Ravenswing

You're unhappy? Believe me, programmers and technicians are usually more unhappy. Means it's likely to come back and bite them in the... helpdesk statistics sometime in the future. Probably patch time. When they are already running about like scalded kittens.

First off, I looked up that Accolade. Yes, that was extremely stupid of Cryptic. It was obviously designed to push people into the the PvP Zones (Lanista is 5 hours in Siren's Call, Swashbuckler needs History plaques in Siren's Call and Booty Bay) and it should, frankly, be fixed. There aren't, too my knowledge, any hero-side Accolades which require PvP badges.

Personally, I'd petition it as a game design flaw. If I ever get a villain to the point where I could get that badge, I will petition it.

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So even if someone specifically tells the zone that they are not interested in PvP they are to be ignored and ganked. Full stop. The end. You don't care if they don't fight back. You don't care, that you don't get anything for stomping on someone. You just don't care about the player on the other end of the character.

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You can yell at me all you want. I don't go into PvP Zones to gank people. There would be little point since it's highly likely that I would be the gankee. Personally, I would not repeatedly attack someone anyway because... well, I see no point in it.

So, you ranting at me really doesn't bother me in the least. Since I know that your use of the term 'you' indicates to me that you didn't actually read a thing I wrote and are just ranting incoherently.

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Hmmmmm. Sounds familiar. It's not a particularly spectacular leap of inference, so I won't say it. But that's what the PvP zones amount to if you enter them but don't want to PvP.

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I'm afraid you'll have to actually say it. I don't have a clue what you're talking about since I enter PvP Zones once in a blue moon, nor do I have the metality of a PKer, nor of yourself either. Actually, my main problem is that I have a horrible ability to see both sides of an argument and I dislike unreasoned hatred.

(As an aside, I decided that the Hyper Stealth power would be darned useful on my new Scrapper, so I did a patrol mission in Bloody Bay. Didn't get attacked by any players. Took precautions, just in case. Got my power.)

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And as for denying the PvP'ers content. That's complete rubbish. The content is just as viable from any other zone. The only thing in the PvP zones that is directly attributable to those zones is reputation. Which, Tah Dah! Expires over time.

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No, you are complaining about an obviously PvE applicable Accolade with an effect which requires you to get one clearly PvP badge, and to enter two PvP Zones for another badge. Now, I have said above I think that is wrong, and in fact now I think about it I'm pretty sure that this kind of thing was very specifically ruled out when CoV was busy launching and PvP was being put into the game. But that is one Accolade which needs to be fixed.

There are plenty of badges which are specifically PvP related, and the exploration badges in those zones technically count among them. So do the badges for running PvE missions in PvP Zones. The more specific case of Badgers complaining that they get attacked in PvP Zones while trying to get that kind of badge (which have no utility in-game, only 'bragging rights') I do not agree with.

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How do I get the various badges and things in a PvP zone if I'm primarily a PvE person and want, say, an accolade power?

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You go in and you do it. Like I did.

What you don't do is complain you were attacked while PvEing in a PvP zone. It's one of the hazards of PvP Zones, one that they remind you of every time you enter one of the creepy places.

Should badge gathering content have been put into PvP zones, knowing that many 'badgers' don't like it? Yes, because it's unfair to deny the PvPers stuff just because someone who religiously collects badges won't like it.

I don't really like PvP either, but I have all the PvP Zone exploration badges and a few of the other ones. As far as I recall, I was never attacked while hunting them, by the way.

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Why would it be denying PVPers if the accolades were gained from pure PVE?

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Let me rephrase then. Why should you deny PvPers from having content such as Badges simply because a minority group collect all Badges and don't like PvP?

Which Accolade are we talking about here, btw?

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I disagree. For instance, to get the ouroboros portal it is assumed that you have come across time-travel. Barring a few missions that you have to hunt for

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It's not that hard to hunt them down, they are usually story arcs and you will usually do them in the course of normal play. The Faultline arcs is one of them and those are some of the more interesting short arcs in the game currently.

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How do I get the various badges and things in a PvP zone if I'm primarily a PvE person and want, say, an accolade power?

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You go in and you do it. Like I did.

What you don't do is complain you were attacked while PvEing in a PvP zone. It's one of the hazards of PvP Zones, one that they remind you of every time you enter one of the creepy places.

Should badge gathering content have been put into PvP zones, knowing that many 'badgers' don't like it? Yes, because it's unfair to deny the PvPers stuff just because someone who religiously collects badges won't like it.

I don't really like PvP either, but I have all the PvP Zone exploration badges and a few of the other ones. As far as I recall, I was never attacked while hunting them, by the way.

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On that subject, one thing that can go in there are the changes made to PVE to "balance PVP". Why? It's possible to have a different set of effects of a power when it's against a player or "critter", so why not just change that attribute of it? Don't stuff up PVE just to please the PVP minority tyvm.

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Just a quick and utterly honest question from someone whose search-fu is weak: When was the last time there was a 'nerf' explicitly and officially stated as being for PvP reasons? And, given whatever the answer to that question is, why does everyone think that nerfs are caused by PvP balance issues?

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Not sure how "officially" this was ever admitted, but to my mind the most recent one (and it is fairly recent) would be the "using any phase shift locks out all other phase shift power for 30 secs" one. Why? Because I can't see chaining phase shifts having been an issue at all in PvE.

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Technically, the phase shift powers were nerfed for PvE reasons initially. Part of Statesman's 'play the game how I decide it should be played' mentality. Phase shift was designed for escape and was being used as a recharge mechanism (I know I did it). Chaining them would presumably re-enable the recharge possibilities, so you could argue that it affects PvE as well. Personally, I doubt that was an issue and it falls into the category below.

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I doubt there's anyone that thinks all nerfs are down to PvP, but FWIW I believe some of them are.

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As noted above, PvP balance issues affecting powers which don't affect a target must affect PvE as well since there's no way to differentiate the different environments.

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NCNC don't really have a track record yet,

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Well, it's still the old team that has been working on the game for years, so it may not be "NorCal" but the "DevTeam".


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Well, yes, but I'm a 'developer' and I know that 'management' has as much to do with this as the actual development team. I have liked what has happened to the game while I was away (well, still not so sure about MoG, but that's details) and I like the general way the Midnighters plot line seems to be going. These were under the current development team, but I still think that this next Issue is going to set the tone for how people perceive CoX's development under "the new development house." It's as much about perception as reality, as with so much about public relations.

(( I'm thinking, about 8:30. If we meet on the steps above GG, we can go find somewhere easily accessible to all and a bit more private. We'll handle it in Team chat, probably. ))

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However, I don't see why wielding a sword would get in the way of mentally blasting your enemy.

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I hadn't noticed it doing so. Pretty sure the nice Mentalists still toss psi powers around between swinging that thudding great lump of metal. Just, most of them are on a not terribly short cooldown.

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Knife wielders and gun users aside, how do you beat a guy with a sword and psi-powers?

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Use a /wp character?

The sword doesn't count, mind. It's more of a polearm, way to big to pose a serious threat at very close range.

I suspect that if they could have done it, they would have already, so it's a fundamental limitation of the engine in some way. Similarly, I don't think we'll ever see the possibility of changing body type (male/female/huge) after creation. (Pretty sure the idea of a character that changes sex when they go from normal to super has appeared in a comic book. I just know someone would like to do it in-game. )

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However, NCNC have shown us by their track record that

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and I think you need to give NCNC a chance to show you what they can do before damning them out of hand

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You'd do well in Orwell's dystopia... doublethink for the win!

NCNC don't really have a track record yet, this will make or break it so they need to get it right. You're right that we don't really know what's coming, that's pretty much what GhostRaptor was saying. OTOH, we can make (un)educated guesses and then gripe about them as if they were facts like usual and from this it should be possible for NCNC to see what concerns players (fairly loyal, passionate players) have regarding those potential future paths. Yes, we should not cry DOOM until we have real, solid details, but this is 'da intarwebz' and that's how people express themselves. By now, I'd hope that companies have got the hang of trying to pick the legitimate concerns from the dross. If I were NCNC, I'd be picking over threads like this fairly carefully, along with the survey results, to figure out whether to implement specific features and in what way. (Sadly, I'm not NCNC, if I was, I'd have an income. )

If I have one part of a set at level X and one at level Y where both are within a couple of levels as each other, does slotting them give me the set bonus?

Not been in a position to test if they have to be the same level.

I would say that it is significantly reduced, but not gone. I was too busy enjoying it not being laggy to post anything.

One MMORPG 'reporter' seems to have had a good idea...

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/g...Fview%2Flatest

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Every time I force a Rikti or Lost boss into melee on my Invul Tanker I feel like I'm exploiting.

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You are, but only in the exact same fashion as every good melee combatant.

You're a knife wielder:

How do you beat a man with a polearm? You get into close range where he can't use the weapon and stab him in the face.

How do you beat a swordsman? See above, you just have to be better. (Even I can off a typical polearm user in LRP and I suck in combat.)

How do you beat a guy with a rifle? Well, preferably you stab him in the back, but if you can get in close his weapon is a great lever and very hard to get into position to shoot you if you're close. That's why soldiers have small arms and knives (which can usually be used as a bayonet).

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Besides, Sappers are Minions. They die fast enough.

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Sappers don't ever die fast enough, even if they go down in one hit.

We've been asking for it for years. Since at least the point when the face and figure sliders were added.

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1) The damn endurance slog till you hit stamina. How can running out of endurance every few minutes be fun?

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My WoW main is a mage. We call it Irish Magician mode because it goes:

Drink. Fight. Drink. Fight. Drink....

And people say WoW is fun.

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Hmmfh, well..... they can afford to keep that blimp flying up there can't they!,

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Helium blimps are very fuel-efficient.

And if you had all that air pollution from Crey's Folly, you would coat your blimbs in Teflon.

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Heroes in Wellies! - honestly!, Have you any idea how silly I feel?, I look ridiculous!

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This is what Thigh Boots were invented for. One of my heroines spent a lot of time in the sewers recently and she's now saving up to change her costume to thigh boots... aka waders.

Waders... now that's an interesting costume option addition...

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The cars are one-third too small

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It's a polution control thing. Paragon City has banned large cars due to their excessive polution. This is also why there are no busses... diesel is death!

(( Right then, let's do this tomorrow (Tuesday) since I got naff all sleep last night for some reason and my brain currently resembles thin broth. ))

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DeadKitten'o'meter

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Yes! This one.

The Robinsometer: "You are the weakest link, go to Paragon City."

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It never ceases to amaze me how the human mind works.

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I've mostly stopped being amazed. I don't think anything that happens on a forum has amazed me in... oh, two years or so.

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What we have here is a marketing survey with a range of hypothetical game features each described in just a (relative) handful of words.

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Well, the purpose of a marketing survey is generally to confirm ideas which are already planned, or reject ones that were already thought to be a no-go. They are designed to garner opinion, and you've got opinion.

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How anyone can argue so vehemently on a positive or negative viewpoint of the impact of any of these hypothetical features on the game, at this stage, boggles my mind.

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Some of these concepts, the moral compass being the most obvious, radically alter the concept of how the game is played no matter how it is implemented. It's bound to provoke emotive responses and that's without it being posted on a forum.

Put a load of ideas in front of people passionate about the subject and you're bound to get speculation and evaluation, probably passionate speculation and evaluation.

So, no, not amazing at all. Quite expected, really.

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I'm afraid I can't see the irony here. If I read a comic book/novel/or watch a film I can't change the outcome - that doesn't spoil the immersion or destroy the story, and the fact that millions of comics/books/movies are still selling world wide suggests that a lot of people feel the same.

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Fair... except:

Well, first off, you aren't playing a movie, you're playing an interactive computer game. More than that, you're playing what some people refer to as a roleplaying game (not me, I know what a roleplaying game is, and MMORPGs arent them, anyway...). The very essence of RPGs is that you can affect the outcome.

Second, don't you ever sit through a movie thinking "why is that character being so utterly dim?" and wishing you could point out to them that even with the evidence they have it's bleedin' obvious that their best friend is the villain? I'm saying this, and I don't see surprise twists (except in M Night Shamalamadingdon movies because he's forgotten what 'surprise' means) because I like going to see movies to just sit there and watch. But when you sit watching and something that's supposed to be a surprise happens and it isn't, don't you kind of wish you could step in and rewrite the script?

Maybe not, but that's why I play roleplaying games, even the computer ones.

Hmmm...

Villain side: Railroaded content. Now implemented in the newer zones on Hero side though somehow it seems less bad since these aren't your 'main' contacts.

Yes, the contacts have interesting concepts and story arcs to go with them, but that seems to be at the cost of choice. By level 15 in CoH I have a half-dozen contacts open. At the same point in CoV I seem to be lucky to have one. If I don't want to follow that arc right now, I need to go do newspaper missions until my broker will give me another contact. Villain side has always seemed far more linear than hero side. Possibly why I don't get on with it.

That said, the oft mentioned hero-side habit of a contact giving you a mission half-way across the city, involving two changes of train is just old-school MMO theory: keep them online and paying subs by dragging out the travel times. Stoopid!

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I'd guess any NPC that is going to use powers, whether for, against, or indifferent to the players will have to utilise powers from specific groups that have the AI already coded for them, so while you could have your other villains/heroes in a mission looking very much like your alt, they won't have the same range of powers: a bit like Jim Tremblor has crosses of Controller and Tanker earth powers instead of a full set of either.

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3. Players can build powers for some NPCs by selecting from a group of primary and secondary power pools and attaching them to the NPCs

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Which (in my eyes) implies you could create villains for which a generic AI would need to be used.