Megajoule
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Posts
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Quote:Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
I like World Wide Red because it presents me with a large, complex, well-structured storyline without actually distracting me with pointless gimmicks like five minutes of ambushes or long conversations or timed exits. Because World Wide Red couldn't afford any of those gameplay gimmicks, it had to focus on storytelling, and this it does well. Yes, it's a HUGE story, yes, it can probably be split into three part, but you know what? That's what I like about it. I HATE how so many American shows, both cartoon and otherwise, essentially have standalone, barely-connected episodes you can watch in any order. "Monster of the week" is pretty much what City of Heroes storytelling has become about. You have three missions that correspond to the typical three-act structure - the first mission you find out about the disaster you need to stop, the second mission you chase after it, the third mission you catch it and have a climactic battle, and it's not reference ever again.
I like World Wide Red because it's along story. I like World Wide Red because it's a solid story. I like World Wide Red because it's a complex story. I like World Wide Red because it doesn't waste my time with endless conversations and it doesn't waste my patience with endless gimmicks. I like World Wide Red because it doesn't rely on tricks and attention grabs to tell its story. These days, mission writers have grabbed onto complex gameplay so much that they no longer much care about telling a consistent story that ties into the canon world in general. Everything that happens comes out of nowhere, goes nowhere and is immediately forgotten as soon as it's done.
I am not and have never been interested in the fast food version of storytelling. That's one reason why I prefer anime over American cartoons - because each episode of an anime starts where the last one left off and ends where the next one will begin. This gives me a long, complex, consistent story to follow even if it's broken up into parts, and it allows character development, plot development and plot resolution to stretch over multiple episodes, rather than all having to be crammed into one and rushed like the SSAs are.I have to admit, I'm struggling to reconcile these two quotes. You like long, drawn-out stories... except when you don't?Quote:Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
Since I haven't embarrassed myself lately, I figure I should confess something - I haven't read a book in my life. Not a whole one, anyway, just chapters and self-contained stories here and there. It has more to do with me not liking the drawn-out narrative almost all writers like to use, but my point remains - I don't like to read books. I still love to read stories in City of Heroes. I just prefer those stories to be mixed in with actual gameplay more often than not, or else I might as well just be reading a book anyway. -
I played this again today to see the redside version and got quite a surprise when I busted into the vault!
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Clearly you need to be cured of that antisocial disorder in order to make you a happier, more productive citizen. Here, take this pill and lie back. You won't feel a thing, and you'll wake up with a much better outlook on life. Trust us. We're here to help.
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C'mon, Venture. Surely you, of all people, are aware of the Highly Visible Ninja trope.
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Quote:Congratulations, you have just decreed that only black/white/tan/yellow/blue-eyed/dark-haired/right-handed/tall/thin/non-homosexual/non-diabetic/non-autistic/non-onion-eating people are worthy of life and reproduction.Originally Posted by Kitsune9tails
Another way of putting it might be:
Would it be correct to introduce a medical procedure that prevents people that would vary too much from a "normal" genetic standard from ever being born, in the hope of abolishing certain birth defects.
(Short answer: no.) -
Quote:If accurate, that is a frankly terrifying proposition/prediction, as I guarantee that one or more of the first parties to make such a breakthrough would use it to abolish free will in favor of their own values. Which are, of course, the only good and correct ones, thus justifying such an action for everyone's Greater Good.Originally Posted by Kitsune9tails
EDIT2: Clarifying that I am not advocating any position, simply discussing. I will state that I think that it is something that could come up in the real world some time in the next 5 decades.
If you would like to see a worked example in a superheroic setting, I encourage you to find a copy of the Squadron Supreme miniseries from 1985-86. The titular heroes, based heavily on the JLA, take it upon themselves to start fixing the problems of the world, including "behavior modification" of most criminals and supervillains with a machine invented for that purpose. Naturally, it's soon used for other purposes... -
Exactly. Let's do away with the genes for red hair, for liking certain foods (spinach, cilantro, onions), for left-handedness (sinister!)...
Some things may not be gene-linked, but we can "fix" those too, with memetics. We can condition, I mean convince everyone to think properly and rationally - to despise degenerate music like rap, hip-hop or country, to believe in the right religion or none at all, to hate those stupid hats that some like to wear...
(The myth of objectivism and/or rationalism is that there has ever been, or ever will be, a human being who is perfectly either. There is evidence to suggest that this is not just practically but philosophically impossible.) -
I have a character who got the Rocket Board for looks and concept, even though Fly et al is faster. I'm not bugged by not being able to attack from it nearly as much as I am by being detoggled - not suppressed, but completely detoggled - every time I hop on it.
That said, I understand why Rocket Board is functionally identical (aside from the 3D movement) to Walk, and for the same reason - otherwise, putting in this cool thing would require redoing every power animation in the game. It's so much simpler for the devs to just turn off all other powers instead. -
My AR blaster has been known to shamelessly steal a line from Miller's Dark Knight: "Rubber bullets. Honest."
Even my vengeful vigilante ghost cop has the option of not killing; the bullets fired from his spectral dual pistols can not only be guided into impossible trick shots, but also made to cause no lethal damage (bad guys still feel what it's like to get shot, but wake up later with no holes in 'em).
That said, it sometimes feels like events conspire against his efforts to move closer to the side of the angels - like when he was recently sent to stop a street battle between the Council and Nemesis's troops, and found the bodies of several innocent civilians and brother cops who'd been caught in the crossfire. He "stopped" them, all right. -
Yes, but if you leave loose ends unanswered for players, we'll go INSANE.
(oh, wait...)
Or plant entire groves of Epileptic Trees, but really, that's the same thing.
EDIT: also, why do I suspect that gift basket would (a) take the form of a large wooden spider, (b) be ticking, or (c) both? -
Quote:... it's the size of his BODY. I mean, my GOD man, what do you want?Originally Posted by Lazarillo
That is slightly less "titanic", then I'd expected from the set,
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A dismaying number of people just don't like to read. In games, or at all.
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Was on a PUG yesterday with a level 23 dual blades scrapper who didn't know why a circle was showing up around one of his attacks.
Yeah. -
Quote:Sorry, I confused you with whoever it was that had Manticore cut the proverbial knot with an arrow. Through Marcus' chest. While everyone else stands there all "Originally Posted by TroyHickman
Wait...when did I kill Statesman?
Have I repressed a horrible memory?
"
(Sure, we've all thought about it, but...) -
and now, my thoughts:
I liked the splash page this time around. Numina seems drawn in a different style than her in-game model or even typical comic art; it looked almost art noveau to me, fitting for a character of her (actual) age. Maybe it's just the pose/profile.
My Science! character was paired with a young magician and a brawler when I ran this arc. There was lots of facepalming involved. (Magic and MJ do not get along at all well.) Notably, she had absolutely no idea of who Darrin was when he showed up.
The Rularuu cultists made me think immediately of the Chick tract parody, "Who Will Be Eaten First?"
I blew the last question the Wisp asked because I didn't read the clue closely enough, and assumed that Rularuu's greatest antipathy would be toward his most un-Rularuu aspect, Faathim (who, of course, dwells in the Chantry). It seemed entirely appropriate (and ironic) that Rularuu would label a being of such pure goodness as "a monster".
I took what seems to be a somewhat different route in the last mission; I followed the sound of the glowie and ducked right instead of going to any office, guessed at the middle drawer containing the key (I was right), and then the rest was just a series of alternating fights and portal leaps with a nice scare at the end.
All in all, a fun little arc with some good opportunities for roleplay and reactions. I'll be trying the villainside version shortly. -
You can't make level-based content "secret". As soon as one player completes that content, the secret is out for him (on all future characters) and anyone he talks to.
Now, we can pretend we don't know this, we can try to put up the walls of IC/OOC knowledge, but after a while the doublethink and suspension of disbelief just gets to be too much to maintain.
If the world's story is to change and progress, it needs to do so (and ONLY) over real time, so everyone is on the same page. It means that new players won't have the same experience that old ones did, but trust me, that's already the case. (And I don't just mean the new tutorial or starting arcs; I mean stuff like "run everywhere until you're level 14 and get your first travel power, try not to get killed on your way to your Hollows mission, street sweeping in Perez gives great xp, hope you don't run out of missions in your late 30s".) As it stands, when a player makes a new character and starts doing contact missions, radios and tips, we're moving between stuff that was written in 2011 back to 2004, then to 2007, then back to '04, and so on. And because none of that content ever seems to get rewritten to acknowledge the current state of the world, sometimes it feels like we really are traveling through time, moving between temporal shards as well as zones. -
Quote:Isn't that pretty much EVERY high-profile comic book main-character death, though? Okay, some are (also) about "we've written this guy into a corner and killing and reviving him is the only out we have left, if we want to rehabilitate him before the next universal reboot". (Tony Stark's been through a couple of these.)Originally Posted by Venture
I also got a good laugh out of the YouTube promo bit that basically comes out and says they're greasing a character as an attention grab, which is one of the worst reasons to do it.
Then there's the extremely-temporary, less-than-one-issue "death" like States got between the first couple of issues of the Hickman run. (Faster than Animated Optimus Prime!) This is the sort of death that exists solely for a cover and two splash pages - one at the end of Issue N and a second at the start of Issue N+1.
(Just think, if it'd lasted a bit longer, we could have gotten Kid Statesman, Black Statesman, Alien Statesman...) -
Quote:It's not that. I'm aware it still exists*. I just have trouble, genuine trouble, fathoming the mindset of someone who wants to skip over everything (everything) else that the devs have defined as "the game" and only do that. It's like buying a refrigerator to get the big cardboard box it comes in. Why not just play a PvP game without an attached PvE game, especially one that gets in the way of the game you want?Originally Posted by Leo_G
So I ask you, Megaj, have you deluded yourself into thinking a game feature no longer exists? Because PvP *DOES* exist in CoX and if it weren't meant to be played, it'd have been removed.
(If anyone would like to turn that around: I did buy that game, back in 2004; the "un-MMO", with no PvP, no loot, and no "endgame." All of that stuff was added later.)
Hypothetical: if my chosen playstyle "requires" a level 50 character, and I don't wanna spend the time leveling them, do I get a "I Win" Button? Why or why not?
(As for "little or no challenge", Ares Supreme, I wonder how you would have done against the mission I had on my plate last night: one where my VEAT, soloing at +1x0, was faced with +2 purple Super Arachnoid bosses and died over and over.)
* in the same sense that bases technically still exist, and you can technically still use the AE system for something other than farming. The Devs rarely take anything out of the game, they just render a feature de facto useless and wait for everyone who liked it to give up and quit. -
Already being worked on, in some form, according to comments on this thread.
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So let's see...
You aren't interested in story or RP or reading in general.
You don't want to spend a lot of (ideally, any) time leveling.
You don't want to spend time switching sides.
You just want to jump straight to 50 and start punching faces.
Right?
I have to wonder, again, why you are playing this game instead of any of the many others that offer instant (and usually better balanced and less frustrating) PvP action. There are many games in which you don't have to level up, you don't have to grind, you don't have to spend days or weeks putting together a build... you can just jump right in and do it. Why, other than sheer perversity, do you insist on trying to shove a square peg in a round hole? -
Wow, and I thought I was a Picky English Major.
Making allowances for presentation, the OP seems to be suggesting the addition of two new areas similar to the existing Fort Trident and the Crucible (and possible Ouroborous), but for VEATs and for Magic characters of both sides, to add additional convenience and/or flavor for players of such characters. Care to discuss the content, not the form? -
Or in the midst of the oldest, poshest district of the whole city (lookin' at you, Founders Falls).
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Quote:These are the ones that tend to have the most "talent." *bounce*Originally Posted by JessieTell
There are definitely guardian characters that are female, this has been explored a whole bunch of times in anime and such.
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How about "extra virgin"?
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This is a good idea.