Memphis_Bill

This is... a lot of text.

I've skimmed through at times (mmostly at work) and had thoughts here and there, but... well, it's a *lot* of text now! So if some of what I say has been said before, bear with me.

First - I'm just not fond of flagging systems. Yes, I'm firmly in the "You have a flag, it's called "entering the zone"" camp. But, that's me. Some of the other ideas are interesting.

I don't think putting more PVE goodies in the PVP zones are a solution, personally. There's already enough friction because of them. I don't believe they should be *removed,* either, as they're fun - but I don't think there should be more. (And when it comes to villain accolades, they should be reworked to give something equivalent-but-PVE.)

Some things can be fixed. I'm looking solidly at the Arena interface here. It's *not* intuitive - it took me a while to figure out why a duel I was trying to set up, the first time, kept failing.... because it was on "Custom," the default, and the setting that, to me, made sense since I was customizing preferences.

Some things... can't. There are jerks everywhere in the game and people thinking everyone should play by *their* rules (SS Brute telling my flying Kin?Dark to "come down and fight fair" - IE, stand still and get hit. No.)

And some things are a matter of recovery. Anyone whose experience with PVP was early-zone, Villainside, may still have a lingering "it's not worth it" feeling from having open-air rez tubes and no timer. I know that I nearly was turned off of it completely because I was not being allowed to *leave* the zone by a set of lvl 50 heroes (on my, at the time, lvl 15 brute. Don't forget, the zone liason was inside the zone at that time.)

I'll have to post when I have more time, being at work (between calls) right now, assuming this isn't lost in the flood of posts... but not everything can be fixed with code.

Hmm.
Friday: Probably work on my namesake tank to get those last levels to 50 (at 44 1/2 right now.) Switch to my 45 Stalker when some of the VG on Victory are on.

Saturday: Depends on if I get the day off or not... regardless, getting my Warshade that last level and a half or so to 50 along with some friends (who are also in that same range) that evening.

Sunday - Work all morning. Continue work on Stalker or Tank if needed. If not, help get my Rad/Sonic up to a travel power, my Ill/Sonic to more pets, and at least one of my MMs to a Tier 3 pet.

Mixed in there, get a Dom and a Corruptor up a bit farther, if possible... and probably one of my Scrappers, too. It'll be the only heroside AT that won't have a 50 at that point...

Nice...

.... that WS needs to learn to use their holds, mires, immobs and the like better though.

Heh. Amusing puzzle. Don't think I'll look at Posi the same way...

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Conversely, what I find sad is that some people can't wrap their minds around the fact that CoV is a standalone game, because it's thinking that's outside their box.


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Where is the evidence for it being a stand alone game?

Even if you only ever bought COV you can still interact with players from COH in the 4 PVP zones, Pocket D and the Arena. That right there shoots any claim that the game is stand alone in the foot.

I'll grant you that it was a marketing goof to give any impression that the game was purely stand alone. It should always have been made clear that it was an expansion for COH that could be played with out buying COH.

But your are deluding yourself by clinging to the claim that COV is or ever has been a stand alone game.

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Wow, do you have that [censored]-backwards. Where's your proof that it's nothing more than an expansion? The fact that a person can buy City of Villains and go home and install it, without ever installing CoH, and then can play it, without ever playing CoH, proves it's a stand alone game.

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They are the same game. Same engine. Same graphic items installed, whether they're *used* or not. Specific *features* are unlocked by a serial code.

Proof?

I could (provided I could find them now) buy a COH-only box, a COV-only box, and GVE. Create three accounts. Apply one code to each, and on the same machine, same installation, have three "different games." (Well, two.)

They're less games than - "Feature sets," I suppose would be the best way of putting it. Different skins on the same core.

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Anyway, since they are clearly moving away from jack's vision of a 'game without tankmages', it makes one wonder if Kheldians may finally be made useful?

I mean 'jack of all trades, master of none' is a great idea, but all that silver bullet kryptonite stuff, while interesting from a story point of view, has always been way, way too much of an achilles heel for the 'epic archetype'. I wish that Kheldians were a reward instead of a punishment.

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They are. Quite useful in fact. Just about have my second Kheldian 50, fwiw.

"Epic" = storyline. 1-50 storyline of their own. Epic does not mean "God mode."

And it's hardly an achilles heel. They're just not a big issue once you learn to look for them.

Newest one, Therra Vindicta.

(Credits given on page - machinemanx here)

Only leaves two other versions of her to have done... (This is an alternate-universe version of Therra Arcson.)

Figured he nailed it as soon as I saw the pencils, actually. The expression caught the core of this one perfectly.

Just have to get my Stalker those last five levels (and Warshade three.) My ice/psy is next in line, I think... Already fun, once you break out of the controller mindset and run in to join in the fun. (May not be a big change if you were ice/kin, given its melee centric nature... and end drains... and...)

I do believe there's already a guide in the Player Guides forum. As well as Zloth's editor... only real change (AFAIK) is knowing some maps are "broken" in demos, typically the newer ones for whatever reason (unless that's been fixed.)

Demo player:
http://home.kc.rr.com/dasloth/CoH/Demos/

majik's guide.

Link to Zloth's guide, with some discussion. (He shifted it to a website for various reasons.)

A search set to 3 years, subject only, player guides only, +Demo -"Re: " will bring up 20 guides, two or three of which have nothing to do with demos, and a couple of which are discussion - but should give you what you want.

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Any sort of timeline for Beta with the XP curve and Real numbers? Or should I assume it will be Soon (tm)

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As outlined above, all of the things discussed are:

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... short term initiatives to share:

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So, they are all stuff you will see soon, and definitely before we kick up into talking about Issue 12 and the medium to longer term stuff. Hopefully that helps to frame the time lines.

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We need hard dates, man! *shakes Lighthouse's collar*

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*chucks a few stale dates, followed by an orange.*

Y'know.... your dreams were your ticket out...


Unfortunately, Malaise got 'hold of 'em.

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Just wanted to add one thing that often seems unappreciated: ease of targeting.


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Can I add targeting (and combat) not dependent on facing?

That irked the hell out of me - think it was the WoW trial again. "You moved a foot to the left, I can't hit you any more!" Dammit, just turn a little!

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You forget one thing with street sweeping (that Stealth sort of touched on.)

No "must get loot from spawns." No spawn camping or spawn competition.

Playing TR in beta, or that WoW trial? "Kill some of these things, and bring back their intestines so I can make soup!"

Yeah, well ten of the other people - who don't, by the way, want to team - in the area are doing the same thing. Then there are people who are just running by killing them for a little more XP, or crafting material or just for the heck of it, and because *they* got the kill, YOU now have to kill 150 of them to get those 10 randomly selected drop items.

Here? "Kill 30 Crey" means "Kill 30 Crey." Not "And collect rare item piece blah blah blah that only drops in one in five, IF you get the kill shot." If you're supposed to get a location, you don't wait for the Scroll of Ancient Dude's Kneecaps to drop. When you kill the 30th one (or whatever,) you get the info.

And, as mentioned - you don't have to street sweep there and back again.

... why is this in Guides, exactly?

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So, no one else wants to share their holiday stuffs?

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I would if I had any holiday stuffs to share! I have no kids, so nothing to do special for them. And my family's scattered from WI to FL - at least I'm not in oregon any more - so it tends to be a matter of "Have dinner, talk, go home."

That's all the excitement for me, sorry...

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EIF... might want to pick something besides the green text.

It's impossible to read against the blue...

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It's not that hard to read. Emerald Isle, so has to be green.

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Is for me. *shrug*

EIF... might want to pick something besides the green text.

It's impossible to read against the blue...

Basically good information, but I'd work on presentation a little. Give it a bit of an intro, do more than just stars for splitting up sections - you don't really know how it's organized - and somewhat more exploration into "Giving knockback a good name - using it well with a team" (for instance) might be worthwhile.

Good info though.

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Good stuff.

Soo...anyone else find themselves doing the head bob to the "Time to Start" video?

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Pretty much any time I hear it... <.<

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Actually, it's becoming fairly standard from what I've seen, for companies to say "Only those hired/called back will be notified". It sucks, but when you are dealing with dozens, or perhaps hundreds, of interviewees... all those calls take time, which really, could be better spent elsewhere.

Or so, the theory goes. While I've not had to go through it myself, my wife has, probably a good 5-6 times the last few years. The waiting sucks, the not knowing sucks (especially up here, where some positions spend 6 months (!!) in limbo before a decision is even made), but... what can you do?

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Well, I had two interviews for the IT position, which seemed to go really well. Then I didn't hear anything at all. I finally emailed them to see what the status was, and was told their automated system apparently hadn't worked. They EXPECTED to give all the applicants notice that the position had been filled, but something didn't work right.

Congrats to Jimmy. Lucky sod.

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... so you have something you want him to fix first, is that it?

Adding to the tiny bits of info:

Positron, giving some I12 info here - [ QUOTE ]


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I guess I can't get in trouble for telling you what the VEAT is not...

It's not:
* Kheldian/Warshade/Nictus/Peacebringer
* Avilian (this is off the table forever for either side)
* Coralax
* Blood of the Black Stream
* Incarnates
* Anything to do with the Coming Storm

Oh, and back to the original topic... Marcian is pretty perceptive about us needing "ramp up" time for I12... I12 was planned before the acquisition, and the staffing-up takes months, by which time I12 will be mostly done.

That's not to say that we don't know that I12 will be scrutinized closely. It will, so we are trying to cram as much as we CAN into the issue with what we have. We do have some surprises planned!


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Most recent bit o' news:

Positron, giving some I12 info here - [ QUOTE ]


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I guess I can't get in trouble for telling you what the VEAT is not...

It's not:
* Kheldian/Warshade/Nictus/Peacebringer
* Avilian (this is off the table forever for either side)
* Coralax
* Blood of the Black Stream
* Incarnates
* Anything to do with the Coming Storm

Oh, and back to the original topic... Marcian is pretty perceptive about us needing "ramp up" time for I12... I12 was planned before the acquisition, and the staffing-up takes months, by which time I12 will be mostly done.

That's not to say that we don't know that I12 will be scrutinized closely. It will, so we are trying to cram as much as we CAN into the issue with what we have. We do have some surprises planned!


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But some of those have multiple words!

And actually, you're missing a few:

Anchor - I could've hugged the team leader who invited my Rad/Rad, knew he had a pair of newbies with us, and stopped the team to explain what an anchor was to them and how it looked (actually stopping us at the end of the next fight while my anchor was still alive!)

I've rarely been that impressed with someone for helping teach newbies like that. Mostly because it rarely happens!

Battery - OK,this one's somewhat rare. It seems to be mostly /Kin controllers who use it from mid-upper levels. Essentially, it's pulling a target, holding them, and using them for Transfusion and Transferrence for the ranged folks staying in back.

And as an addendum to "Pull" - adding in that things like Rain of Fire and Fireball are *not* appropriate means of pulling... though I think that's in the guide you linked.

FWIW Tony, the articles are enjoyable. Don't get discouraged.

Heck, it was a treat running into her in game (CTX Dreamer) and fighting one of the Winter Lords - while I didn't hop on to the tour, knowing where all the Faultline stuff is anyway, one of these days I just might for grins.