Lady_Sadako

Naturally. The proper term is of course 'Incarnage'.

thundercows

moooooooooooo

So 'turn up the pressure' is... Steampunk perhaps?

Of course they did.

Interesting!

The rod is the Fifth Column. The pair of fives is the Fifth Column from primal Earth teaming up with the Column from Axis America. Iron turning into crystal is the Reichsman being imprisoned, 'then destroyed in evil's den' is the Column originally overthrown by the Council, and the 'bright hell' is Reichsman, who's an Incarnate.

I think the reason you couldn't attack him is that you're meant to talk to him at that point.

You don't actually beat Trapdoor up all the way. He only gets to a certain fraction of his health before yelling that you should stop.

*fast-forward*

Um... yes, it does, actually. At least, for part of that level span (1-20). The missions in GR have features that the missions in regular CoH don't, such as the use of factions, the ability to do 'undercover' missions with different objectives, and (most importantly) branching content that requires you to make moral choices in the middle of a mission.

Based on my experiences, that's another yes, though a qualified one. I was playing some of the new L50 content, the rewitten Maria Jenkins stuff, and went up against the new Siege. Old Siege was basically an energy blaster. However, New Siege had clearly been upgraded, because shortly into the fight I got a huge red text warning that he was about to use his orbital laser of d00m. And an equally huge red target mark appeared right where I was standing. I dived out of the way just as a flurry of missiles nearly turned my spandex clad backside into guacamole, thinking 'eep, this fight isn't going to be so predictable as it used to be'.

You won't have seen this because you didn't play CoV, but the Reichsman battle from the Barracuda SF was designed to be a 'gadget fight' involving special powers and tactical gizmos. It wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but it does prove that the Devs are evolving boss battles all the time.

Technically, you're right; the discipline of writing mission content for MMOs is pretty universally referred to as 'quest design' irrespective of genre.

However, I don't quite see your reason for using generic terms that the game itself doesn't. You don't refer to powers as 'spells' or Endurance as 'mana', do you?

The words on the screen that read 'Focusing on doing a thorough, extended beta test for End Game content' kind of give that away, don't they?

I'm afraid my ears are bleeding now, excuse me.

But you're getting those powers for free. How does worth have anything to do with it?

No. Make the game less boring much.

I am sick to death of the Fitness pool, because taking Swift/Hurdle then Health then Stamina gives me nothing new in my Powers tray to play with. When I've levelled, I want something new, something that goes Zap or Boom or Whoosh, something that makes me think of superheroes, something I can see.

Yes, I know the Fitness pool isn't obligatory, but given that Stamina use is relevant to almost every single power in the game (more so than Recharge, even) taking it just plain makes sense. For that reason, it feels like one of those boring, sensible things that isn't any fun in itself but which you know you really ought to do, like filling in a tax return or using dental floss. I can't wait until it's made inherent, I really can't.

Systems and items? Unlike anything else ever done?

I'm going to drive myself crazy speculating about this...

So wait... does this mean we all now get inherent Swift and Hurdle, instead of having to choose one or the other?

I can't make sense of this. If there's a single update affecting all mission maps, then it's hardly minor. Maybe it means there's a new tileset coming?

What in the world can this mean?

I'm very excited by the mention of 'new systems' that are going to require more Beta time. Content, powers and zones are all great, but new systems are what really keep the game fresh. So, I'm guessing that 'casual paths' means some sort of non-combat advancement or other downtime activity.

I'll have to track down the quote for you, but as far as I can remember, yes it was. I seem to remember the gist of it was that people were supposed to be able to build characters as freely as possible, and so creating any power so mindbogglingly across-the-board useful that people felt they HAD to take it was a mistake. The question was whether changing it at this stage wouldn't make for more problems.

You seem to think that this change is pandering to the players rather than removing an admitted flaw with the game's original design.

They finally managed to implement a 'Team LFM' system?

I should point out I was here from the beginning, so I know how much the above differs from what actually happened.

I also remember why I agreed not to post in healer threads ever again.