Mental_Giant

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It doesn't need to be true of all... perhaps not even a majority. If 30% of new players quit after a few months because there's "no end game content", that's a lot of revenue down the drain.

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Where does this 30% PL-quit statistic come from?

My point is that this is a number that you just made up on the spot. We have zero evidence that any such thing is happening. And to say "oh well IT MIGHT HAPPEN so we better DO something!" quickly means gridlock if you take that thought to its logical conclusion: pretty soon everything is set in stone, exit freedom.

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Fortunately the Devs don't have to rely on my hypothetical values. My point was that not "all" players need be burned out by superfast lvling in order for the Devs to make a decision to stop it. Also, if Paragon could hang on to their subscriber base with no freedom whatsoever, they would do so. Of course, they couldn't do that, which is why your slippery slope scenario seems unlikely.

As to your other point, if Sewer runs could level toons to 50 in 3 hours then they would be modified as well.

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I dunno, I don't buy that excuse of players burning out faster because they get PLed to 50. Maybe that's true for some people, but it can't be true for all people.

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It doesn't need to be true of all... perhaps not even a majority. If 30% of new players quit after a few months because there's "no end game content", that's a lot of revenue down the drain.

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We don't ever hear about the players that never got near 50 but quit out of sheer boredom because of FedEx missions, and Kill 20 of these - Ok, now go kill another 20 of these missions, and running across another zone just to speak to someone who only sends you back to the guy that sent you to him in the first place missions, etc., etc. Just because we don't hear of those people doesn't mean they don't exist.

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Early game goes by so fast if they lose interest because of hunt quests then CoX wasn't going to keep them anyway.

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I think some people that get PLed to 50 on one character might be more inclined to try out a different AT and/or powersets. I think most of the people getting PLs are second or third accounts of old players. I think if players flock to a feature that allows their characters to be PLed the devs should look at the reasons behind it and do something about it. Maybe low level missions need to be cleaned up and streamlined like villain side. Maybe the low to mid levels need to be made more interesting so people want to play them.

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I'm sure most of the PLzors are long-time players, so the question is does closing the loophole with brutal discipline bother them enough to quit the game? I highly doubt we've lost as many players over Farmgate then we did when ED hit. Letting the situation go on was untenable from a new player perspective in the Devs' view.

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You said it yourself MG, in the Isos thread, how fast this run is going to reach 50. We've had 14 play sessions and are up to level 44. 4 years ago how fast could you make it to 44? If people can play 3 hours a night for 3 weeks and get to 50, why is it so shocking that min/maxers can do it in AE in a day? Why is 3 weeks okay, but not one day?

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Most Isos have been subscribing to the game for four years at least, and we keep going back to roll up a new character and go to 50. Would the group still be doing that if we got a 50 every Wednesday? Three weeks of dedicated play is a lot different than a day (or a few hours).

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Oh. No Black. Hmm. I guess we all imagined that could be in the cards.

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According to the eye witness thread, there is black, just not in the bright color grid.

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Or is that too extreme?

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Extreme is an understatement.

All Paragon Studios wants to do is keep as many players paying for a subscription to their game as long as possible. PLing characters to 50 in hours would seem to make players burn out much more quickly than if they had to play the game "as intended". That's why the Devs came down so harshly on AE farmers recently.

As long as you keep playing, they don't care how you play. The idea that they have a "vision" that goes beyond "keep people playing and paying for as long as possible" is ridiculous.

So no, the Devs aren't flagging your characters for later retributuion, and no, they aren't communicating with you through your fillings, and they aren't watching you from a closed-circuit video camera mounted in your closet.

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Is it true the colors you have to chooce from on each power is limited? As ice will move from white to blue. Fire from red to yellow. So no brown ice? No green fire?

//Jack

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That would be surprising since the preview graphics show green ice, blue and purple fire and purple energy, among others.

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Indeed. It would be strange to go through the tremendous effort to enable power customization and then gimp color selection once you had it done.

Target level is 44 next week with an optional Monday Respec at 8PM EST.

Team MP rocked... most of the deaths were at my urging to I could use Widow Veng. Thanks, guys!

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On the fence for another hero run, so hurry up before I get on another project. My bane might just beat you guys on my own

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Cheating is cheating whether you run on Wednesdays or not!

Also, where were you when I was trying to PL my widow to catch up?

Meeting no.: 14
Target level: 43
Meeting Location: SG Base

Agenda: G'ville

I think we're headed for a record Isos run. We should finish before session 20.

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Curious on her powers description - it says demon summoning/darkness

not dark miasma - new secondary or dramatic effect?

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It's Dark Miasma.

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I expect Going Rogue will have a metric ton of story, arcs and systems as well.

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While I don't expect it will be on the level of CoV, I agree with this statement.

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I think GR will be on the level of Issue 6 in terms of content. 7+ new zones and story arcs to go along with em. The past, we've only gotten a dribble of new content. I want to see metric boatload of new content.

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You may want to see it, but I doubt you will see it.

I am expecting not more than one new zone, if that. We will be lucky to get even one. I would even be happy just to see stuff added to unused present zones, but I doubt we will be getting that either.

I am guessing: 1. One new zone 2. a few costume pieces and 3. the ability to change sides, and I would bet more than a dollar that we don't see much else.

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That would be an insult of a boxed expansion. GR must have at least as much mission content and zones as CoV. The only thing it will be missing is 5 new ATs and all the new power sets that go along with it.

Oh, blast it...

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An Arachnos Soldier's original costume slot requires the use of unique, AT-specific accessories that give it a distinct appearance. To balance this, Soldiers can earn their second costume slot at level 10. They can earn level 20, 30, and 40 costumes as per usual, and can also turn in Halloween Event salvage, making six costume slots available. However, the only way to access the sixth slot is through /cc 5, and it cannot be edited at the tailor, so it will exist only as a copy of what slot 2 was when the costume was added.

Soldier-specific accessories cannot be added to any costume except the first slot.

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So there are six slots... but the sixth can't be modified at the tailor because it's just a copy of slot 2 when the "extra" slot was added.

This sounds like a bug to me and not a feature.

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I may have missed it but has anyone asked whether or not Epics will be able to "go rogue"?

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OMG I hope so, I totally already have planned for my Warshade to go villain.

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Why wouldn't they be able to? That would be kinda stupid. Everyone can side switch except for Epics.

What I'd like to know is for the Arachnos if you switch sides then you would technically no longer be allined with that faction so why would you have their uniform? Can an Arachnos gone good change their first costume slot? Or are they going to play it off as "I'm just keeping it for old times sake" maybe have some kind of story arch where you're required to wear it as a hero because the Arachnos aren't aware you've left yet and they want you to go undercover and find out as much as you can before you turn in your resignation.

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Since SoAs get a super secret 6th costume slot already, why should they have to give up their Arachnos uniform?



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What super secret 6th slot? I want to know about this super secret 6th slot!

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It's not a sixth slot. The first slot is for the Arachnos uniform and has Arachnos-pieces that non-SoA's don't have access to. They get a "free" second slot at lvl 10 (IIRC), then they can earn the lvl 30 and lvl 40 slots as normal, and the Halloween slot if they turn in the salvage.

No sixth slot, just one slot for the uni, and 4 "normal" slots.

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I'm under the firm belief they are gearing up to open up all powersets to All AT's, except they will fall under AT framesets rather than Non-AT framesets.

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Madness.

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I thought NCSoft bought - not leased - the game engine when they bought CoX in its entirety, and keeping the Cryptic logo around was just part of the deal.

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correct.

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Evidence?

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I was looking for evidence, and I found evidence to the contrary.

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LOS GATOS, Calif. -- Cryptic Studios[TM] announced today that the development house has sold its intellectual and proprietary rights to both the City of Heroes[R] and City of Villains[R] franchises to publisher NCsoft. As part of the agreement, NCsoft is licensing Cryptic's engine technologies for use with future games.

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This is an old article, however.

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What, nothing about how they hate PvP?

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Steel couldn't make a joke out of that, because the Devs actually do hate PvP.

GR will contain a City's worth of content, so that's obviously what the "content people" are focusing on. The real question is whether we'll be able to get back to the "Zone per Issue" heyday post-GR. Or, if not a new zone, at least a new zone's worth of missions scattered among established zones.

My hope is that we will, since I13 - I16 have focused on ramping up the game's featurews.

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*raises hand* I think it would be nice to customize how Ice Shields, Bubbles, and etc. look on yourself, rather than inheriting the colors from the person who casts it on you.

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Isn't this taking customization away from the caster, for their buff powers at least?

Am I the only one who thinks this is a bad idea? Beside the fact that we have pretty repetitive maps in the game right now, what about when GR hits and we (I'm hoping) get a large number of new maps? With a click you can just see the whole layout? Where's the mystery? The sense of discovery?

This game is easy enough as it is without nerfing the FoW.

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In I16, you will be able to set your AE mission to spawn as if you had a full team of 8.

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You are jumping to a huge conclusion there. It is just as likely that this feature will not work in AE at all.

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It seems extremely unlikely to me that the devs would want to maintain two separate difficulty setting systems. That would get confusing very fast, and I don't really see what the point would be.

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The point would be to minimize abuse. If they restrict the new difficulty settings to content they generated, they at least know there will be a reasonable mix of mobs. If they put it into the AE, they have to worry about custom critters tweaked to be very weak but still giving out full XP.

Patrol XP doesn't work with AE content currently, and I don't think it will get Double XP, either. I will be suprised if the Devs allow the I16 difficulty features in AE content.

I'm not liking most of the new goggles. I think the main value of the pack is the model switching.

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Super Strength and Martial Arts will each receive an alternate animation for their powers

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Parsing time! Does this statement mean each =power= gets an alternate animation, or that there is just =one= animation for the powerset?

Discuss.

--NT

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Based on the fact that you will be able to choose colors for each power in a set, I'm guessing that for each power in SS/MA, you will have two choices of animation. If you really like the old SS anims, but hate KO blow, you can swap that out for the new one.

That's my prediction, anyway.

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• Umm… so I’m running the Issue 16 beta for the first time.. I figured I’d test the new difficulty settings.. jacked up both to the maximum allowed… but when I entered the mission there wasn’t a ton of bad guys.. just one.. Nemesis dressed in bib overalls… he says he’s going to make me “squeal like a pig”… umm… is this working as intended?

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You win the Internet... again.

And yes, it's working as intended. Good luck!

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I think it's all great -- how many years did they continue to tell everyone that power customization (colors) just wasn't feasible due to programming and code considerations, but they've found a way to overcome them (whatever they were), and give many vocal players what they were screaming for for years. Very nice.

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I think the way they overcame the issues associated with PC was by tripling their staff. When you're running a game with 16 people, there's no time for stuff like that.

Well, at least it will get people out of the AE... I doubt the expanded difficulty settings will work in there.

Behold!

Customization, power set proliferation, custom difficulty levels, revamped character creator... drink deep of its awesomeness!

No "content" so far, if you want to be a negative nelly...