ClawsandEffect

The only problem with it is the fact that the Fire Sword powers (Fire Sword, Fire Sword Circle, and Greater Fire Sword) are all part fire damage and part lethal damage.

If you were to offer an alternate animation for the sword powers, you'd either have damage types not matching up with the animation, or you'd have a superior attack by using a different animation (because lethal is much more frequently resisted than fire, pure fire damage will do more damage on average)

Okay, I had the idea right, I just had which one was longer backwards.

Good to know.

Both issues have been acknowledged, but I have no idea where the posts are or if they even still exist (was before the forum move).

The robes thing definitely was directly from Jay, I believe it was in his costume request thread in response to a whole lot of people requesting them.

I think BaBs mentioned the backpacks when he was talking about Shield Defense. If memory serves, someone said that if we can attach a shield to an arm we should be able to get backpacks, and he explained the node thing. I'm a little fuzzier on the backpack issue, but I remember backpacks being the subject when I first learned about the various nodes for costume piece attachment.

Wish I could be more certain about it, but I'm operating from a vague memory as to why we don't have them yet.

I always thought of it as maneuvering the guy in melee with me into a position to block incoming fire from his buddies. The classic "human shield".

I think it has to do with exactly where the node is located. But I'm not a programmer for the game, so I don't know exactly what that means.

I have noticed though, that when I use the temp powers that are in the form of backpacks, on some characters it matches up perfect, some characters it's buried in their back, and some characters it's floating out behind them.

I would also surmise that, since we have wings and capes, but not backpacks, it would be using a different node.

If I recall correctly, the issue they ran into with back items is that the node to attach things doesn't move when the character's size changes. Ever use a Raptor Pack with a max sized Huge character and had it clipping into their back?

Last I checked they hadn't figured out how to fix that issue. And from what I understand they won't do something until they can get it to look decent.

We don't have long robes for the same reason, they looked like crap with any animation that makes your legs move too much. NPCs have them because they can control what powers the NPCs have, they can't do that with player characters. Ever see a CoT Guard throw a kick? There's a reason they don't.

Since you stopped playing:

A) Set IOs trumped Hami-Os in nearly every way.

B) There are 2 Task Forces (1 hero, 1 villain) that give out Hami-Os as one of the selectable rewards. So, even if you DO want Hami-Os, there are ways of obtaining them that don't require you to put together a raid. 8 people are a lot easier to organize than 30+.

Hami-Os haven't been the be all, end all of enhancements for quite a while now, it's just one of the MANY things that have changed since you left. There are still uses for them, but most high end characters are built with Set IOs instead now, with maybe a couple Hami-Os in their build, which can be obtained easily through a task force or the market.

The difference is that there are other characters that have similar powers. Captain America is not the only character in the history of comics to ever use a shield. Wolverine is not the only character who has ever had claws. And Storm is not the only character who has ever used storm controlling powers.

There are other characters who have used eyebeams, but there is only ONE for whom eyebeams are their main (and only) power: Cyclops.

For the other characters that use eyebeams (Superman, Gladiator, a few others I'm not thinking of), the eyebeams are part of a larger set of powers, which Laser Beam Eyes covers perfectly. A powerset consisting solely of eyebeams is coming very close to one specific character's trademark, while none of the others you mentioned are the domain of any one character.

If they didn't add powers that anyone had ever used before it'd be a pretty crappy game. No fire powers because of the Human Torch. No Ice powers because of Iceman. No Super Strength because of Superman and the Hulk. No martial arts because of any number of characters. No Plant Control because of Poison Ivy. And so on.

They can do it because there are a LOT of characters with those abilities, while there is only one who uses eyebeams exclusively.

Also, how do you do animations for 9 powers where you basically just look at your target?

Exactly this.

Thank you, Forbin, for understanding what I was saying.

The way you feel has very little relevance to the end effect of allowing teleportation to every single mission.

You KNOW there are zones to explore, and you do explore them because you choose to do so.

What is a new player going to think when they start teleporting everywhere? They're going to think along the lines of "Well, since I don't have to actually walk/run/fly/jump anywhere to get to the next mission, there must not be anything between here and there. Why would they let us just teleport here if there was something to see?"

Especially if they are coming from another MMO where there ARE huge expanses of empty land.

You and I, and others, got to explore the game, largely because we had very little choice in the early days. If you take away any reason to travel through a zone, you take away a lot of the incentive to do so with it. They just added more exploration badges and started awarding reward merits for finding all of the ones in a given zone, I presume because the devs are aware that the majority of their playerbase won't do ANYTHING unless there is a tangible reward for it. And they're probably going to download the vidiotmaps overlay and just follow it to the icons rather than actually do any exploring.

Allowing teleportation to every mission will do nothing more than make the players lazier and lazier. If it happens, pretty soon you'll see people complaining that they have to walk to the objective inside the mission, and asking for a way to teleport directly to it as well.

I increase my turn speed in the options.

You start out at 300% default, I increase mine to around 450%-500% so I don't turn so slowly. Any more than that it gets difficult to control, but around 475% is just about perfect.

Dark has horrible AoE. Just because it has 2 AoE powers doesn't mean tey are effective attacks.

Elec/Shield or Spines/Electric or Dark will be your best bets for farming.

I'd go with Malta, set high enough they are pretty good at farming blasters.


Oh....that isn't what you meant

Correct on both counts.

There was a bug in the AI that caused pets with high levels of recharge to use only one of their attacks over and over again. Doesn't sound like a problem....until you get your Thugs Bruiser stuck in "HAND CLAP EVERYTHING!!!!!!" mode.

The only way they could effectively fix it was to make recharge buffs not work on pets.

And you get the benefit of Set Bonuses, not the pet, unless it is one of the specific bonuses that affect pets like the Defense Bonus or Resistance bonus.

Well, except for the fact that they die if a Hellion looks at them funny.

I've used the vet pets, and I gave up on them after they consistently died 3 seconds into a fight.

Wow, it's a good thing you didn't play the game 5 years ago. You would have ragequit during the first week if you think it takes a long time to get anywhere now.

Used to be a contact would send you from Talos Island to Atlas Park, and you'd have to go from Atlas Park all the way back to Talos to get the next mission, which was in Kings Row.

And you had to run back to that contact every time you wanted to turn a mission in, because they wouldn't give out their number until you'd ran half the arc, as opposed to 2-3 missions into it like now.

Oh, and there were no such things as temp jetpacks, or jump packs, or Ninja Run at level 4. There weren't Ouroboros portals. If you were under level 14 and weren't Kinetics or a Kheldian, it was Sprint or nothing.

Players now have it EASY compared to how it used to be. And you're complaining that 3-5 minutes is too long to spend traveling to a mission.

They have done so many things to make things easier to get around in this game, and people are asking to be able to teleport directly to every single mission.

Tell me, if you could teleport to every mission you ever get, what is the point of there even being anything outside at all? You could make the entire game consist of a single door next to Wentworth's and a single contact that gives you all your missions, and the players who whine that 3 minutes is too long to travel will be perfectly happy.

Oh, wait, they already did that, it's called AE.

Can I ask one more question? How long did you play for before you knew how to get to Kings Row?

I never said they trademarked the name. I said they trademarked the character.

Phoenix is a female superhero character with red hair, who has fire and/or telekinetic powers.

You could create an old West gunslinger named Phoenix that is male with brown hair and known for using Colt Peacemakers and be fine.

If you were to create a red haired female superhero who has fire related powers, and name her Phoenix, you will be infringing on Marvel's trademark.

No one can copyright or trademark a common word, but you can trademark a word in association with a particular fictional character. Like I said in my post regarding the name Thor, Marvel can't trademark the name, but they can (and did) trademark the appearance of a character bearing that name. I could use the name Thor in reference to the Norse deity in any media I choose, with zero consequences. But if he is depicted with long blonde hair, a winged helmet, and a long red cape, and speaks in old heraldic English, I could be subject to a lawsuit.

Since Fusion 7 mentioned that her character was a controller, it is reasonable to assume that it is a Fire controller (since the name suggests it). Depending on the exact appearance of the character, she may be infringing the trademark. NCSoft blocks the names so you can't infringe on trademarks, whether that is your intention or not.

Marvel didn't sue because people were making their characters in the game, if that were the reason they would have to go after every person who dresses like a character at a comic convention. They sued because of the way NCSoft's EULA agreement reads. When you click "I Agree" one of the things you are agreeing to is that anything you create in the game is NCSoft's property. Because of that, any time someone creates a trademarked character in the game, NCSoft is claiming ownership of that character by the wording of their Terms of Service. Marvel was disputing the blanket claims of ownership that are contained in the EULA.

You couldn't have Chimera because it is already used in the game as the name of one of the signature characters (specifically, it is the Praetorian version of Manticore) It isn't a case of someone snagging the name before you, it's a case of it being blocked because the developers are already using it in the game's lore.

Phoenix is a trademarked Marvel character, and is blocked from ANYONE using it, not just you. Since you mentioned it is a Controller, I would assume it is a Fire Controller, and that would make it too similar to the Marvel character anyway, and could easily be viewed as a copyright violation.

I can't use the name Thor. Even though Marvel cannot copyright the name because it has existed in mythology for centuries, they have trademarked the appearance of a character bearing that name, which is enough for NCSoft to block the name from being used. I can't even put him in an AE arc, which annoys me, but I understand why it is that way, so I deal with it.

Quick tip for you: If it says "That name is already in use" it means someone beat you to it on that server. If it says "That name is unavailable" it means that the name in question is blocked for some reason. I am quite sure that both CHimera and Phoenix came up "unavailable" rather than "already in use".

On what grounds?

If they had appeared in one story in the 40s and were never used again, I might be inclined to agree. But they are still ACTIVELY creating stories involving those two characters, meaning the trademarks and copyrights related to them are still very much active, and presumably renewed on a regular basis. The only way something enters public domain is A) Upon the death of the original creator or writer, and B) If no one renews any copyrights or trademarks associated with it. Since the original creators sold their intellectual property to DC Comics, it falls to DC to renew trademarks, which I guarantee they have been doing.

Saying that they should enter public domain just because they were created so long ago holds no water, and will not be a convincing argument. DC Comics would have to relinquish any and all rights to those characters for them to enter public domain, and that is never going to happen.

How about Epiphone for the second Protector bot? Could go with Mosrite as well, both are vintage guitar companies. Or Schecter.

Ovation isn't a great name for the Assault Bot. If you want to name him after a high end acoustic guitar, name him Martin.

My Demons are named as follows:

Demonlings: Spot, Fido, Rover
Demons: Old Yeller, Benji
Demon Prince: Lassie

My Bots are:

Drones: Rabies, Polio, (stuck on the third one)
Protectors: Influenza, Malaria
Assault: Ebola

My Bots MM is named Antivirus, so I named all the bots after viruses.

My Thugs MM (kudos to anyone who gets the reference)

Punks: Kenny, Steven, (I forget the third at the moment)
Enforcers: Balladbird Lee, Bob Poundmax
Bruiser: Bear Walken

It's the only booster thus far I feel no particular urge to buy. I don't stand around doing emotes often enough to want to spend money on a few more.