Frosticus

I think it would be pretty good if every powerset had an alternate animation set where applicable. That said I think it would be unfortunate if DP came out fresh with a second set of animations while other much more deserving sets could use a make over.

I recall BaB's talking about something similar to this with regard to the new spines sets. He said (to the effect of) he keeps them simple and generic so they can fit the largest number of concepts.

Allow me to clarify then.

From what we know (correct me if I misread)
-A classic villain AT (ie brute) can't trade with a Hero AT even if they have "redeemed" themselves and are now a part of Paragon City.
-This same brute can't use WW auction house even though they have become a part of Paragon city
-This same brute can't open up and look at the builds of any "hero" AT's around them

That isn't sideswitching that is interjecting a villain into Paragon City. Nothing new from the co-op zones and no new tech since has existed from CoV release.

If that is satisfactory to you guys then excellent. I'll be the voice of reason until the larger population gets to actually play it and realize how poorly implemented such a system is.

If my brute goes soft and starts willingly saving people then I am a "hero" and I should be subject to all the "hero" S.W.A.G. Instead it sounds like I'll be a villain, doing heroic stuff, but still segregated and treated like a villain while in Paragon.

From the sounds of it my heroic brute will have to travel to a BlackMarket to trade. So even though he picked himself up out of the gutter, I'm still gutter trash?

I wasn't literally saying PS was Cryptic at the time I was saying that based on past work of the presiding dev team certain expectations have been established.

I'm a forward thinking person, I'm expecting more than CoV delivered. They certianly have the staff. I'll probably end up disappointed, but I don't set my sights low.


I know this is cliche, but why? Are they charging less for this expansion? (dunno yet).

Not keen on an aim-less blast set. Though it is really pretty.

read much?

I guess we'll just wait and see who is right, but if my brute in talos can't give a scrapper that just died an awaken then you are losing a lot of points imo.

Additionally the markets just sound like a gong show where Posi is sticking to his guns the way Statesman would despite being wrong, despite everyone saying he is wrong.

Everything else sounds great, like I keep saying. I've already given praise where it is due several times now.

I'm not picking up on a lot of doom, but rather a lot of "this looks great, but hopefully there is a lot more".

I can't help but compare it to CoV, which while a stand-alone expansion is all I have to gauge the quality and quantity of work that PS (cryptic at the time) can produce in a separate retail box. As of right now GR looks puny compared to CoV.

Everything looks really stellar aside from the poor way side switching sounds like it is going to occur, but I'm very hopeful for a lot more. And with the large size of the team they have now I don't think that expectation is misplaced.

Like I said before, I'm just really hopeful that "more to come" is true this time, or the box price is not as much as I think it will be.

With the information so far I'd say it is about 30-40% of what CoV brought to the table. If you can take full advantage of the graphical updates then maybe 50%+. Great start no doubt.

They impress me plenty, did I give indication that they didn't? Like I said though there is nothing in there other than the new graphics that goes beyond a robust issue. Well side switching is pretty nice, but from the sounds of how they are half assing it I hope it is a lot more impressive than it sounds. I mean side switching has been technically possible since CoV was released, so forgive me for hoping they would expand it beyond effectively dropping a hero into the Rogue Islands.

The graphic update is what will keep this game competitive and is by far the biggest feature of this issue/expansion.

I think the idea of elusivity was solid, but picking a value for it in the current environment is probably not a feasible goal.

A lot of powerset standardization would have to occur like removing bonus acc and making sure all AT's have access to similar acc and tohit capabilities. Anything short of that will always result in a group of haves and a larger group of have nots, the complaining will never subside and fotms will still run rampant.

Basically, with the lack of parity when it comes to tohit and acc access that exists in the game if you enlarge elusivity you create a narrow focus of def based toons and high tohit+acc toons that are effective and everything else disappears (by and large). If you shrink elusivity too low defense is rendered "useless" by the population and you rarely see them (outside of their tier 9 at any rate).

Until the chasm-like variance of tohit and acc is eliminated you can't begin to deal with making defense balanced. I mean just look at pve where they have no tohit buffs and very little +acc (for the most part) and they still can't get defense dialed in.

I personally don't want everything to be standard, but Castle has based his CoX career on standardizing things and he has mentioned several times he's no where near through with pvp. I wouldn't be surprised if DR gets turned up on tohit buffs (even though it is already very high) and elusivity gets tweaked up a bit. Standardizing everyone doesn't need to occur on a power by power basis when you can just wrap everything in a cocoon of mediocrity.

The timer was already discussed. It is a flat 5 mins regardless of what you do.

2Billion is a lot, but in terms of time spent you can easily earn that much before you'll get them from drops pvp'ing. Unless you are a proverbial lottery winner.

In all fairness, most CoX players won't even give WoW that much of a try before determining it is not for them.

they have a minuscule chance of dropping on reputation eligible opponents.
zone and arena
yes it is still 5 mins. At one time it would reset effectively gutting the already lottery-esque chances, but now it no longer resets.
faster to buy them. And by faster I mean faster to farm the inf and buy them. Way faster to learn the market and make the inf to buy them.