MrCaptainMan
-
Posts
2452 -
Joined
-
Quote:I think I'm on the mend now. Cheers for the kind words in your PM too.Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Well, first off, I hope you can get yourself into a better mood soon, man. Malaise sucks, and I'm not talking about the purple swirly guy.
Basically, I think two of your points nailed the problem I had with it:
My 'is it fun' overriding wossname for wether or not I rate an arc highly sometimes has me clearing all even when there's absolutely no need to. It's quite hard for me to explain what it is about the combination of toon i use and mobs I'm up against which makes me have fun doing this on some arcs and feel like I'm grinding on others.Quote:
Well, a worse way to say "no backtracking" is "essentially clear all", innit?
Absolutely. It can't just be Robin, cos i really enjoy playing her, and will happily Clear All on a CoT (who have at times been my 'mob group to hate')orenbega map with her. And I also love The Lost as a mob group in general, so it isn't your fault either. It was an unfortunate juxtaposition of the two factors which made the experience not as fun as it could have been. I'm sorry I don't have any other suitable toons in the level range for it. Perhaps a scrapper would have had a romp.Quote:
Obviously I picked some groups your defender and controller had trouble with, and it didn't help any that the RNG wanted to make life miserable for you too.
Eco. -
Dream Paper, Arc ID 1874, by @GlaziusF. Very Long (1 small, 3 medium, 1 large maps), heroic. Lvl 11-20. 252 plays! 4-stars as I start.
Description tells of the Lost on a breaking-and-entering spree that leads to a disquieting conclusion. Ill be taking my lvl 14 TA/Arch Defender Robin Copperfield in to this one.
I never really minded the Lost, you know. I saw them preaching in the streets, of course, but I just left them alone and they seemed like a bunch of harmless idiots. TV sets on their heads, and wastepaper baskets on their shoulders I mean, come on. That changed last week though. I got a call from a mate of mine, Alfonse. Hes a bicycle courier, and he knows quite a few people around the City. Useful guy, and quite sweet too. He sounded frantic on the phone, said his apartment building was being invaded by Lost. I couldnt have that, could I?
Mission 1: Clear the Lost out of the Singer Lofts
His building did have an infestation problem, all right. There were two of them right there in the front hall. I tried to reason with them at first, maybe find a peaceful resolution, but they werent listening to my arguments, so I whipped out me bow and they soon got the point. Ha, see what I did there? They got the point? You know, arrows, point? look, when Im from, the height of comedys a man hitting himself in the face with an inflated pigs bladder, okay?
Anyway, after that I decided it was best to stick em first, and ask questions afterwards. I cleared out the first floor, first found a nervous Outcast being held prisoner I let him go found some old boxes piled up here and there too, full of loot the Lost had snatched from the apartments
[is this supposed to be a sort of run-down place? The maps quite clean etc.]
on the third floor I found something interesting a broken jar with some kind of drug packets, looked like. I didnt have much time to check it out in detail, cos I had some more Lost to deal with first. Whilst I was seeing them off, Dickhead appeared sigh Dickheads this dark fairy thing, wont stop bugging me, likes to pop up whilst Im fighting and help. I cant stand the thing; its like a giant mosquito. Thats why I call it Dickhead
Anyway, it looked like Dickhead was here for the duration I carried on into the building there were more stashes of loot, more Lost...and I found an old granny being given a bit of a roughing after freeing her, I had her tag along in case there were any more that Id somehow missed on my way up
and a few more Lost in the atrium, and it looked like the building was clear it was weird, theyd piled up quite a stash of stuff, but the little jar seemed more important to them I wondered what that yellow-white powder was
[A little less time to search the boxes would be nice, and its too big a map for a Clear All, IMO]
Alfonse was wondering too he said it was Granny Yans medicine! Which turned out to be a batch of Class A nose-candy after a pal of his at the Copshop had had a gander at it. Intriguing and the paper it was wrapped in was a clue to an old warehouse that the Tsoo had been spotted near
[A small wording point: Some of the paper that powder was wrapped in is stuff I scraped up for Grandma Yan, Your use of scraped jars for me here. It doesnt collocate well enough with paper. Id ditch that sentence completely, and just go with some of the paper wraps were made from order forms or sth]
Mission 2: Take Out the Tsoo Drug Labs Boss
The warehouse was, as they say, a hive of activity looked like Id got there just in time I think they were getting ready to scarper
[lol I realize on this mission that Tsoo are not the mob group for Robin. Caltrops, those irritating throwing stars, the sorcerors]
Phew it was hard going, that warehouse those damn caltrops really get up my nose and I HATE sorcerers. Bloody sods wont just sit still and take an arrow in the arse .
[
I died. The mobs Im encountering at challenge level one are mostly yellow and orange conning, lvl 16 groups of 2 or 3 enforcers, sorcerers, ancestor spirits. Theyre hard work for Robin and because of the linearity of the map, its a de facto clear all]
Before I got to the loading dock, which was where all the major hubbub was coming from
[If Im supposed to be heading for the loading dock, why didnt I just enter from the rear lol]
I met a Tsoo with a clipboard, arranging the getaway Since he was after a sharp exit, I gave him a few pointers sharp pointers? ah. never mind
[God, these enforcers are so annoying lol. That noise as the shuriken hits you is really irritating, chhwoo!, and then they throw their caltrops and the slow and jump hits me, and Im reeady to throw sth at the screen. grrr.]
After a long time and a forest full of arrows, I got to entrance to the loading dock, and a big Tsoo called Stalking Tiger tries it on. Turns out hes that old woman Yans grandson! I took him to pointy town, and whilst he was dabbing at his various bloody leaking holed with a bit of cotton wool he told me that the drugs inside the paper was just a herbal painkiller, not harmful or addictive unless taken by the crateful. Oops. Then I heard someone shouting about a falcon or something from back inside the warehouse. I was too tired to investigate, though, and I still had to clear out the loading dock for good measure, before heading out to report back to Alfonse
[after that trawl through all the Tsoo on the map, Im perplexed and quite dispirited to be forced to clear out the last room as well, when the Boss spawned on the balcony by the ramps before you even get to the loading bay proper. The Outcast patrol that spawned at the boss defeat didnt appear, but I read their dialogue in the NPC chat.]
Alfonse wasnt too happy that the Tsoo lead was a dead end. He started babbling, frankly. I couldnt understand what he was rabbiting on about. He said it was his fault, hed got the jar from some people who were going to throw it out? I think the kid was losing it
[er, Im as confused as Robin is Im afraid. I think that Alfonse is hiding something from me, but either Im too dense or hes too subtle for me to be sure. Granny was also a bit coy abt something earlier. Its all very missable, however.]
Luckily, round about then, The Lost attacked a police lab, the very same police lab that was currently testing the medicine and the paper it was wrapped in. Must have been a highly specialized lab, that, cos Alfonse deduced that they could only be after the paper. Not the medicine, the paper. I felt sorry for the poor mad kid, so I headed over to the lab to see what I could do to help
Mission 3: Free the Police Lab from the Lost
[I was hoping for a police station, tbh, after the first two long clear all experiences, but heres a tech lab map. I hope its not too big]
[Are any of your maps set to Random?]
[The nav instruction contains 2 captive technicians a verb would be nice]
Once inside, I set off to investigate, sticking Lost on the way. In a huge room a little ways in I freed a technician who said something odd about the paper, about how he couldnt look away when he looked at it
Then I helped another guy, who also rambled about paper
And then I saw a sheet of blank paper stuck to a computer console, so I looked at it. As you do. It was some kind of psychic paper, I guess, because even though it was blank, I saw a picture of Steel Canyon in my head.
[That glowie computer console. The chat text does sort of describe its the paper stuck to it youre looking at, but why not use a bulletin board?]
On the next floor, I found a safe, containing lots of paper. I grabbed it all for, er, safekeeping...
Finally, I rescued another technician, who told me that it was indeed psychic paper on my way out, I met a few platoons of SWAT going in. Luckily they didnt see the reams of psychic paper stuffed down my top
Alfonse let me in on where hed got the paper from in the first place a youth hostel he didnt explain the connection to the Lost, but told me hed get back to me once he had some more info
A little while later, we had a lead. A troll had dropped off some more paper to the youth hostel. The police had tailed him to a cave, and that was where I was headed next!
Mission 4: Talk to the Troll Paperboy
The cave complex was big. I made my way in, dealing with any trolls I came across, searching for clues. After a while I found some interesting looking rocks.
...
I also found some superadine capsules and a ledger. I grabbed them all, maybe Alfonse or someone he knew could cook up some sort of clue from them. Whilst I was in there, I also had a fight with a troll leader and interrogated the troll delivery boy. He told me where hed got the paper from some guy called Blaloch
Alfonse was surprised at a Troll wanting to go straight, but happy that we had a lead to maybe put an end to this. The paper was coming from a warehouse. Shame it wasnt a shop, then I couldve made that joke about the guy who bought a paper shop, and you know, it blew away?
Anyway, I headed over to the warehouse to check it out
Mission 5: Investigate the Warehouse
[9 printing supplies to collect you like to pile it on, dont you?]
I went through the warehouse as fast as I could, sticking Lost, collecting evidence and destroying machines. It was a psychic paper printing press, well; it was before I got there. Afterwards it was a load of smoking wreckage.
And then I met this mysterious Mr Blaloch. He attacked me, I think he was under the influence of the paper, because after Id subdued him he sort of came round and acted nice. He didnt really know anything wither, unfortunately. Oh, Hubert the Troll paperboy was in there too, but he looked as though he could handle himself so I left him alone
[I didnt fancy adding more aggro to the situation, since I was doing ok on my own anyway]
Alfonse was pleased that Blaloch was ok, but that was it as far as this case went. No idea who was responsible, or why they had made the paper, or, well, or anything I tell you, Im not going to consider that day seized.
[end]
Hmm. I tried three times to get into this arc, and the first two times I had to give up. The first two missions were too hard for me, too long, and I just wasnt having fun. I tried with a lvl 16 FF/grav troller too, and it was the same. Maybe something in a patch was messing things up, but I didnt find a single white-conning mob those first two attempts. Ive had some personal problems recently, so my mood in general has been a bit muted, so maybe that contributed.
The third attempt I decided to calm down and take it slowly and just run one mission per session. That helped negate the sense of trawl, but its not how I like to play tbh. The third time I did find white-cons, but there were still far too many Headmen and Ancestor spirits for my liking lol
Pluses: I got loads of XP during it. Started at lvl 14, finished at 16. Theres no bad backtracking that I noticed. All the appropriate text fields have been filled out, searching bars, object descriptions etc. The were no impossible objectives or EBs or Player-killer ambushes etc.
Negatives: I felt that maps 1,2,3 and 5 were too big, especially since without any stealth they were essentially clear alls for Robin. I got a sense of padding from the whole arc, tbh. Also, the plot was very confusing to me (For example, what was the Outcast 'falcon' comment for?), and the end non-resolution was an anticlimax.
Sorry I couldnt be more positive. Its a technically problem-free arc, with plenty of stuff to read and mobs to fight, its got a varied selection of objectives, but it just didnt grab me Im afraid. I rated it 3-stars -
Quote:Crap music? Come On Eilieen! Its a classic!Originally Posted by Bubbawheat
Missed it live, but would like to listen, and the archive link isn't working. It's just giving me a 2 hrs of crap music and some stand-up comedy clips.
Lol I also dled the archived 'AEntertainment Tonight' mp3, and it does appear to be 2 hrs of music interpsersed with comedy clips.
Random thoughts: I like the third song, but is there also something from the ET soundtrack? Ooh - Opera! ...Yikes, it's Phil Collins! /shudder...ahhh...ska. /nodnod...er, that's europop there at 01:33:33 isnt it?
...aand Love in an Elevator! lol
"Can you feel the bass?"
Aled Jones, and fin.
Eco. -
I think AM would have had some nice dramatic comments on the closeness of the Rikti mothership if he'd been on that map. Without actually comparing them, I personally think I'd have preferred the RWZ map. I think the story is the star, so IMO the map wouldn't overshadow the last map.
Eco. -
Sorry I've been lax with the runs lately, I've had a bit of a grim time in my personal life and it's been hard focus on the game. Hopefully a corner's going to be turned soonish, though, and i'll get back into the swing of things.
Eco. -
I received a very nice review from OzzieArcane in his review thread.
Here's his summary:
Quote:How nice is that?Overall I really enjoyed this arc. An interesting way of doing things, each mission felt like it's own individual story and had plenty of amusing moments. Didn't have much of a sensible plot but it didn't need to cause it was fun. Helped cheer me up while I'm sick anyhow.
Rating: *****
-
LOL thanks for the great review, Ozzie! I'm really glad you liked it.
The map used for Mission 2 was the Faultline Submarine Base map. It's great for that mission i think, as it's totally linear and the large chamber at the end is perfect for the mayhem that can happen with all the patrols.
Thanks again.
Eco.
EDIT: Also, thank you very much for treating it as a single 6-mission arc, ie as intended. That's highly appreciated. -
Quote:Thats it! I knew i wasnt hallucinating or channeling an uber-spy when i crossed the border into germany without having to show anything!Originally Posted by UnknownWarrior
Ireland and the UK are not part of the Shengen Area, therefore passports are needed for travel between the islands and continental europe.
I'm going yo start researching amsterdam for a meet. Who's in?
On another note, when is sb going to release a CH/BM app for the iPhone?
Eco -
Do brits need a passport to cross into france? Ah, when britain joins the EU, think of the freedom, eh?
Eco -
We dont need any lan centers, we just need somewhere to get pissed. Amsterdam is good for me, i know a lesbian i can stay with.
Eco -
How long does it take to fix a bloody forum? I used to love them, but i'm becoming 'meh' about them now. I almost cant be bothe
-
Quote:Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
OK, I've had about as much as I can take of this nonsense. I try to be a reasonable person, when my first reaction to the new boards software was "What the hell, man! What the hell!" I thought I'd keep my cool and just give myself time to adapt. New forum software, new interface, a lot of stuff to learn. It'll be all good, right? Wrong. Not when a basic functionality such as going to the first unread post completely and plainly doesn't work.
What should "Go to first new post" do? Well, judging by its name, it should take me to the first post made into a thread since I last checked it. Fat chance. Not only does it not take me to a new post, it actually counts posts I made as new. Um, hello! They're not news to me. I made them. But, OK, technically they are new, so I can roll with that. But even that aside, this still doesn't work.
Here's how the forums have been working for me all day: I haven't logged in for around a week, so when I logged into the forums today, there were a lot of new threads and a lot of old threads with new replies in them. I used the microscopic little triangle to go to the first new post in them and, lo and behold, it took me where it was supposed to. So I posted in a few threads, took a stroll around the house while the windows in my living room were being replaced, came back to the forums and decided to check out what had happened in the past half hour.
You'd think the posts made AFTER I posted would be new, but no! The little triangle thing kept taking me back to the OLD posts that had been newest when I first came online today, but were no longer newest or unread. I read them. In fact, I quoted them. It's kind of hard to quote someone if you haven't read his post. The "Quote" button is right next to each post, so I have to at least have had the post drawn on my screen. But no, that's still undread and the damn function keeps bringing me there, so I have to scroll down, flip through the pages and manually find the last post I read. Well what the HELL is the point of having an option to take me to the first new post if it doesn't take me to the first new post but some random location in the thread so I have to manually look for the REAL first post? At that point, I may as well start from page one.
I tried to give these forums a chance, I really did. But it's just one thing after another. The colour scheme sucks, the functionality is down the toilet for the most basic stuff, direct-poster replies and multi-level quotes are gone... And now I'm finding that the most basic functionality of any forum - finding where you left off a thread - isn't working right. Oh, and the Dev Digest is still gone, to the point where players are having to make their own. Now, I'm grateful to the many people who have rigged up versions of the digest, but come on! What did this forum shuffle fix that was worth breaking practically everything?
I'm sorry. I just finally feel fully justified in being very loudly indignant. This is an absurd, embarrassing step down from what we had before, and it's only getting worse.
*edit*
And for the love of pi, where did the link to the official game site go? The old forums had a link to the effect of "Go back to City of Heroes" which brought you back to cityofheroes.com. No such thing exists now, and even clicking the banner up top brings me to http://boards.cityofheroes.com/index.php, the root of the forums (for which a link already exists) rather than back to the official site. Since I don't have any tabs with it open right now, the only way to check the server status is to open a brand new tab and write in the url by hand. Why was this functionality removed? Was it a problem to have a basic link of convenience?
I am experiencing the exact same thing, and i HATE it. The new forums are great for WRITING threads, embedded images etc, but for READING them they suck AND blow at the same time, badly on my desktop and appallingly on my iPhone.
Thhhhrrrrrpppp to the new forums.
Eco.
PS link to official CoH site is at the bottom of the screen, which is also stupid IMO. -
If the Euro servers are full of AE farmers and nothing else, come over to the US servers. Loads of teaming, PuGs, TFs, badge-hunting, RP, AE story-arc teams there. I'm on Freedom, GMT+1 timezone, and I've never had a problem finding anything I want, bar the odd bare patch for some TFs.
Otherwise, the old chestnuts come rolling out: Join an SG, use your global channels, start your own non-AE teams.
Eco. -
Quote:OK, Dr Serious!Originally Posted by Ravenswing
Technically, it would be better to determine the distribution of players and then determine the easiest location to travel to. That's relatively unlikely to be the geometric centre of the distribution.
Brum isn't actually a bad location. It's got relatively easy transport links via a fairly small airport (meaning budget airlines).
I was loking forward to jestingly positing we all meet in a hamlet on top of an Alp or somewhere.
But Brum's fine with me! Although it wqould be cheaper for me if everyone flew to Warsaw. You can stay in my flat, if you like.
Eco. -
Obviously, we need to pinpoimnt ALL the European Players locations, and then locate the exact geographocval point thats at the center of all those locations, averaged out. I wonder where it would be.
Eco. -
Why, what's wrong with Birmingham? I'm sure all the German and French and Russian(?) players would love to check out Birmingham. It's not know as 'The Monte Carlo of England' for nothing, is it!?
Eco. -
If, theoretically, someone was to try to organise a European Meet of some kind:
1. Where would be good?
2. How many people would come?
3. What sort of venue would be suitable?
Eco. -
I'm Welsh, and I play on the NA servers. I was wondering if anyone knew how many Eoropeans there are on the NA servers.
Eco -
I've done all that. This is a recent messGe i received from sb. Ive read it, replied to it, refreshed the pGe while its there, and it reports 'unread o', then next time i return, 'unread 1'.
Eco -
Any ideas how to get the same result on Safari for the iPhone?
Eco -
How about Europeans? Are we as welcome as the Yanks?
Eco -
Marina, Aqua Marina,
What are these strange enchantments that start whenever you're near?
Marina, Aqua Marina,
Why can't you whisper the words my heart is longing to hear?
You're magic to me, a beautiful mystery.
I'm certain to fall I know, because you enthrall me so.
Marina, Aqua Marina,
Why don't you say, that you'll always stay, close to my heart.
Eco -
Cool. I've submitted The Audition. gulp.
Eco. -
I ahve to say, I'm a tad confused as to why this forum has been created. The European lounge was apparently made at the request of some of the European English speaking players whio thought they'd be swamped by the non-European forumgoers after the move otherwise.
But the 'Oceanics' among us have always been a part of the NA server forumgoers, haven't they?
I'm not complaining, if the Australians etc are happy to have their own forum now, yay.
But it does rather add fuel to the 'Women's Day? When's Men's Day?' - 'EVERY DAY is Men's Day!' appearence that some have claimed the forums have, ie that the forums are basically NA forums with little enclaves for the non-Yanks among us to squat in.
If we get an American Lounge, of course, then that would answer that.
Eco.
PS After the American Lounge, can we have a Baltic lounge please? If you build it, they will come! -
What's this forum for?
City Life is for discussing CoH/V stuff, NOTHING ELSE!!! The Americans DON'T have an OT forum
The Euorpean Lounge is for discussing anything at all, as long as it's somehow 'European'. That happily covers CoH, as the game is played in Europe.
But this place has no description at all! Its name is suggestive, I guess.
Oceanic.
So, who remembers this:This dude was totally Oceanic!
Eco.