is treated as shallow water, and allow you to run in it.

Also, SS already has one of the most useful side effects - the stealth in PvE.

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I have to agree,I know a few select people detest blades, but a poll to see what power sets make it onto the OFFICIAL poll would be fair.

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The problem is, this isn't a democracy. How do-able a set is, is a huge factor in deciding what new sets will be added. No matter how many people want it, we just aren't going to see stretching due to the technical limitations of the engine. Similarly, we will not see growth as a powerset because the game is built around characters of a certain size range.

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Why no staff set? Why no other-type-of-energy-melee?

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While I will be happy to try out dual blades..

I hear ya.



A staff set would have owned, and I would like for scrappers and tankers to share attack sets at the least.. energy melee/sr scrapper would be fun to try.

Sadly, set sharing is happening when hell freezes over, but that is a different topic.

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I'm not saying give scrappers energy melee per se... I was thinking, however, that it'd be cool to give scrappers and brutes radiation melee, or even some sort of luminous melee.

The thing is, it is pretty common in comics to have a character that wraps his or her hands in some sort of energy or substance, (be it fire, psychic energy, radiation, etc), and attack w/ it.

I just hope that energy blades are neither light sabre rip offs, nor very similar to the Vanguard energy claws. I'm hoping they are a sort of morph-blade that forms into different shapes depending upon the attack you use - so one may be a standard sword slash, and another may have it form into a stiletto you stab with...

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Shields though is a VERY specific power that only one character I know of uses: Captain America.

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This isn't the point you were making, but this did remind me of something.

Some people complaining about dual blades mention other sets that are very niche that should have gone in the game instead. Yet they use "nobody used them" as a reason for not including dual blades.

The anti dual blade nonsense boils down to some people being jealous that their power set didn't get made first.

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While what you say makes a lot of sense, I also feel that there are already a lot of bladed weapons in the game. Why no staff set? Why no other-type-of-energy-melee?

Don't get me wrong - I am psyched that they're putting a lot of work into making the set have a feel all its own, It just seems a little too specific.

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There's all of zero need to have more than one melee weapon power in the game, and more than one ranged. Game effects can be identical - all that matters between them is the animation.

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Never mind... someone else can tell you.

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Personally I think all the weapons powers should be split into two:

Melee
Ranged.

And then give you a costume design like tool to custom skin whatever you want your weapon to look like.

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Please.. just... look up power customization for your answer.

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I will never stop saying that we need a Scythe powerset.

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Try a Dervish in Guild Wars Nightfall - wicked scythe-wielding pwnage!

If dual blades has as much style as I'm hoping, it'll be a wicked set to play.

Here's what I would do:

1. Trial accounts can't click a name on the search window and choose chat - they have to manually type it out/

2. Tells from trial accounts produce an "accept/deny" prompt for the person receiving the tell. If you see "pkp... wants to chat", you simply choose "deny" and you never have to see the tell.

3. Have an option where you can only receive private messages from people on your friends/global friends list.

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You cannot sue or bring suit against one company for violating another company's terms of service

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If you are saying that Player A can't sue Company 1 for breaking Company 2's ToS, then yes, you are probably right.

But if you are saying Company 1 can't be sued by Company 2 for violating the rules Company 2 has laid down (The ToS) then you ARE mistaken.

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Are the terms of service considered a contractual agreement? Isn't the only allowable penalty for breach of that to deny the offender access to the service in question?

If, for instance, I advertised in-game, and it was traced back to me, what could NCSoft actually sue me for? They could deny me access to the game and/or ban my account, but what else is there? Are they going to sue for damages? A contract violation? What?

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Ok, I went through the entire thread and didn't see a good reason why NC Soft doesn't target the sites being advertised. These sites are obviously engaged in prohibited behavior, so why can't cease and desist orders be filed against them? Selling ingame assets for money is prohibited. Buying ingame assets for money is prohibited. These friggin' websites are responsible for fascilitating both actions. There HAS to be some legal action available here...

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You cannot sue or bring suit against one company for violating another company's terms of service - all they can do is prevent access, which they are doing. Frankly, whose fault is it that the ability to get trial accounts for the game is so easy that these spammers can get on w/ new accounts faster than they are banned?

Here's what I would suggest - you want a trial account? Submit a request for a key, which requires you submit some information, which is then reviewed. If there's anything that doesn't check out, then don't send the key. The other option, which may very well be going too far, would be to check the ip address you are logging on from, and not allowing any ip's that are outside the US...

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Zero Tolerance is great. When combined with action that is effective in actually combating the problem.

Frankly I just don't see the Powers That Be in CoH/CoV actually being able to combat this problem in an effective manner.

Every time I get one of these tells I /ignore AND /gignore the spammer AND I report it. I usually get another tell FROM THE SAME PERSON within just a few minutes. After I've ignored AND gignored the spammer.

These people are programmers and they can't even program the Global friends or Global ignore list to work. So I have Zero Confidence they'll be able to do anything effective against RMT spammers.

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That has never happened to me. Chances are they are on another account that has a lower case L in place of an I, or something similar.

Also, they can't just ban any account reported - they have ot investigate that it is a violation, and since there are also people reporting bugged missions or other issues, it can take some time. To expect instant resolution is a little unreasonable. You wouldn't want someone to report you, or a friend, just to get them banned, would you? It has to be reviewed so we avoid banning innocent players.

The only real step they could do would be to add a new /reportRMT command that has a dedicated staff to review and process the bans, which would alleviate the regular GMs from having to do that, but would require additional staff, which costs more money...