Jade_Dragon

ALL the Content???

Um... maybe this will help?...

[edit] Darn, beat me to it

One possible explanation is that it is possible to softcap Defense at the same place as Tankers, while Resistance has a hard cap that is much lower. While comparing Defense to Resistance one to one is problematic, you can arguably get better survivability at the maximum from Defense.

Fixed last poster's link

(And so did he)

I honestly think that the devs are going to have to keep making changes to the APPs, even now that they have released it. It still had way too many duplicate powers, even when released.

Then again, I am not sure that we can trust any list of powers. Have you been able to confirm Controllers get PFF in their Mace Mastery?

Actually, once you finish Praetor White's missions, you may need to locate the Contacts for the Loyalist arcs. You will not be given them, you will have to walk up to them and click on them to talk to them.

White will send you to one of them, Cleopatra. Look on the other side of the square from her, that is the other Contact, Washington. He will eventually send you back to Cleopatra.

You can actually find this out by running another character as a Loyalist and finding out where his Contacts are. This will probably also be noted in Player Guides eventually, although so far the info hasn't come out from the Beta forums. Hopefully, at some time in the future this info will make it into the dialogs in the game, as well.

Note that if you were starting a Loyalist character, and wanted to go underground as a double agent in the Resistance, you would need to look for your first Contact (after White) who would be Robert Flores, to the east of the island just beyond the "moat".

Also, only one of the initial Contacts you are given is available to the other side. A true Loyalist wouldn't be able to get into the Underground to get Crusader missions from Ricochet. Likewise there's a Contact for the so-called "Power" missions you won't be able to get to.

[edit] Link to copy of post from Beta. You'll have to scroll down to the part marked "Praetorian Contacts".

I don't plan on buying it until this weekend. I don't expect I will be ready to side switch until then, and can't really create new Praetorians until the store issue is cleared up. Depending on the progress I make on earning Alignment Points I may not buy it for another week after that even.

I do second the previous suggestion to cancel for two months and pay for the upgrade that way, though. It seems like a good way to cover the cost, and you'll be more eager to try it out after being away for a while. Plus, you'll have missed all the crowds rushing in to try it right away.

[edit] Never mind, misunderstood the question.

The background of the updater shouldn't change. The background image for the logo screen itself should change the first time you create a Praetorian character. (It is yellow and white) This should be the same as when you see the title screen change from City of Heroes to City of Villains after you play a villain.

Assuming you have a free slot (and that's currently having some problems if you've bought extra slots) you should be able to check your installation by trying to create a new character. If you only see the hero and villain choices, you haven't installed the code right. If you see a yellow icon between the blue and red ones, you're good to go.

There should be a way to set the login screen with a command line switch. Anyone know what it is?

The Brute "nerf" is in many ways similar to the Dominator "nerf". Brutes have had their highest performance levels taken away for a greater average performance level overall. The biggest impact is to those who were already tweaked for the greatest possible Fury at all times. Similar to those who had double- or triple-Dom.

Meanwhile, this helps those Brutes with slow activating attacks and fewer foes to go up against. And even for a good build that fluctuated a lot between low Fury and the 90% mark, now it should average higher.

By level 10, I've thrown the Jet Pack and Jump Pack on top of that.

I agree, though, while I use the Vet Reward attacks on Defenders, Controllers, Masterminds and Corruptors, as well as those where it fits concept, for the most part I don't really use them. In fact, in two cases I have chosen to use a Revolver purchased from the Market in place of either the Blackwand or Nemesis staff. It's not really that expensive currently to keep buying it and the salvage required. (In fact, I usually find the salvage on my other characters and just mail it to the one with the Revolver)

And the Prestige Sprints, while they are separate powers, aren't really all useful. You really only need one of them. I suppose being able to change the effect is nice, but they're all the same in terms of gameplay.

Mercs

Robots

Ninjas

Thugs is a little tougher, but if alternate henchmen ever come about with Power Customization I think a team of cowboys would be a "good" option. And as mentioned, it could be a "Hell's Angels" type "neighborhood watch taking back the streets" thing.

Zombies and Demons are really the only iffy choices, and as I said in another thread, the Necromancer doesn't have to reanimate his Zombies against their will, he may be a zombie like they are, and they all have found themselves brought back to "unlife" for some reason. They could be a family or a group of soldiers, who now have to atone for some evil they did in the past.

And again, if the Necromancer or Demon Summoner has switched sides and is trying to redeem himself, he may be forcing his dark powers to be used for good instead of evil. After all, as it currently stands you can't start an MM as a hero anyway. You HAVE to be trying to redeem yourself to be a heroic MM. Although in my case, I have a good MM who had gone undercover as an evil Ninja Master, and has now returned to her "true" side.

I honestly never change my difficulty until 10 anyway, but it is surprising no difficulty adjustment NPCs were added to the higher level zones.

Then again, with the difficulty a lot of people were reporting in the Praetorian missions in Beta, they may just be +4/x8 already. (That's a joke, I didn't think it was THAT bad)

Putting it simply, it comes down to this:

1) The Terms of Service for CoH are legal protection for Paragon Studios and NCSoft. It is not intended to give copyright for your characters to NCSoft, it is intended to keep YOU from suing THEM for use of your copyrighted character.

2) Copyright exists in reference to a "work". A different "work" is a different copyright. Thus, NCSoft's license to use your character exists within the work known as City of Heroes. You also grant them license to use your character in other copyrighted works that they may derive from City of Heroes. But the right that you acknowledge as their right to own the "character" is in that work known as "City of Heroes".

3) NCSoft and Paragon Studios own all other rights to all properties present in City of Heroes. Statesman, Paragon City, Lord Recluse, the Rogue Isles, Praetoria, Atlas Park, Crey Industries, the Circle of Thorns, and so forth and so on are all copyrighted by NCSoft. If you reference any of these properties in your character's bio (and even because you interact with them) then that copyright belongs to NCSoft, not you. I assume, if the TOS makes no reference to this, that their ownership of your character in the game means that they grant you the license to use these properties, just as they grant you the right to play your character in the game.

4) Finally, and I feel this is the most important, even though you do grant ownership of your character as he exists in City of Heroes (in the context of being a part of other properties that NCSoft owns) you do still own the copyright to the character yourself. You do not grant ALL rights to the character to NCSoft, in particular your rights as the creator of the character. It becomes a shared copyright, between yourself and NCSoft. What rights you do surrender are mainly in the area of what you can prevent NCSoft from doing, but NCSoft does not prevent you from playing your character, or prevent you from claiming it as your own creation.

Really, the best way to deal with the issue is to make sure that your character in City of Heroes is distinct and easily identifiable as different from other versions elsewhere. I have a character, a cyborg, who I originally created for a fanfiction based on another game. I removed all references to that original game in her bio and design, and made her becoming a cyborg a result of a Crey experiment. If I create another version of the character altogether, who became a cyborg in a different way, then she would be distinct enough from the other two versions to be my own property.

If you want to avoid the issue of trademark, then change the name, too. But that depends on whether you want to trademark the name, in the case of my character, her name is her name.

(Note, BTW, the very next line in the quote from the TOS which is so often used as "proof" that NCSoft takes away your rights to your intellectual property. "To the extent that NC Interactive cannot claim exclusive rights in Member Content by operation of law..." The assumption is that merely by NCSoft claiming that it owns the character in question, that is legally enough to force transfer. It is not, that would actually require a court ruling, which is why the next line. Again, the legal text is NCSoft protecting itself from infringing on the copyrights of people who submit content to them)

Since Dark has been around blue side since day one, I've never worried about this. You can suck the souls out of people's bodies, and summon a ghostly servant from the Netherworld. I don't see a big step to Necromancy or Demon Summoning.

There are plenty of heroes who are themselves dead. Maybe the Necromancer didn't reanimate the bodies of the dead, maybe they are, like him, forced to continue on in their "unlife" until they accomplish some good deed.

I have a Ninjas MM that will be going blueside. She's a detective, and her "ninjas" are actually just a neighborhood watch that owe her a favor. She uses the Ninja Master cover as a disguise for moving around the Rogue Isles. Her Oni isn't even really a demon, it's a guy in a costume.

1) Provide animations similar to the Gun-Fu for Dual Pistols to Thugs users. (The animation times are different, so they'd have to be similar but not exactly the same)

2) Provide animations similar to the Thugs users for Dual Pistols. (Again, within the limits of the animation times) Not quite as flashy, standard dual pistol gunfire. Perhaps with something like the Enforcer's Blast Clip in place of Bullet Rain.

3) I second the suggestion for alternate weapon types. An Ice Spear replacement for Ice Sword, for instance. And something I've wanted to see since release: Shadow Maul summoning an actual Maul!

4) Hurl summing different objects, like Propel.

5) Gravity control options that look more Magnetic. Including Propel summoning objects specific to Magentism, i.e., all metallic.

6) Either make Targetting Drone use the Tactics animation (yellow "crosshairs") or whatever Focused Accuracy uses. If it could actually give you the one eye "laser beam" aura from the costume aura options, that would be even better, but I'd like to use it in combination with those options.

7) Give all Stealth options, including Cloaking Device and Superior Invisibility, a "50% transparent" option. Instead of totally transparent. I'd also like to see a "shadowy" form, in which your figure just becomes dark instead of transparent. (Another option would be a "hide in plain sight" that turns you into some other costume, but I have a character that already uses costume options for that. 50% visibility in combination with the costume change would represent that fine)

(At the time I wrote this, I had not seen the "Shadowy Presence" power. That is EXACTLY what I'm talking about with the shadowy form above)

8) Group Invisibility turning everyone into a neutral looking character, or a copy of the caster would be cool.

9) An Eviscerate animation that looks more like Total Focus.

10) An Eviscerate animation that looks more like the old Swipe. ("I'm gonna shred you to pieces!")

11) Energy and Dark animations that use the feet, i.e. martial arts attacks that surround the foot in energy/darkness. Shadow Maul can use the old Storm Kick animation. (Chun-Li style multiple kicks to face)

12) Kinetics options in which you pull out gizmos to create the effects.

I wasn't really sure if you intended to open up the Power Pools to this discussion, but I will go ahead and add some of my ideas there anyway.

1) As previously mentioned, Medicine choices that don't involve pulling out a "tricorder". Drawing a sigil as if casting a spell would be a good alternative, or just the standard Empathy animations.

2) A Cobra Strike-like option for Boxing, a Thunder Kick-like Kick, and the old Storm Kick for Flurry. Plus a Jump Kick that looks something like Eagle's Claw, a leaping kick to the face. (Just shorter) This would go a long way towards making martial arts style Blasters and other non-meleers.

3) Haymaker's alternate animation for Air Superiority.

4) Something for Tough that is not quite so over the top. Shall we say... more feminine?

5) Same for Taunt, not just Challenge and Provoke, but Confront and Taunt in the melee sets, too. Actually, being able to choose from a number of emotes like overhere, buzzoff, getsome, knuckles, point, slash, or even howl and roar would be nice.

6) Electrical/Dark options for Teleport.

7) A Hasten option that does NOT set me on fire. In fact, I've always said the animations for the Super Speed pool should be a "blurring" effect, if that's possible. Sort of the way Flurry blurs the hand movements.

8) This isn't a Pool Power, but yeah, can we have alternate animations for Sands of Mu? Again, I'm looking at Storm Kick's old animation. If nothing else, I'd like to replace it, so Shadow Maul will be once again unique. I realize this breaks the rule of "we try to never change existing animations because more people complain about the change than complained about the old one", but honestly, it's a Vet Power that pretty much everyone gets. It should appear somewhat generic. And as a Natural/Technology origin for the Power it would be a better contrast to the Ghost Slaying Axe, much like the Nemesis Staff and Blackwand.