Kitsune9tails

What about making the steam systems entirely contained (so no steam is venting to the environment) and 'simply' insulating the robots so well that none of the internally generated heat (well not more than 98.6 farenheit) reaches or is detectable from the outside?

I am more concerned with how he deals with the weight/mass, unless he is using some kind of gravity generator. Although I suppose the automations could 'simply' contain less than 200 lbs total of water, rubber and brass...maybe they are all made from advanced plastics and hydraulics?

How about this thought:

Nemesis can create telepathic robots (even Asimov had those) not only because he is such a genius, but also because he has access to future technology more advanced than Rikti science due to his Time Travel.

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Do the Rikti have no concept of villains? Wouldn't an attack from a dimension that was no threat to them up until that point make them go "hmm?"

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I imagine that with a telepathic society, there isn't as much need for investigative experts. You get attacked by this guy who enters via a Portal, you read his mind, and his entire thoughts and memory chronicle a beleiveable plan to commit genocide upoon your race (including reasons why this won't be in the minds of random peopl you might kidnapt to verify the story).

What do you do? You report it to the authorities, who then tell you to launch a counter-invasion while there is still time.

I thought Timey Wimey Ball was for when the Time Travel rules were internally inconsistent to a series of stories (City handwaves this by implying that different methods of time travel potentially have different effects on the base timeline, if there even is such a thing).

It's possible to have Time Travel stories where the rules are consistent, the characters are of normal intelligence, and yet it isn't an I Win button at the same time.

Usually because in those stories there are two or more people with Time Travel of similar intelligence and the consequences of the travel are not easily predictable. Also, often, there are limits on the time travel itself (such as the number of times you can coexist, or the precision with which you can reach a particular moment).

Ever see Primer ? Time travel one-upsmanship with consistent but limited time travel.

A person with a brain and time travel wins...

...if there are no limitations on the time travel, time travel alters the One and Only Timeline, and they are the only people out there with brains and time travel.

Otherwise you end up in endless wars of "I killed your grandparents 'first'!"

He's an excellent writer. Just ask him

Word of Gawd is that there is a 500 page Story Bible (written by Manticore?) and has been since Day One.

Of course, it seems that not everyone consults it, or perhaps that it is lacking in some details. It probably says something to the effect that "Nemesis primarily uses Steampunk technology" without going into too much detail about what that is or how it is to be presented.

I think this is a game created for a world created for a game.

Any perceived 'thinness' to the material is probably due to the fact that the world/game is intentionally designed to be iconic and generic rather than specific. Got to have an evil high tech corporation, must have Nazis, must have evil sorcerers, etc.

I think that's better than not having, say, evil aliens, because you'd hjust have to put them in due to fan demand sooner or later

EDIT:

I think the main thing that has hurt the 'feel' of the City IP over the years is that there is not what I would call a clear progression to the enemies.

It is not immediately apparent why Family should be more powerful than Warriors should be more powerful than Trolls, for instance. I think it's given a lot of people the impression that City is on a much lower power scale than I think they intend to portray.

I like Venture.

That said, I think the reason for this entire thread is not that Nemesis stretches his suspension of disbeleif, but Venture appears to put forth the the idea that Nemesis should stretch everyone's suspension of disbelief.

I for one, don't share that opinion. I am perfectly happy that everyone's suspension of disbelief runs out in various places.

Of course, when you are presenting an arc to Venture to review, his predjudices come along with the package, so you should take that into consideration before sending him a Nemesis/Time Travel arc.

I'm not sure what the fact that Nemesis' technology is 'steam powered' has to do with anything anyway. I'm not that far up on Nemesis lore, but is there anything in his lore that prevents him from using fusion reactors to power microcircuitry? Is there anything saying his creations are all made from brass, as opposed to special plastics, ceramics, or alloys?

This does not keep me from having my own pet theory about Nemesis: that he and the Clockwork King are one and the same. THAT would explain why his more advanced creations have detectable thoughts. In fact, that could also explain why Time Travel is not an 'I win' button for him: his conflicted, multifaceted mind is a House Divided.

In any case, there is no denying the Rule of Cool: you just have to remember that not everyone finds the same things to be Cool.

I just went through "Hero Therapy" and throughly enjoyed it!

I only have a couple of nitpicks.

It kept seeming to me that the "Little Dream People" and "Little Nightmares" should hav been called "Inner Demons" due to their design. Take that as you will. It also seemed that it might be appropriate to give some of them fear/mental powers, although I can see how that could be annoying, gameplay-wise.

I especially liked having the Therapist there as an observer. It brought out the feel of things very well and made the whole adventure seem more interactive.

I kind of wish the theme of the people in your mind thinking they were real and not imaginary could have been expanded upon. Perhaps in a sequel? Kind of a Red King sort of thing?

Alternately, you could try to give them dialogue that 'seems reminiscent' of the times you fought them before, or which are spurred off of why they are populating the dark recesses of tyour mind. Things like, "I made you afraid of doctors alll over again!" for the Vahzilok.

It did seem that the scary librarian was a bit specific (not to the point that it bothered me, just that it occurred to me). You might consider making her a bit more generic, such as a 'scary old lady'.

Vanity seemed perfect. Her line about freaks was golden.

And whose Secret Shame isn't a Japanese schoolgirl with a camera? Er, I mean...moving along now...

And The Door was also very good, kind of a 'mysterious unknown/stranger' archetype.

I gave you 5 stars. I can't really think of anything wrong with the arc that doesn't seem extremely subjective. Good work, 'doctor'!

I hereby present your choice of the arcs in my signature for your review.

Try coming to the regular Test, but yes, the Test Server has a tiny population compated to Live.

Works for me. Perhaps 10 arcs, plus 1 arc for every 10 different authors whose arcs you complete?

Don't want it just to be start-and-quits, or let people unpublish/republish arcs to run up their totals, or we may invent a new form of grinding

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Yeah, the problem would be having a limit on the "recommended" list. I've 5-starred more than ten arcs. Although I do like the idea of having a box you can tick to indicate why you liked the arc.

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I think there needs to be SOME limit, so you don't end up with every arc in the MA being 'recommended' at once (per the 5-Star SGs and cartels). However, I am not married to the idea of this number being 10.

What limit would you set?

I don't doubt that there at least one Pollyanna out there that thinks that absolutely every arc in the MA is utter gold, but there should be some limit to keep the 'recommended' lists meaningful...and readable.

You make some good points.

But the thing is that in the proposal, downvoting someone does not hurt them in any way.

There are no visible star ratings (I guess I didn't make that clear) so all you see is how many people have played an arc versus how many people have recommended that same arc.

The idea is to shift the focus from which arcs everybody else likes to which arcs are like by people with tastes similar to your own.

So, how about this:

When you exit a mission, you are given a few options:

1- I disliked this mission.
2- I liked this mission; please award the user 15 tickets.
3- I recommend this mission; award the user 25 tickets and add it to my 'recommended' list.

Adding an arc to your recommended list requires you to click at least one check box indicating a reason for your recommendation, such as story or challenge quality. You can recommend one arc per hour.

You can only have 10 recommended arcs at once; if you recommend an 11th, you are prompted to drop a different arc out of your list (they keep the tickets). You can also simply revoke a recommendation for an arc.

A user viewing one of your arcs in the MA can click a button to view your list of recommendations, and a list of users that recommend the arc they are viewing.

They can also search for a list of arcs that have been recommended for a particular aspect.

Each arc shows a list of recommendations/plays. An MA tab can be configured to show arc in order of most to least recommendations (or the reverse).

Does this sound like a good proposal?

IMHO:

quits/finishes info: Bad and griefable.
deaths/finishes info: bad and griefable.
"You have not played this mission log enough to rate it.": Cuts down on legit ratings, and does not impact deliberate griefing.

I am more and more getting the idea that we should have a way of seeing what arcs people actively LIKE and WHY, and being able to couple that with a list of players with the same preferences.

Who cares if a lot of people dislike an arc, if people with your similar preferences like it?

Hudson Hawk died at the box office, but it's one of my top favorite movies.

Thanks!

Hydro, could you please edit your post to mention who you're quoting? Since it's a reply to me, it makes it look like I said those things, and that's not how I feel.

Or you could log on a 50 with a tray full of rezzes if you wanted to grief an arc.

Besides, people quit arcs for many other legitimate reasons besides dying.

I think the down side to not having a HoF system is not being able to give out HoF slots.

On the one hand, the players hsould have some means of giving out slots ot other players whose work they like. On the other hand, some people ruin things for everybody else, so we can't have nice things.

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How would "recommendation tickets" work? How would you get them, how many would you get?

The thing is that the rating system is not and can never be indicative of quality, because it is not and can never be capable of predicting how much YOU are going to like a particular arc.

Another Fan, for instance hates arcs with too much story and prefers gameplay challenges. He is legitimately never going to rate 5 stars on the same arc that Venture would. If Venture was the be-all and end-all arbiter of what got Hall of Fame, Another Fan would be here posting about how much Hall of Fame arcs all suck.

I think the only system that might be meaningful is along the lines of what another poster offered:

- Each player can have a certain number (say 10) arcs on an "I recommend these" list. If your list is full, you have to bump something to put another on. Perhaps disallow putting your own arcs on there.

- Have some ready-made check boxes for why you recommend those: 'great action' 'emotionally gripping plot' 'challenging gameplay' and the like. These should be searchable.

- You can choose a player and see their list of recommended arcs.

This allows you to find and play arcs that are liked by players of similar taste, instead of finding that all of the 5 star arcs are farms, or have too much text, or are all Mary Sues or whatever your peeve is.

There is a downside to this: your friends bugging you to put their arcs into your list. But I think it is still infinitely better than what we have now. No stars, no griefing, and at least the 5 star cartels would be easily identifiable.

Thoughts?

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The other is that it's pretty clear, from the fact that she never speaks in sentences containing more than one word, that Fu is chipped or mind controlled or a Nemesis Automaton or something along those lines, and there's never any indication as to who she is really working for or what she really is.

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This sounds like the character Fujin from Final Fantasy 8; the author may be using an Expy or homage to that character.

If so, the Fujin from Final Fantasy was a normal human (bioengineered, I beleive, but it's a long story); the single-word-sentences was just an affectation of hers.

It would still be easy to go into a mission with a level 1 newbie and die a bunch of times to greif someone.

I like the idea of a reccomendations list, possibly with some ready made check boxes to say why it was recommended (which would be searchable criteria). Things like "Good story" "Challenging combat" or "Innovative System Use".

Another feature that might be good would be to choose a player and get a list of their recommendations.

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...They need to remove the ability from players to downrate an arc at all. Either give it a "thumbs up" or no rating at all. You'll be able to see if there are a significant number of people that liked the arc, not some average that can be heavily skewed by a few griefers.

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This.

Basically, you can:
- Not rate the arc at all.
- Rate the arc as "Good, but not Hall of Fame"
- Recommend the arc for Hall of Fame.

I think a plays vs deaths or a plays vs abandons rating would boith be used to grief.

I also remind all that since the Devs do not announce when they have taken action agains a user account, they could be taking action against the 1 star cartels and you wouldn't know it.

Even if they aren't getting all of the one star bandits, that may because they are busy dealing with 'meow' characters, because I know from RL friends that they are doing that.

I think the point is that a team can do well with "healers" and a team can do well with Tankers.

I think it's more a matter of the team adapting their playstyle to the mitigation they have or want to use, rather than turning up their nose at either "healers" or Tankers.

Use what you have to the best effect.

This looks AWESOME!

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I'd also like to see genuine level brackets implemented, toss this auto-EX/SK business in the trash. Or maybe combine the two, 10 level brackets (like WoW's battlegrounds) but you're max level for that particular bracket by the power/stats math. I'd imagine you'd have three, or perhaps four in this game.

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Rather than level brackets, I'd rather see Rep Brackets. Let the auto-sking remain, but the more kills you have with that character, the higher a bracket you are in. Try to match player skill to player skill.

IMHO, the build is more likely to follow the skill than vice versa. With farming, anyone can have a purpled out 50 fairly quickly and have no idea how to get kills.

Granted, you can just duo-box to farm an alt for kills to get your rep up, too...