Eisregen_NA

Bah. I think you're doing Statesman a great injustice.

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Because of all the Archetypes, we're happiest with them [Defenders]. There are certainly issues with individual sets and powers - and those we're always looking at. Defenders, however, don't have any overarching problems.

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This problem outlined here by States was effectively tackled and resolved by allowing Controllers to approach Blaster level damage while still letting them use many Defender Primaries at 100% (or near) effectiveness despite these being Secondaries for them. Add to that the touted statement that only Controllers should be able to (reliably) mez Lts or above, and the fact that Blasters now have more HP than Defenders (really just a cosmetical point, but one that always grates on me), and I think States did solid work.

The sad thing is, I'll still play Defenders, because they're just the most versatile AT in the end. Alas also the least efficient, potentially barring SR Scrappers whom I've never played but see go down faster than a [censored] a lot.

Lots of good stuff already out there, some of it already echoing my own, but I'd like to reemphasize and reword a bit for my own priorities.

Are there any plans to update existing and currently underutilized immersize content in the game (Origins, Zones (particularly Hazard Zones), Villain Groups) to offer further immersion? And I'm not thinking Zone Events here. Ideally, I'm talking Zone-specific and Villain-specifc contacts (and maybe badges and plaques an souvenirs) available outside of the normal contacts scheme, much like the high-level Enhancement store NPCs. The Hollows, Striga and now Croatoa have set a standard on the former, and it would be nice to see this retroactively applied to the old Hazard Zones. Likewise, some heroes entertain the idea of having a 'nemesis' such as the Council or even the cute little Clockwork. It would be cool to have mission strings centered on enemies above and beyond current story arcs in game.

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Monica Richter.

Richter... having to do with seismic activity.

Faultline?

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Nonononononono...

Richter is a completely normal German last name. In fact I had a buddy by that last name in elementary school. Likewise, Stefan or Stephan is a completely normal (and overly popular) German first name. Obviously, Recluse is German, like myself and all the other straight-up movie bad guys... er.. you know what I mean.

And while we're on the subject, Richter directly translates to 'judge', in any interpretation of the word. Meaning the guy who provides over court, the guys who call beauty pageants or the judgement of Gob. The Richter scale is simply named after its inventor, Charles Francis Richter, the word doesn't directly relate to seismic activity in any further way.

Hmmm, we could pick Stefan apart as well while we're at it. Historically, the kings of Poland used that name a lot (well, Stepan if I transcribed that properly). However, the only notable appearance of them in my recall of history is the rescue of the city of Vienna (and probably the rest of Europe) from an Ottoman siege some 400 years back.

The name itself is of Attic Greek origin and means 'the crowned one'.

I like this Q&A format.

Also, I understand that all of these guys will have something substantial to say, assuming the right questions are selected (ie. those that can be answered with something other than 'soon' or 'maybe' or 'more information can be found in the upcoming novel 'The Web of Arachnos').


However, while the selection of people to Q&A is nice, it's very broad. At the danger of someone reading this, I'd like to suggest something along the lines of having 'AT Reps', ie. people from the Dev or Mod team who are dedicated to a single AT and specialize in that AT and the community, especially with regards to such questionnaires.


Why? Heh. Go to the AT forums. Personally, I mostly play Defenders, so these are the guys I understand. There are prevalent trends on these boards which I agree with, but which run completely counter to opinions gleaned from other AT boards.

More importantly though, each AT, in some cases even every possible combo of sets within an AT, offers a different playing experience, which is great but basically results in the fact that dedicated AT specialists seem to end up understanding their AT's workings better than some (generalist) Devs. While that is understandable -I don't expect Statesman or Geko or whomever to be omniscient- it often seems to create the feeling of the Devs not 'getting' a particular AT or its finer points.

Getting a dedicated POC per AT might make many interactions a whole lot smoother than they'd otherwise turn out to be. Especially if it can keep States from having to scramble to make a soothing post on no sleep and tossing out incomprehensible numbers for powers (as in the Ice Tanker thread where the statements from his two posts don't go together).

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One thing about the Rave: As Supa Trolls spawned, they just ran willy-nilly out into Sky. And it was a LOT of Trolls. Isn't that just a bit too dangerous for the players? It's basically like getting trained by the game. Wouldn't comment on it if it wasn't for the fact that there were so many Super Trolls spawning.

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I know we're supposed to bring our own thing to the table, but hey, I really have nothing negative to say here so why post... er...

Anyways. I thought the Supa Trolls running off into Skyway was the point. They need to be stopped to keep them from endangering the lowest-level players (and the civilians) in the area. Unlike other events (Lusca most importantly; Paladin for the most part as he usually gets destroyed before being built) which can simply be passed by when they happen, the Rave seems to be designed as an aggressive event.

Which is great. Wonderful. I'd love to see more of this, but I believe it's going to get tough outside of the two SCs, because at the higher levels, a single level difference seems to mean much more (to me anyways) than in the pre-20s.

Btw, Vennence, Virtue was 'elected' as the 'unofficial RP server' back at the end of Beta. That's where a lot of folks congregate. Most people new to the game won't know that though, and RPers CAN be found on most any server. Likewise, you'll unfortunately also find... other people... on any server.

I think I haven't played on Virtue in well over half a year to be honest, all my characters there being mothballed in favour of Pinnacle, the RPC and the CCCP. Not to mention that Pinnacle is also the unofficial (? or even official) drunk server.

(And no, not trying to start a server argument here, just pointing the above poster in directions of RP players that I'm aware of.)

Most players are heterosexual males. Give them the choice between a blonde and a big buff guy and well, it's not really an issue.

Personally, I used to like going to GC, but ever since they put the Arena there Broadcast is even worse than in AP thanks to all the PVP kiddies.

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Never mind the fact that Force Fielders actually have a straight-out direct damage attack in their Primary. That alone -no matter whether you like or dislike it- would lead any reasonable person to presume that they were not meant to just stand around and update their bubbles every few minutes, End allowing of course.

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Um....No. No they do not. If you are suffering under the misconception that any FF power has any use whatsoever as direct damage you are *sadly* mistaken. Force Bolt does half the damage of Brawl for twice the recharge. That's one quarter Brawl DPS... Repulsion Bomb does even less than that. That is not direct damage in any meaningful sense.

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I am not suffering from any misconceptions. Whether useful or not is not part of the point I was making. Consider it, if you will, an inverted Power Bolt or whatever. Knockback is the Primary effect, damage the Secondary.

Point is, it is a direct (damage) attack in a Defender Primary and as such evidence that being a Defender is not all about renewing bubbles and heal-spamming, by design and as opposed to what some ADD Blaster tells you. Since you don't seem to agree with that, I guess we're just from different sides of the Defender fence and leave it at that.

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Even a forcefielder (especially forcefielders!) can contribute with blasts and power pools, and that's assuming they have none of their more specialized primary powers.

What you describe is not "being an empath (or FF defender)". It's being lazy.

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Never mind the fact that Force Fielders actually have a straight-out direct damage attack in their Primary. That alone -no matter whether you like or dislike it- would lead any reasonable person to presume that they were not meant to just stand around and update their bubbles every few minutes, End allowing of course.

Never mind the ability to solo stuff. That's really the main reason any Defender, no matter how group-friendly should have at least some offence.

It's not like I really need a group to quickly get that cape/aura/costume slot mission done and then run to Icon where I'll be trying out stuff for the next half hour anyways. Not to mention those days where you just have to wait to find a proper group. I'd rather be street sweeping than standing by the Tram and refreshing the Team Seek window.

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I'd throw the tanker to the wolves and take 7 of any defenders (except bubblers, sorry guys), preferably some rads and darks, AS LONG as they had actually taken and slotted their secondaries! A defender without slotted blasts is handicapped.

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I've heard this mentioned a few times. Are there really that many Defenders without slotted Secondaries out there? Seriously, the thought would never occur to me. Despite the few 'True/Pure Healer/Emp' people I see on the boards and on Broadcast, and admittedly despite some people that seem to think that every Defender should not only bring their Primary Buffs/DeBuffs but also the Teleport, Stealth and Leadership Pools to the table I just never saw the point of not having any proper offence.

On the other hand, I can see about... oh... one argument against majorly slotting the Secondaries if you're a Dark/Storm/Kinetics Defender -- you can already boost your damage with your Primary, getting you in Blaster range while soloing. On a team, you might end up being too busy Buffing and Debuffing to get off more than one or two attacks with any regularity -- I usually run 2-5 toggles when on a team and I don't want to risk any of those dropping at a crucial moment, so blasting away is not always an option. But this, of course, concerns the mid-level game. Things will be different in the 40s I guess.

Mark that he's talking about Dark/Dark.

The AOE Immobilize would be Tenebrous Tentacles from Dark Blast. One of the niftiest powers in all of the Defender Secondaries IMO.

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Raising the defender secondaries would lead to offenders outdamaging blasters. However, granting some kind of damage boos in force field and empathy's primary would help balance things out. Say they add a 10th power.

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This is the problem with defenders. Period. I asked states about this in a PM. Basically raising defender damage was out of the question, because they feel it will make blasters less needed....but the problem is this is exactly what is happening to Defenders from a Controller point of view.

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But also keep in mind that the Defender would have to apply much more End than the Blaster to simply even the score, much less outdamage them. I've never been a numbers person, but both Tar Patch and Freezing Rain use up a goodly chunk of End, and that added with the attacks that give less bang for the End comes in at a nice sum. Not to mention that in the time the Defender fires off Freezing Rain, the Blaster gets to chain one more attack, probably evening them out.

Wait, I just did the math. Unless I'm mistaken (see above, not a numbers guy), FR and TP add around 30% to the base damage of an attack.

Blaster Attack X = 100

Defender Attack X = 66
*Defender Debuff Y = 1.3
= 66*1.3 = 88

If Defender Secondaries got bumped to 75% of Blaster Primaries, it would look like this:

Blaster Attack X = 100

Defender Attack X = 75
*Defender Debuff Y = 1.3
= 75*1.3 = 100

That's two powers for the Defender to achieve the same the Blaster is achieving with one use of the power. Never mind that the Blaster has access to Build Up and that if they're on the same team, the Blaster also gets the benefit of the *1.3 Debuff bonus putting him at 130 vs. the Defender's 100.

If Defender Secondaries got bumped to 80% (both 75% and 80% have been floated here as the comparative level of other Secondaries, no idea which one is more correct) then the Defender could achieve a rough 107 end result -- with a combination of two powers. That alone makes the example as flawed as the one where the guy compared FF on a Defender vs. FF + Invis on a Controller.


While I obviously have a different favourite resolution to the whole issue, this course of action does not seem as catastrophic as it is being made out to be. Sorry.

I agree with a lot of stuff that has been said already.

Some of this stuff is mantra on the Defender boards, such as a lot of Defender Primary effects not being overly visible, aside from Heals and maybe damage buffs. I keep running into people who think Freezing Rain is simply an AOE DOT. When I tell them what it all does, they usually end up slack-jawed. Tar Patch, people get easier for the simple fact that the affected mobs get a red shield on them. A simple matter of updating graphics to always unmistakably indicate which buffs/debuffs are on an enemy would certainly go a long way to change the perception of Defenders.

Add to that (another mantra) that no Defender primary plays like another and you're expecting a very steep learning curve out of a certain type of player (ADD Blasters for example). Hell, I have met Defenders who were not even aware of what their powers all did. Kineticist tells me he feels like he's not pulling his weight. My answer is that I'd be happy for Speed Boost alone. He thought it boosted movement speed only. Better documentation and -again- more obvious power effects would go a long way here, too.


Now, the real problems as I see them. This is gonna take a while.


Yes, Defenders get the Dark Primary and the Dark, Rad and Psi Blast sets exclusively. But in overall function, both their Primary and Secondary are direct extrapolations of other sets in the game. Controllers and Blasters share a set list with Defenders and Tankers share one with Scrappers, but only Defenders share both set lists, making them -obviously- easier to replace on a team, even if a Controller's effects will be slightly weaker and they won't have Dark.

My solution to this issue would be... radical. Change the Secondaries of both Defenders and Controllers to be a bit more unique (maybe change Scrapper Secondaries while you're at it so that no set exists twice in the game, but I'll leave that to the Scrappers to decide).

For Defenders, take out two or three blast powers and replace them with comparatively higher Damage per End/Recharge melee attacks, or PBAOE. Why? Well, I fielded this idea on the Defender boards and while the thread was not a hot topic, basically everybody agreed that Defenders, more than Blasters, could actually put melee attacks to good use. Kineticists in particular would love that. Also, possibly add in another Mez or Root -yes, I know, there already are those in there, and I can get another one through an APP but both of these options only open up at higher levels, eg. Tesla Cage at level 28 for an */Electricity Defender, which equals 27 levels of anchors running away and aggroing faraway mobs- ideally a different one from the one already present in the set. Hell, */Ice Blasters get PBAOE sleep; an amount of control not achieved by any kind of Defender, except Dark/*.

Likewise, the Controller secondaries would need to get a little bit stripped of some of the niftier -or for them pointless- powers. Maybe make the 2nd power in the Controller primary a direct damage power so they get some low-level soloability, maybe add even more control of a different kind as a backup.


Radical, and potentially a bit of work (though at least for the Defender Secondaries, you could simply raid the corresponding Blaster Secondaries), but providing each possible character combination with a bit more uniqueness would in my opinion go a long way to enhance replayability and vary power choices.


On the note of power choices. How many characters past level 30 are in the game that have not both Hasten and Stamina? Well, I'm not planning to get Hasten on my Storm Defender or Stamina on my Kineticist, for different reasons. On a Blaster or a Defender with less toggles, though, I'd definitely always go for Hasten. And then Stamina, unless you have an End-generating power. Both together allow you to use your powers more often and for a longer time, resulting in finishing missions or just battles more quickly. Who doesn't want that?

Coupled with high-level damage output, particularly the AOE Blasters mentioned elsewhere in this thread, it simply means that particularly DeBuffs become less effective or pointless as the game progresses while Buffs become more effective since they last for more kills if mobs get killed faster.

My problem here is, I like Hasten and Stamina overall. I find it sad that they become almost necessary since they improve game and character progression so immensely. Still, if anyone can sacrifice those slots, more power to them. The only way I could think of to make Hasten a bit more balanced without 'nerfing' it would be to put it on the level 20 spot of the Speed set, replacing Whirlwind and putting up a different level 6 power in its stead.

I just don't really like that idea. either. One way to tackle the issue would simply be to make DeBuffs more effective than comparable Buffs. At the lower levels, it won't make that much of a difference -a lowly Dark/Dark Defender can one-shot pretty much anything up to a +2 Minion in a Tar Patch with Gloom, even if the DeBuff gets upped- but at the higher levels, it will make these powers more worthwhile.


One last consideration that's really only concerning those sets with anchor-based powers. Power Pools. We have a Tanker/Scrapperish set with Fighting and even two Defenderish sets with Leadership and Medicine. Some people have been clamoring for a Blasterish set, which might be nice, but what would really rock would be a Controllerish set to deal with those pesky anchors just running off when there's no Tank or Controller to keep them pinned (and sometimes even then)? This is, I stress again, just a minor point however.




Finally, thanks for starting this thread, States. While I love my Defenders and would play them even if I had more troubles finding teams (if all else fails I got a great SG to rely on, thanks CCCP), I really appreciate you guys looking at our stuff. I understand that fine-tuning a game such as this is an ongoing process, I'm just happy you're accepting that too.

Oh, and thanks to anybody who actually read this phone book of a post.

Okay, bad wording on my part. Yes, the kilt in 13th Warrior is pretty... out there.

But overall, as far as portrayal of Vikings in other movies goes, you pretty much get them with horned helmets and bear furs exclusively. Not to mention that they seem to live on their longboats all year long. 13th Warrior is still a few dozen times above those kinds of things.

The book is a different matter entirely. Hence my wording of the book doing a better job at dispelling prejudices.

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For all known facts, Judaism adopted the idea of the good/evil duality during the time of Babylonian captivity. There, they were exposed to Persian Zoroasrianism which centered around the duality of light/good as embodied by Zoroaster (Zarathustra) and dark/evil as embodied by Ahrimaan.

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Which drew from the same Indo-European sources as did the Greek material. The ancient Greeks had very highly developed sense of virtue and of evil. They were not a society decaf sugarfree-sweetener soy-milk latte sipping, ricecake-nibbling undergraduate "intellectuals" who congratulated themselves on their moral relativism. They might have had a different moral code than did we, but they had one, and it could be quite strict in some matters, quite un-enlightened and absolutist.

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Oh, certainly. I don't think you can have any form of cultural or social unit, clannish, tribal or otherwise, without some idea of guidelines. As soon as they surpass the practical and obvious, you enter the territory of morals. But there was one poster who suggested that the whole good/evil duality was essentially Christian in origin.

I just meant to point out that they inherited it from the Jews who in turn copied it from the Babylonians. Zoroastrianism in turn didn't come to pass in a cultural and ideological vacuum I would assume, not to mention that the Jews already had moral codes before that time. I haven't read the bible in a while, so I can't recall in which order they come up, but there have always also been rules for ethical behaviour in there, starting with 'don't eat from that tree', basically.


That said, I think the argument was not made for or against ethics. I believe the point was that while yes, Zeus in particular often acted unethically -I'd call him a spoiled brat- the Greeks obviously had a detailed moral code, they lacked the division of 'utter evil' and 'utter good' with little to no gray areas in between as many branches of modern Christianity teach it.

Rather, as suggested by many Greek tragedies -Antigone being the most exemplary one I can think of- their conflict was, as Kant would put it, one of duty vs. inclination. I'd assume that at least some people reading this thread have no idea what I'm talking about so let me recap the story of Antigone briefly:


Antigone resides in the city of Thebes. She is engaged to the son of the city's ruler and having the time of her life. Her brother in turn is an officer (general even?) in the army of an enemy city-state that eventually attacks Thebes. The attack is repelled, and Creon, the ruler of Thebes, declares that as retribution for the vile attack, the dead bodies of the attacking army are to be left outside the city walls for the wild animals to maim and desecrate them. Anybody who breaks this ruling is to be punished by death.

However, by custom, Antigone is responsible for seeing her dead buried properly. It is her duty to do so. Conversely, the ruling of Creon and the penalty of death do of course scare her. She wants to live, happily, with her fiance. Hence it is her inclination not to do so. Others around her both recognize her duty but present their own arguments as to why she should not break the law and suffer the penalty.

While we could probably attribute the labels of good and evil to this dilemma, we will very probably have to admit that there are good arguments made for either case. Creon's ruling, while harsh, is understandable, and there would be no direct shame in heeding it. One might say that Antigone's brother brought this fate upon himself and she might be justified to -literally- let him rot.

How she chooses in the end is of no importance to the overall question. The main point is that she is presented with a no-win situation and simply has to make the decision that allows her to achieve peace of mind despite the consequences.


If anybody is still reading this, thank you. I know it's getting a big long at this point but I think most people reading this thread have a heightened attention span. I think the example illustrates my point. Ethics, yes, but the focus is more on the personal decisions of humans in the face of ethical dilemma than whether they chose 'good' or 'evil'. The essential problem is very probably -as has also been pointed out- that both the moralities as well as the laws we grow up in are mostly shaped by Judeo-Christian ethics and many of us will therefore find it harder to interface with a divergent moralistic structure.

Simply said, lumping things into 'good' and 'evil' comes easy to us because we're used to it. Other cultures had different ideas. A modern-day man however (Statesman?), imparted with ancient power, would very probably be bound by the ethical system he knows rather than the belief systems tied to that old power.


There, done. Hope any of this was understandable.

On the whole Viking issue. Some people already said similar stuff, but I thought I'd spell it out a bit more clearly.

The way I learned it in school is that the term 'Viking' actually refers to an activity and those partaking in it rather than a people. The people would for the most part be the Danes. Those nice people who used to drop by England every once in a while, with a central king and a more or less organized army.

'Going Viking' or whatever the proper term was meant to go on a raid. While certain people subsisted on plunder etc. -much like, say, Corsairs in the Mediterranean or Buccaneers in the West Indies- they did not represent their people, or their culture. Or they did in as much as any other pirate did. Oh yes, to translate the term Viking into English, you supposedly only need to replace the first I with a U and it should be pretty clear.

The movie The 13th Warrior and more so the book it is based on, Eaters of the Dead actually render a relatively accurate picture of the Norse and dispel the odd prejudice -- though I can't of course verify the Neanderthal part.

Two notes.

Being 'an' Incarnate might not mean you are the sole vessel for the power of any single God, I would argue. Probably, they are supposed to be more in line with the heroes of ancient Greece. Some of them, like Heracles or Aeneas, were the direct children of a God. Others however (the majority if I recall correctly), like Odysseus or Theseus were simply 'inspired' or maybe 'sponsored'.

While not related, these often had their own patron Gods who would watch over them nevertheless. The tale of Paris comes to mind (still can't believe some American actually gave his daughter a guy's name). He picked Aphrodite as the most beautiful goddess and she looked out after him above and beyond granting him his one wish. In other words, there could be more Avatars of Zeus (for example) running around, not just one in the US.


Also, if we go by this theory of divine inspiration, then we don't even have to assume that Recluse is inspired by a Greek deity. Of course, the helmet design would suggest it, but it might just as well be that he is an Avatar of Kali or Shiva (as the extra 'arms' would suggest), and there may well be others out there. Once you include obscure sects from every religion that has ever existed, the number of Gods becomes Legion.



Unneeded Sidenote: Earlier in this thread it was suggested that the concept of 'good' and 'evil' as associated with the divine is Christian or Judeo-Christian in origin. That is not so. For all known facts, Judaism adopted the idea of the good/evil duality during the time of Babylonian captivity. There, they were exposed to Persian Zoroasrianism which centered around the duality of light/good as embodied by Zoroaster (Zarathustra) and dark/evil as embodied by Ahrimaan.

While this is obviously classical susperstition based on the fact that at night, without fire, most predators would be superior to humans; that you cannot see at night and men fear what they do not know etc. it might well be the added moral element that allowed the Jehova cult to develop from a Semitic tribal religion into the world's largest organized religion with a myriad of subsects.

PVP? Bleh.

I don't need the SSOCS.

I need arenas even less.

Anyone who's ever been in a real (not necessarily physical) fight or a competitive sport doesn't need that kind of thrill, I'd think. IMO it mostly appeals to sheltered suburbanites and their children.

I can live with the SSOCS being pushed back, but I can think of about 200 things I'd prefer to arenas. Whatever happened to trenchcoats for example?

As for the first mention I've seen of Arenas? IIRC they were a much requested feature for the game from the pre-Beta boards. Like trenchcoats, actually. But not a pivotal part of the original overall design.


In the end, I'll take whatever Cryptic gives us. Why? Cause it's gonna be free and because it's gonna take the game a notch further. However, I do feel that the installation of Arenas caters to the wrong crowd -- a guy who doesn't have a care about classic superhero fiction, probably has a main character named Legolas the Ninja and played EQ for a year longer than it had ever been conceived of.


When COH should be a fusion of comic and online game experience on all levels.


I merely hope it's just a sidestep, not a change of direction.

Eh, said it before. Somewhere. I'm German, playing on the US servers, like a lot of other guys from around here. Some 80% of German kids pick up English as their first foreign language and learn it from 5th to 10th grade. Even those other 20% who either start out with French or Latin or Ancient Greek or whatnot as their first foreign language usually pick up English as a second or third foreign language. Gamers from across the world mostly communicate in English.

Well, and some talk in numbers, but the Malleus Malleficum covers how you deal with those who speak in tongues. Anyhow...

Most German superhero comic fans eventually end up buying parts of their comics as US imports, because quite frankly, the German editions are years behind and/or there plainly are none. Good stuff like Watchmen or The Dark Knight Returns does of course get translated much more quickly, but I digress.

Can't speak for the French (but frankly, I believe them to be a tougher market than most anywhere else in Europe due to their own huge comics tradition), but the two core target audiences of COH, online gamers and superhero fans, already will have an adequate grasp of English and not require localisation to begin with.

All COH would require would be some actual advertisement in Germany, I'd say, and then they'd flock to the US servers. But hey, what do I know? I only live here.


Only positive thing I can figure out about the idea of Euro servers is that I don't have to deal with little fascist idiots that play supposedly heroic characters based off of criminal contemporary governments. Oh hell, you know who I mean. Ashcroft-Man, KKK Guy, Patriot Act, Hitler Youth Lad, stuff like that.


No, I'm not grumpy, just globally annoyed with the announced shape of things to come. Yes, I can see how it might work better for support. But then again, I was under the ikkusion that support was handled by server already. It did seem kind of... logical to me.


Bleh.

PPS.

On the server issue, again. Why not just allow every player to access X COH servers they can pick themselves, from among any cluster of servers in the world? Just slow server credits like Enhancements.

PS.

I really wish I could just up and relocate to England (though the abundance of British people in Britain does concern me a bit). I'd like to think I'd have the appropriate resume for several of the COH-related job openings. But alas, I got my Landlocked Badge flagged.

Bloody women.

The law forbidding you to display Nazi symbols in Germany basically says that you can't show it for kicks, or 'for entertainment purposes only'. Admittedly, this has in the past hit -for example- US comic books which had WW2 flashback scenes (issues of John Byrne's Namor run, issues of Michael Moorcock's Multiverse on DC's failed Helix imprint).

Basically, the law is in place so that noone can legally 'venerate' Nazi symbols and to assure that everything that touches on the whole Nazi issue in the context of entertainment gets checked on whether it might be hidden Nazi hype. As long as the Nazis are shown as bad guys, though, it's not really much of an issue. For example, they did show the Indiana Jones movies in German theatres, Nazis or not.

But really, lack of swastikas aside, the 5th column has about as much in common with Nazis as the varying Nazi remnants in various Marvel and DC comics (like HYDRA, Baron Strucker, Baron Zemo, The Baron -- why the hell are they always barons anyways?).

I'd presume if NCSoft made sure and approached the German authorities, there shouldn't be an issue with that. After all, you fight the 5th, you don't join them in the game. And there are no big Swastikas on the COH retail box, are there?


On the server issue. I actually don't mind playing the Yankee servers. More space for me when I have time to play.

I like it.

But of course, we'll have to see how it works. Love how passionate everyone is about the game, but seriously, making assumptions for better or worse is mostly pointless at this point. Long as this doesn't turn into Equipment Quest, I'll give the Devs the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. And when proven otherwise, they're usually quick to correct any problems.

Can we at least wait until the system's in the Training Room or we hear some more details?

Most all of this has been mentioned, just resummarizing and giving my own opinions.

M&M is a fast-paced and terribly imbalanced beer and pretzel RPG. Good if you want to dive headlong into the action and don't mind imbalances between characters in your group.

Champions is a highly detailed basic grid upon which you can build virtually everything. However, the basic HERO rulebook is as thick as a phonebook and probably as dry to read the first time around. Once mastered though, I'd guarantee you that every player will get exactly the abilities they want without needing to rely on the GM too much.

This is not to be confused with Champions: The New Millenium which is based on the faster but vastly inferior Fuzion system. That said, I think TNM has the better background of the two games, but since it's set in the near future it won't help you.

GURPS is the same, to a lesser extent. The thing with GURPS is that the basic system is less well-defined, requiring more GM input during character creation and/or extra rulebooks treating the genre you're dealing with.

Adventure now is probably closest to what you're looking for. Set between the World Wars with three types of 'superheroes' (only one of which are classical superheroes in the sense of the Continuum -- Adventure is in its own timeline followed by Aberrant, a four colour superhero game and Aeon/Trinity, a Psi Powers SciFi game; Adventure offers the choice to play extremely skilled (or lucky) normal humans, proto-Novas (superbeings; they vaguely equate to the idea of Mutants as presented in X-Men) or proto-Psions.

It's a great game but heavily tied into the timeline of the three interlocking games and only a third of it is dedicated to actual superpeople. In other words, you might have to scrap some of it to make it fit your ideas.


I'd actually think Champions is what you want to go with, for several reasons. One, you can make absolutely sure every player gets what they want without imbalancing the game or your group. Two, it's easy to expand your abilities in many different ways. You said your players would start out relatively low-powered. Champions will allow your characters to grow in a completely non-linear fashion. Meaning you don't buy power X and as your character gains experience, all of power X's statistics increase a little bit. Rather, you can choose to invest in the power packing more well, raw power, or use it at a greater range, or over a wider area of effect. Other games offer similar ways of doing this, admitted, but none as thoroughly as Champions does.

To restate, Champions is the surefire way to let your players get exactly what they want. Only downfall is, it might take a bit of work to get there as everybody needs to get into the basics of the system.