Chase_Arcanum

[ QUOTE ]
..., but, instead, that is a better trump

[/ QUOTE ]

I heard about that site somewhere...

Next: Pool Powers.

FLIGHT: Might be able to get the alternate flight animations into this interface... and throw in the various jetpack options.

MEDICINE: Give us non-tech healing (for spellcraft, as an example)

[ QUOTE ]
First off; costume (top,bottom) is cool; if we don't have it then we need it .

(Foreshadow is the Trainer in the Hollows)

Secondly, his 'off set'/one-sided pieces on both his shoulder and glove...

This is something that I would like to be able to do with my toons; have separate Right Glove/Left Glove, Right Shoulder/Left Shoulder (maybe even Right Boot/Left Boot) selection in the Character Creator.

[/ QUOTE ]

The challenge is that there's just one slot identifier for "boots" and to have left/right boot, for example, you'd need to use two slot identifiers. You also have a finite number of item identifiers within each slot, so you couldn't realistically just put TONS of combos into one slot (like "pegleg+rubberboot," "pegleg+monstrous" etc)

The devs have noted in the past that there's a hard-coded number of slots possible (due to how it's encoded with all the other data for swift and accurate communication) and at the moment, IIRC, we're down to 1 more "unused" slot and they want to make it count.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
It's similar to the issue most people have with Wikipedia: http://xkcd.com/214/

[/ QUOTE ]

http://xkcd.com/609/

[/ QUOTE ]

Of course, eventually someone had to do this

Well, to be fair to the OP, Aett, none of your assumptions are necessarily accurate, and since they would be poor game design anyway, they probably wouldn't be.

I think what the OP was listing as "level debuffing" (of doing lower damage if you're lower level and taking more damage) is essentially "giant monster scaling."

If you, in essence, just disabled giant monster scaling, you'd have what the OP is advocating. It isn't a bad system, but as you've said, you'd need some incentive for a level 50 to fight tougher mobs.

Now, keep in mind that a hellion, under scaling- without modification- would still bring in XP measured in the tens (what an even-conned hellion would give you)... while the malta on par with your level may have rewards in the thousands.

That may not be enough to persuade the farmer looking for the easiest path to victory. In theory, you could have the XP still decline as you get above a threshold to nudge them on to greener pastures.

I personally never liked the extreme increase in durability just a few levels bring in the "classic" RPG model, particular now that we do level so fast in CoH. Eliminating the "scaling" or drastically reducing it so that blues and greens remain more viable opponents would be nice... though I know plenty of people that enjoy herding greys that would be upset.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
My favorite review was from Penny Arcade. It was a combo CoH WoW article that stated, "while WoW takes traditional MMOs and says, 'let me show you a better way', City of Heroes says, 'you know what? %#$@ dragons.'"

[/ QUOTE ]ironic for me, i'nt it i like that coh says, you ARE a dragon.

[/ QUOTE ]

Doubly ironic, given "%#$@ dragons", your character design, and your romantic life (or lack thereof).

Please don't drop kick me into next week.

[ QUOTE ]
I guess a few folks have questions about the Gambling laws. I know that I do. I'm not a lawyer or profess to having any knowledge of gambling laws. But perhaps this new addition to the game can be like the "Magic Pack" and other add on packs, it would be purchased seperate from the basic game and proof of age and all that legeal stuff along with it. So those that would like to gamble can and those who don't, don't have to.

[/ QUOTE ]

Online gambling laws in the US have little to do with age, so that wouldn't help.

Very unlikely to happen:

A few years back, online gambling sites tried to dodge US regulations by making games that were "token based" and not tied to real cash. They then set up separate dummy companies that did essentially "Unsanctioned" RMT for those companies. That way the gambling site could claim "we're innocent point based fun!" while the other company says "we just sell stuff, we don't provide a gambling service!"

The laws were changed to close that nice little loophole.

Now, the way the law reads, if CoH or any other MMO provided any traditional "gambling" game, their entire game would likely fall under gambling regulation... or at least someone would TRY to apply gambling laws to it & NCSoft would have to spend millions of your subscription dollars fighting the concept in US courts and hoping for a common-sense judge. Not money well spent, IMO.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
for doc deliliah, must not live in apartment with elevators.

[/ QUOTE ]

I laughed.

[/ QUOTE ]

I cried.

[ QUOTE ]
Super Strength and Martial Arts will each receive an alternate animation for their powers, and Stone Armor and Necromancy will include limited customization.


i am going to drive to paragon studios and kiss posi directly on the mouth.

[/ QUOTE ]

Word is that Positron was going to have the Restraining Order sent to you prior to this announcement. Then someone in accounting tallied all you'd spent on this game- and all you'd probably spend due to this Issue... and decided he'd just have to "take one for the team."

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So you have time to giggle like a schoolgirl for hours on end but not enough time to give us juggle animations that work while flying?

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, BaB keeps using that as an excuse to get people in the office to be videotaped trying to juggle while jumping on a trampoline for an animation reference.

Which, incidentally, is also the reason why Martial Arts was claimed to be the reason for the lack of long skirts for females for years.

[/ QUOTE ]

Babs can't get anyone willing to do martial arts kicks in a long skirt for an animation reference? That close to San Francisco you should be able to find ANYONE willing to do ANYTHING...

...Unfortunately, the most eager are usually the ones you really don't want to see in such poses....

Maybe the TRUE reason is that he's burned all recordings before slipping into the alcohol-induced coma brought on by the encounter.

[ QUOTE ]
I would call it a monster pack, or beastly pack, but otherwise, signed to the high heavens and back. maybe for the "hook" we could get those animated tails that were asked for in BETA. but yeah, more insect stuff, more fox stuff, more sea themed stuff(that would bea two for one thing for me) more tails, more details added to beastly heads, more lion stuff, oh, and maybe, MORE FRIGGING DRAGON STUFF!!!!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

And undead versions of all of them!

How else am I going to really do justice to my "Spawn of the Nekonomicon" All-undead-catgirl villain group? The Hai Preest is waiting!

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
We're sitting in a meeting and our Development Director said "We've contracted some Type R programmers".

I had never heard this term before, so I jotted it down on my notepad, so I could inquire about it later.

Just then our Lead Engineer asks "What is Type R?"

Our Dev Director looked stumped. "What do you mean?"

"You said 'Type R Programmers'" said the Lead Engineer.

"No, I said 'High Powered'." said the Dev Director.

"No you didn't. You said 'Type R.' See I wrote it down." I said, and showed him my notepad that said "Type R?".

So now, everything high powered and awesome in the office is "Type R".

I am now on a crusade to get it used outside our offices. I should add it to urban dictionary or something.

[/ QUOTE ]

What's a 'High Powered' programmer?

[/ QUOTE ]

What's your security clearance?

[ QUOTE ]
We're sitting in a meeting and our Development Director said "We've contracted some Type R programmers".

I had never heard this term before, so I jotted it down on my notepad, so I could inquire about it later.

Just then our Lead Engineer asks "What is Type R?"

Our Dev Director looked stumped. "What do you mean?"

"You said 'Type R Programmers'" said the Lead Engineer.

"No, I said 'High Powered'." said the Dev Director.

"No you didn't. You said 'Type R.' See I wrote it down." I said, and showed him my notepad that said "Type R?".

So now, everything high powered and awesome in the office is "Type R".

I am now on a crusade to get it used outside our offices. I should add it to urban dictionary or something.

[/ QUOTE ]

Make it a job listing on your website too.

Type-R Programmer

Require as a minimum:
<ul type="square">[*]Chi Class Certification in C/C++[*]A BSAAD in Computer Sciences from a N-matrix accredited institution or equivalent experience.[*]Fluency in the Trammel-Lit Systems Development Model[/list]

From the first source I found
[ QUOTE ]

We've heard rumors of a graphical update running around for years. Are there any plans to update the graphics in future issues?

We've hired some "Type-R" programmers (inside joke) to investigate and deliver this very thing. Stay tuned for details.

[/ QUOTE ]

I just assumed that "type-r" referred to the programmers working on a graphical update to packed in their not-then-announced secret project: Going Rogue

This is a guess, but it might have to do with the different filesystem settings.

Some filesystems use different "minimum sizes" for a block of data. So, (using made-up numbers for easy math) imagine you had a 9kb file:

- if you had that file on a system that allocated things in 3kb blocks, it'd use 3 blocks (9kb)
- if you moved that file onto a disk that used 4kb blocks, it'd have to use 3 blocks too (12kb) because it wouldn't fit in 2(8kb) to store it. To software that checks the size of a file, it might appear that the file had grown a whopping 3kb.

Round Table Introduction:

Chase Arcanum here. Perpetually late on all projects, including a site I promised to have up months ago for the CCC... (sigh).

I guess I'm still a founding member even though all my comics (and site) have been stalled in development for several months (the site gets top priority- I SWEAR!)

I've created a few comic guides using comic-book-creator and was in the process of making a series of comic layout templates that would work in photoshop or GIMP (for people that can't get CBC) when my free time became measurable in nanoseconds. That's still my next project- after the site template. Expect it in 2020 at this rate. After that... I might have time for comics again.

[ QUOTE ]
Very disappointed that it seems that bases will be getting the "pointy end of the stick" for the foreseeable future.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think thats the case.

There are many potential overlaps from both the I14 Architect and the PvP changes that dovetail nicely with the base system... I wouldn't be surprised to see quite a few enhancements to bases arise quite naturally from these.

[ QUOTE ]
so in short, he wasnt sufficiently down on his own work for you, so we go with overblown hyperbole to distort their message. gotcha.

oh and also that would have made one boring as (self-censored) interview, do you prefer sodium pentathol styled interviews normally?

oh and final edit. i notice your quote removes the second paragraph, it helps to show the scope of his answer where he mentions significant changes for kheld players, invuln players, and ea players and toggle changes...that expands things a bit more accurately.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good reply.

But for the record, Sodium Pentathol would be a terrible interviewing tool. It's a depressant that reduces higher cortical functions. It works as a truth serum mostly because fabricating lies is more complex than telling the truth, so it's tougher to do under the drug.

You want a good interview with lots of accidental secret-spilling, get a Dev souped up on sugar and caffeine.

...well, more than their usual doses at least...

[ QUOTE ]

Anway, I rolled my eyes after reading this:

[ QUOTE ]
Matt: That’s a great question for our senior designer, Floyd Grubb. Floyd, take it away!

[/ QUOTE ]

FAKE enthusiasm.


[/ QUOTE ]

Or you're reading too much into attribution and punctuation.

He could have said, "I think our senior designer would be better able to answer that" in the somber voice of a press conference spokesperson trying to dodge a bullet, granted, but (thankfully) that's not his style.

Exactly how do you envision that phrase... with a cheerleader's dance a a few pom-poms? Fake enthusiasm? Read it again at a more conversational tone in your head. Heck, pretend Eeyore is saying it, for goshsakes.

It doesn't have to sound fake- it's text. Its all about your interpretation, and you seem to WANT to see someone as disingenuous.

[ QUOTE ]

And day jobs are just weak (in my opinion of course). And so are the PVP changes. Now if we had the city vault or shared recipe, infamy, influence, IO, etc storage I'd get a bit more excited.


[/ QUOTE ]

Different things are appealing to other people, as you noted. Day jobs takes a rather popular "power hour" concept that other games do use and gives it a twist to essentially let the player define what kind of "power" he wants that "hour" to be. It's a clever rethinking of the idea.

[ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
A lot of the ideas on powers and PvP we implemented in Issue 13 came directly from player feedback.

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess this all depends on who you ask, but it's not being honest based the current sentiment and feedback regarding these changes. Some of it constructive, yes indeedy.


[/ QUOTE ]

Know what? I saw quite a few people post rationally and positively there, said their peace, and move on. I also see quite a few hate-posts blathering on and on, over and over, from the same people. Count posts, and you may find the hate posts outnumber them. Count posters, and it's very, very different. Of course, you won't know until you remove the blinders.

[ QUOTE ]

Lastly there's really not much new here. It just doesn't seem to be announcement worthy. The QOL changes fall way short from the tremendous job done in i12 (again my opinion).

But at least we're getting some more ski runs for the Winter event.

[/ QUOTE ]

Go back to the I12 documentation. Try to see what QoL issues were identified in CLOSED BETA. QoL things come later, and some might not work out, so you don't speak about them until you're 100% sure, lest you get labeled a "liar."

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
From the Ten Ton Hammer interview:

"Like writing a novel, mission arcs in CoX constantly evolve and spawn even more arcs."

What??? Since when? Please name one mission arc that's ever changed, ever. The above quote from the Ten Ton Hammer page is quite simply an untrue statement. The mission arcs in CoH/V have never evolved.

[/ QUOTE ]

Peregrine_Falcon,

I consider that the article is written Bruce Harlick's perspective and from the flow of mission writing that goes from Issue 12 to Issue 13 - which is what Bruce has been involved with.

While the statement may not be characteristic of the entirety of CoH/CoV development, it's accurate from the perspective of a mission developer who recently joined the team: Bruce.

[/ QUOTE ]


I initially took it as an author's point of view of the writing process and was surprised to think that some had read it as about actual in-game arcs.

When I wrote my first fan comic, I had a single story in mind. As I thought through the story, it changed several times- even the storytelling voice changed to a first-person narrative. That's the "evolved" to me. That story left me with a few "what if's..." that eventually led to my submission to the CBC contest. That's the "spawning new arcs" part.

As Bruce explains his process, you see just that. The initial idea went through several revisions for both technical and creative reasons. The second sets of arcs were arose not out of intentional sequels, but in ideas that came out of the 'thinking behind' that goes on as you're crafting the original arc.

---

That said, saying that the actual missions and stories in city of heroes don't evolve or inspire others is rather ridiculous. There are quite a few story arcs in the game since launch that build off of previous discoveries, giving you additional insight and evolving your view of the situation... and the game.

Look at the Circle of Thorns (spoilers):
<ul type="square">[*] They're introduced as cultists doing weird ceremonies on the unsuspecting. They have a history, but in the first few arcs, it's unclear where fact and fiction separate. [*] You eventually hear the name of Baron Zoria and allusions that, despite being ancient by now, he may still be leading the Circle. [*] About that time, you stumble into the first underground missions using the Lost City Tileset. Suddenly the mythical city is real, and maybe these guys really were on to something. Not only that, but spectres and demons become more prevalent. This isn't just some cult of arcane wackos.[*] Eventually, you learn that even Zoria isn't Zoria... that he hasn't been for quite some time...[/list]
Through it all, the reader's perception- what he thought was real- what he thought the "story was" was.... well... wrong (need I mention the Lost/Rikti revelations?). The story evolved... and one mission inspired another and another.


I guess some can find controversy in anything...

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Lastly there's really not much new here. It just doesn't seem to be announcement worthy.

[/ QUOTE ]

QFT. The only things that are new in this article is the badge UI changes and the NPC placement. Until we get an example of such a change for the NPCs, who knows if it'll be good or not. As for the badge UI changes, probably could have been done in just a paragraph by Posi here on the boards:

[ QUOTE ]
Hey, folks, Positron here. Look, we know we've had some complaints about the badge user interface, so we've decided to do some changes. We hope you'll enjoy them. First, we're going to add more badge bars than ever before, such as badge bars to gladiator badges, or bars indicating how many more plaques you need to get a history badge. On top of that, instead of just a blue bar, we're going to give you actual real number percentages so you can tell EXACTLY how far you are on some of those badges.

[/ QUOTE ]

Something like that. This article just seemed to be a rehash of stuff that was already known.

[/ QUOTE ]

Keep in mind the audience.

The article starts by explaining what CoH IS. It's directed to the curious outsider more than the hardcore newshound.

[ QUOTE ]
That comment is so outdated, and has already been proven to be a false comment by quite a few people.

My comment is 100% true because there are badges that aren't available any more. Anniversary badges and Passport for examples. At least one (Bug Hunter) is problematic. We also have to consider the entire discussion as being qualified to "all badges available for a given side" since we don't have side-switching yet. Oh, and we have to make an exception for the "Ten Times the Victor" series, don't we now? And Patron badges? Even with these qualifications, does there exist a single character who does, in fact, have every single badge a hero or villain could acquire?

While the developers didn't really design the badge system to actually prohibit a character from having all of his side's badges -- something I would have done on Day One to pre-empt this entire debate -- they've also made it pretty clear that such is not a design goal. Badges are as easy or difficulty to acquire as the devs feel is appropriate, particularly for badges that provide actual benefits. If you insist that you've "gotta catch 'em all", it's your problem.

Then again we arent you so our opinions are obviously dont mean anything

It's amazing how many people don't realise that.

"Why do you always make such a big deal out of things...haven't you learned, if it's not happening to me it's not important?" -- Murphy Brown

[/ QUOTE ]

Venture,

I.... I AGREE with you.

Some badges- like these- serve to give some differentiation to a character. Sure, eventually you can earn plenty of them, but only after great length of time. That's good- as the rewards ARE powers that, if appearing too frequently, could be a little imbalancing. This is a clever way to make the player prioritize.

There are all sorts of badging philosophies- and not all of them are necessarily "gotta have them all." For all I encourage the badgers, virtually all of my non-exploration badges are "badges of accident." I enjoy every badge I get, but don't chase after any of them. If I earn a wentworths' badge, its cool, but I don't pad sales to reach that goal. I like seeing how my different characters earn badges differently based on their unique experiences.

For a player like me, these badges are a good fit. I'll choose different day jobs based on what fits the characters, play any alt I want and not worry that my 4 hours online has delayed me from earning a little token by that much.

I like it.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I love in Posi's letter how he talks about 'rewards' for the missions created by the users. How it was bantered back and forth in the office with raised voices. I have a nagging suspicion this means no xp/influence/etc for these missions in which case. Crappy system and count me out. Not gonna bust my butt to create tons of missions that grant absolutely no reward.

[/ QUOTE ]

Then you missed the entire point of the mission creator.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh I got the point. I got it a long time ago. This is a great way for the devs to have the players create content for them so that they don't have to. We already provide free Q&amp;A services when we Beta test the issues. Now they want us to be quasi-content creators. Then if were lucky enough to be sprinkled with the blessings of 'Devs Choice' then our mission will give rewards. Great.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, you've missed the point entirely.

It's often said that MMO's have pen-n-paper games as their ancestor. There's one playstyle of those old p-n-p games that has never really been supported well in MMO's- the GM. In any pnp game group, there's at least one. Depending on your group size, that might be 1 in 4 or 1 in 10, but that's still a large market to tap into.

1) A market that LIKES telling stories, creating things, and sharing them. Something they can only find in limited ways in other places, meaning CoH can carve out an appealing little niche for them.

2) Almost every pnp GM I knew was also leader/organizer of the community. You often played what he wanted around his schedule. He's also the type to gravitate into organizer/leader positions in online games. If HE wants to check out this game to experiment on this, he's more likely to influence others to do so also.



And... despite there being plenty of pnp GM's out there making their own content, those game developers kept cranking out modules for people that wanted something professionally done....

If this is done right, this won't mean the develo

[ QUOTE ]
I think temp powers should be temporary. This pack is a nice gift for a new player just starting out that paid double what they could have got from a bargain bin. Then it's gone like their money, but hopefully the player will stay and use a real travel power.

No permanent temp powers!!! It's oxymoronic!

Jer

[/ QUOTE ]

technically, doesn't our permanent unslottable "origin" power appear as a temp?

Of course, I agree with you, but just sayin