LunarKnight
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:I'm regularly of the belief that every 10 or 20 years they should do one big event that ends with "and they all lived happily ever after" and start a new universe like the ultimate line. The animated takes on characters due this with great success; I wish the actual comics would follow suit.Originally Posted by Nericus
It's time for Marvel to have their own Crisis level event and reboot the whole blasted Marvel Universe. -
Quote:That's not even close to what happens. Alexander Luthor builds a massive machine powered by the refugees from the multiverse (like Power Girl) and the Anti Monitor's corpse that lets him recreate the multiverse from the fragments of all the variations of Superman that were compressed into the current Earth-1 Superman. Punching through reality was just an action bit that DC decided to use as an excuse for story inconsistencies, not the crux of the "rebirth of the multiverse".
He and Kal-L, the Golden Age Superman, eventually become so angry at the dark and gritty nature of the current DC universe, that Superboy Prime punches a hole through reality. Yup, he punches reality so hard, that it shatters, creating the multiverse, and retconning various story problems, including bringing the 1980s Robin, Jason Todd, back to life. That is the power of the retcon punch.
I still don't really have any hate for Parallax. It's actually a pretty decent explanation for an absolutely terrible terrible story from the 90's. I wouldn't let it slide in say... Batman or anything, but in Green Lantern? Really not that bad of a reveal. Personally, I'd probably hate it more if it was just an explanation for Psycho Hal, but taking it far enough to explain a lot of the other downright stupid inconsistencies in the series bumps it at least above the birthing matrix for me. -
Quote:Massively is about the most negative, vile, hostile worthless community on the net in my experience. Take all the usual drama you get out of an MMO forum and throw them all together in one place where they can argue for their "team" and you get a decent start. It's like a perpetual console war forum; perhaps worse.Originally Posted by BackAlleyBrawler
Wow...are the comments there always so brutal?
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Quote:Generally I think ideas like reverse bodyguard aren't all that popular simply because they don't animate well. They work mechanically, but they don't appear in an easy to understand manner. Grappling is another common RPG tanking mechanic that requires too much animation work to translate happily into MMOs (though it makes a lot more sense in a superhero game than the fantasy types they normally exist in). Most games with the mechanics don't even do it properly in the first place; usually just dropping squishy damage numbers on tanker HP rather than having the attack actually calculate against the tanker's mitigation. The tanker can't really Bodyguard, even if they want to.Originally Posted by Arcanaville
I've always thought that the way this should be managed is to assume that you can only focus your attention on a limited number of things, and things you aren't paying attention to are by definition a more serious threat (because you can't see what they are doing).
In such a model, the heavily armored thing standing next to you is only doing 74 because you are actively trying to make sure he doesn't squish you, while the guy in the robe far away is doing 134 because you're willing to ignore him for the time being. If you elect to ignore the heavily armored guy and try to shoot at the guy farther away, the heavily armored guy would then squish you for 200.
In CoH terms, tankers would only do less damage than blasters *because* foes paid them proper respect and treated them as the biggest threat, not because they *intrinsicly* did lower damage. They would intrinsicly do similar damage, but that intrinsic damage would never actually land unless they were ignored.
The model in my head for aggro and damage balancing has always been the WW1/WWII statistic that most bullets fired by soldiers were intended to prevent the enemy from shooting back effectively, not to actually kill the target (except by chance). In other words, you shoot at something not just to kill it, but to prevent it from using its offense against you. I think that model would work especially well in CoH. The reason why you attack the tanker is not because of taunt, but in effect to debuff their otherwise substantial damage. They are the biggest threat *logically* and not just because of a game mechanic. And this means (accepting that this is not the only issue in PvP) that even in PvP there's a good reason to attack the tanker rather than the defender on a team. By making it the *intelligent* decision to attack the tanker in PvE, you give them a reason to exist in PvP as well.**
I personally think the combination of reverse-bodyguard and an aggro system like this is so potentially interesting, it might even be worth experimenting with it in a game already well-established like CoH. If it were up to me, I'd introduce it as an optional mechanism: something tankers could opt into, or alternatively a new archetype could be created that used the mechanic, to see if players find it superior to the traditional aggro system. If players actually liked it, I'd kick the current aggro system to the curb.
** Although I'm mentioning tankers, the general principle can work for all archetypes: simply ensure that whenever you want a critter to attack something over something else, you give it a good reason to do so mechanically, so its always the intelligent choice, not just an override. Eventually you build a situational table that says critters should attack the tanker under these situations, the defender under those, the blaster under these others, always because its the best situational choice for that critter.
The more damage without aggro concept is interesting. If you need a name for it, I'd call it the Coward's Reward to fit in with the armored knight concept tanking is built around. Run away from me and be struck down is the concept I assume. Solely in PvP though its a very interesting idea, though I'd want to limit ranged options to prevent abusive alpha strikes. Originally I was thinking of it as a sort of universal concept, but as a single inherent style power for a single class it makes a lot of sense. The only thing I'd be completely concerned about is how the system would deal with multi-tank teams and whether that might turn out to be pretty unstoppable. -
Quote:Talking about Aggro with CoH in mind doesn't really accomplish a whole lot simply because the system is so different compared to most MMOs. As stated, Taunts are so universally overriding they largely negate the concept of Aggro as it exists in the mind of most MMO players. It's not necessarily a band thing in CoH though, since Aggro is more a measure of how many mobs hate you rather than whether or not the 1 mob does. In some ways, number of minions equates similarly to number of "hate points" most games use. I think where it breaks down is in the boss/AV range, where a single heavy target needs a little more nuance than a horde of minions.Originally Posted by Arcanaville
That's why my suggestion doesn't quite work right with CoX's current aggro environment. Its possible to make it work using the taunt-effect override mechanism, but since that mechanism has significant hysteresis (you need a very large taunt to override a previous taunt) it doesn't have the fine control necessary to make this work very well. Otherwise, the multiplier for taunt is too high to allow for any real leveraging of the hate mechanism itself in this context.
Outside of CoH specifics, I'm continually disappointed that Aggro has become a stat instead of simply an expectation of programmed enemy behavior. I don't consider WoW to be the bane of MMOs or anything, but I do blame it for allowing players to view Aggro as a stat and micromanage enemy behavior accordingly. Any computer opponent is going to base its action on rules, but making those rules transparent to the user wipes any notion of "intelligence" from the term AI. Enemy behavior should be a learned skill based on prior experience, not something you're queued up on like low HP.
I think numbers in general, as great as they are, tend to break player immersion significantly. I think players tend to forget that the big monster can't "see" that the mage is doing 134 dps to them, while the tank is "only" doing 74 dps. Clearly they should "see" that the mage is the greater threat, and not the shiny armored guy with the sharp sword that's screaming and flailing in their face. People lose the grasp on the idea that monsters attack that which most aggravates them, not the one that's necessarily the greatest threat.
It doesn't help that developers for the most part have started to treating their AI as a mechanic rather than a behavior concept. Again, I use WoW as an example because their raids have increasingly become variations of gaming the aggro mechanics. It's more prevalent in PvP, however, where characters built around AI controlling abilities struggle to deal with circumventing human intelligence. Lots of games, including this one, try to force player behavior by treating taunts as status effects that force a target lock, but that doesn't quite mimic the idea of aggro.
It'd be interesting if tanks were made more of a PvP threat by simply making them aggravating. Forcing the opponent to target the tank for a period of time appears artificial, but I think it'd be interesting if taunt attacks broke the opponent's target lock unless they were targeting the taunter (or someone else who had taunted them) already. If its too much, add a "concentration" style stat that acted as a certain degree of aggravation protection. It would be less forcing the opponent to target the tank and more about annoying the opponent enough to change their target on their own. -
Oh, can't believe I forgot this one:
Read or Die/Read or Dream (R.O.D.): Sort of like a Bond movie, except in this case the British super spy is a bookish girl with the ability to make paper do anything she wants. The original OVA is full of action and bizarre literary references sort of like a Japanese version of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The TV series is fairly different in a lot of ways, but still an excellent show. -
Hmmm... so, first the easy stuff everyone should see:
Classics
Shows that really define the genre for me. Sort of required viewing for most fans.
FLCL - One of the most watchable shows ever. The dub is funny in completely different ways from the sub and at 6 episodes you can make it a movie night and splurge on the whole thing.
Ah! My Goddess: The Movie - The problem with the series is that its essentially a single story beat repeated endlessly. Every version is good, but the movie is really the great one.
Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Evangelion - A trio of classics you should watch just to have something to say in any anime discussion. Of the three, Bebop holds up the best.
Anything Miyazaki - Of these, Spirited Away and Castle of Cagliostro are my favorites.
Voices of a Distant Star - This thing is just incredible in pulling detail out of scale. What's really mind blowing is that it was all done by one guy on his Mac. Of his later projects, 5 Centimeters Per Second is interesting, but not for everyone.
Full Metal Alchemist - This stands out as the only show to go over 26 episodes that I thought was really great.
Gundam - For me, 0083: Stardust Memories is the definitive experience, balancing out the more grounded reality of the original series with some of the more fantastic fun of the later stuff. Char's Counterattack is a great movie, but its gibberish if you're not a fan.
Jump
Big dumb shows that mostly feature exceptionally cool characters beating the tar out of each other. They're way fun but usually dragged down by excessive filler that stretches the thin plot to absurdity. Don't let that stop you from cherry picking stretches of greatness though.
Bleach - Mostly for the Rescue Rukia arc. Ichigo's fight with Byakuya is still 2 of my favorite episodes of anime out there.
Dragonball Z - Blah blah blah Goku shows up and fights the big bad over 20+ episodes of steroid fueled screaming. It's not classy, but its still awesome. Just try to stick to the final fights of each section to keep from going mad.
Naruto - Truth be told, I hated Naruto before the timeskip. This one's hard for me because there's enough plot to make it difficult to cherry pick awesome episodes (though Naruto vs Sasuke on the waterfall is a classic). I much prefer the manga to cut the filler and keep the plot moving.
Gundam Wing - This isn't really jump, and there's not even much filler in it, but its generally a more action friendly, shiny popular take on the Gundam franchise. It's actually a pretty solid, self contained story with excellent robot designs; it just gets dragged down by angst and melodrama, particularly around the main character. It's sort of the Final Fantasy VII of the Gundam Universe.
Personal Favorites
Kino's Journey - There's a really fun aimlessness to this series I enjoy. It doesn't actually go anywhere, but that's in many ways, the entire point.
Excel Saga - This is about the weirdest thing ever made that my mind can still wrap itself around. I assure you, weirder exists, but this is a nice big warning sign before the cliff of insanity.
Genshiken - Basically a show about nerds for nerds. The cast really makes this show shine.
The Vision of Escaflowne - Not to be confused with the bizarrely violent and dreary movie, the TV series is a whimsical flight through one of my favorite fantasy settings ever created.
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumia - Weird show with a great mix of fun and heart. I'd recommend watching it in the original broadcast order, simply because due to the story structure, the big finale happens about half way through the series, leaving the last half to be mostly filler.
Samurai Champloo - Basically Cowboy Bebop retooled for feudal Japan. An excellent soundtrack and wonderful cast make this one of those shows you really have no desire to see end.
Paranoia Agent - Ok, so the last third loses its flair and devolves into... well, I'm not really sure. Be sure to watch the first 6 episodes or so though. They're definitely something special.
RahXephon - Basically, Evangelion retooled with a more likable main character and more consistent and stable plot. It's really good; it just takes a lot from Eva.
That's probably enough for now. -
Quote:Usually what happens is they can offer you the title, but not the prize. Some law prevents the giveaway due to the value of the item or something like that. You could have your arc be called Arc of the Year, but you couldn't get the video card for it.Originally Posted by The_Killbot_5000
As with many above I think that NCSoft not opening their competitions world-wide (considering their international playerbase), is a disappointing move. Although it's never been stated by Paragon Studios we're all pretty certain it's because of the variety of competition laws around the world. I for one think that Posi and the team should find a relatively small cupboard to put the lawyers objections in (and maybe the lawyers themselves) and make all CoH/CoV competitions truly international.
It's not like it can't be done, there are plenty of international sweepstakes and competitions out there in the world, and I suspect it comes down to a matter of cost rather than effort.
Obviously quite a few players would be just fine with that. They want the prestige, not the hardware. It's just really hard to throw a publicity stunt where the winner doesn't actually get to receive their prize.
(Actually, on second thought, I'm not sure its legal to hold a contest where the winner doesn't receive their prize... hmm... I think it all just comes down to being more trouble than its worth) -
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This is the same issue as SG bases and losing them when you cross over: The answer is to have a VG base ready to accept your hero and a SG base ready to accept your villain and switch both.
So.. have a level 50 hero and a level 50 villain ready for both to switch. Or, have several 50s on each side.
Otherwise, you're out of luck. If you only have one level 50, and thus only one side unlocked for EATs, and it switches sides, then you still have only one level 50 and only one side is unlocked for EATs.
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This isn't even how the EAT flag works. I can get a hero to 50 and delete him and I'll still have access to Kheldians if I want. The continued existence of a level 50 character is in no way a requirement for creating a EAT. -
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On a somewhat unrelated note, I just want to take a second to thank you guys for being so positive and excited about this feature that's consumed so much of my life for so long. It's been a very long haul and tremendous amount of work from many people on the team. Your excitement about this feature is making it so much easier for me to continue to be excited about it, and that's making it a lot nicer to get through the final stretches of finishing this issue up and into your hands. I can't speak for the other people who've done a tremendous amount of work on this feature as well, but for me personally...it's a huge deal.
The handful of non-glowing responses I've seen have been very reasonable and more in the realm of disappointed but still understanding. For that I'm exceedingly grateful.
So thanks for staying positive and constructive, it makes reading the forums so much easier and working on this game so much more rewarding.
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I'm just still in total shock over the entire thing. My suggestions for the game have been so tempered by my understanding of the effort required to make them I'm just finding myself continually floored by what you guys are doing with the new company. I keep wanting to bite my tongue on impossible suggestions for powers, but then I find out the foundation for things like alternate animations are already built and want to go into some kind of headless chicken "could you?" frenzy. I think I'm more excited about what this means for the future than the feature itself. Knowing you guys finally have the resources to do huge systemic changes like this makes me very excited to see what the future will bring. -
I'd suspect Frozen Aura would probably be the power to drop seeing as that's the one that does AoE damage. Granted, thematically speaking Frozen Aura seems like a more stalker oriented power with its freeze and flee style.
Honestly, if Ice is that bad, it probably really needs to be ported around just to get the kind of exposure it needs to be fixed. After all, is there any other set in the game that's restricted to just one AT? (minus MM pets of course)
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For what its worth, Containment doesn't work like that anyway.
If what you're seeing is 18 dmg on one activation and 36 dmg on the next, that's definitely a resistance thing. If it were a containment buff, you'd see 18 18 dmg over the enemies head. -
What's wrong with Tanker Ice Melee? Legitimate question here, I have no experience with the set, I'm just curious.
Personally I'd just like Stalker Ice Melee with the Ninja Blade AS animation and an ice sword. -
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Quick question before I get back to work: Do the thorns redraw if you're alternating between fire and thorns attacks?
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Yes, but it's a relatively quick redraw animation in my experience. The nice thing about Fire is that you're not going to switch back and forth all that often. One or two Fire mezzes to start things off and from there the only time you redraw is if you need to reChar something.
I also have Earth/Fire and he's really fun; totally different experience really. It plays a lot slower and safer in my experience and you tend to hang back at range rather than charge into the fray. -
I'd suspect Fire/Rad is generally better. I've got a Sonic/Rad and while I'm really fond of him and totally recommend the combo, I can't say I really notice the additional -Res from the Sonic attacks. I suspect the damage output on Fire would be stronger overall.
Sonic/Rad seems like it works out better in the team support area. I think Sonic's best use of its -Res component comes in the form of debuffing the entire spawn with AoEs, which really only helps out your teammates due to its short duration. -
I have a female Merc MM. I'm almost certain its the same voice as when I've heard male Merc's use it.
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assuming of course it also had the power to make all the mobs venturing near it drunk.
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Flashfire. -
I love Fire/Thorns. It's the closest thing you can get to the oft mentioned melee mastermind. Once you've got Hot Feet running with the Imps you can Flashfire a mob and jump in with your little minions and just start slashing away as they burn. It's stupid great fun.
Also, I have to say it's probably about the most evil feeling toon I've got (possible exception of my Traps MM due to Detonator). Enemies are left coughing and choking at your hold, and while they're struggling to breath you run up and stab them with a giant spike. Most of the time you can be even more wicked and not even bother to finish them off. Just stand their and wait for the poison to finish the job. -
I didn't think the MM says anything. I always assumed the static crackly sound was the voice of the dispatcher replying to whatever my character had said.
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I'd assume it has something to do with the abundance of To-Hit buffs on red side critters. Most notably Arachnos with the Fortunatas.
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Two minutes of build-up for ten seconds of debuff? Yes please.
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Personally I would rather have a -1000% recovery and -160% damage debuff for 10 seconds. Feels like a cop out to do such an extreme damage debuff value.
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-1000% Recovery will leave you completely unable to attack and probably take you out of the fight for FAR longer than 10 seconds. Characters in this game are absurdly reliant on the ability to recover END while animations are playing. It makes -Recovery likely the most lethally crippling debuff in the game. -
Oh, like anyone who's been playing for 5+ years isn't going to know the layout of every single map already :P
Cool stuff. Much appreciated
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I am hoping for some serious Gun Fu ala Equilibrium.
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Technically it was called Gunkata
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This is what I'd like the Tier 9 to be personally:
+30% Defense Buff
-90% Range Debuff
Total invincibility for a while, but you have to run into melee to attack. A PBAoE bullet dance wouldn't be a bad runner up, but I'd prefer something a little more unique. -
The purpose of a freespec is to give players the opportunity to adapt their character to take into account the power and game mechanic changes made during a major release. If you do not use your freespec, then the power/game mechanic changes from that release clearly did not affect you so greatly that you required the freespec in the first place. Letting them stack would go against the purpose of giving them out in the first place.
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I think its mainly because they're AR. They seem to get stuck in rifle mode and don't go back to the Nade. Ideally I'd give them no secondary at all, because I wanted to make sure they were relatively harmless, but that's not an option.
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Primary and secondary powers can be set seperatly have you tried setting the secondary to AR Standard or even something weak like Willpower or regen standard?
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I knew they could be set separately, I just didn't know Regen offered a no toggle, no aura, minimal bonus set on Standard. All the other defensive sets I used had a full set of protection even on the lowest level. I assumed Regen was the same.
Nicely noted and planned to fix. Thanks. As a rule though I don't like giving mez protection to my mobs unless its a bubbler or some other high priority target. Since these guys are AR though I'll live with Resiliance's stun protection, but if they pull out the defiance thing in the future, I'll have to reconsider.