Ravenswing

I thought the Spines issue was more to do with my comment about the arrows: that they would revert to the default form when left sticking out of the target.

I'm prepared to be corrected on that. I don't have the most perfect of memories.

I have two different and totally contradictory views on this.

I enjoy reading well though out, funny, spoof biogs. Funnier the better.

OTOH, in a roleplay character I want to see some physical detail not obvious from the avatar, and (since this is a modern world with mass media) a little bit about anything you could read about the character in the gossip columns and newspapers.

I do not want to read the entire character history. I do not need to be able to read that this person is actually a demigod from the planet Flarg. I'd prefer to discover that by talking to them (or, preferably, to discover that they are something entirely more reasonable. ).

Thankfully, the short length of the CoX Description box makes some of the more lengthy biogs impossible, for which I am eternally grateful.

PS. One of my characters has as her bio, a couple of lines from a song. That's what inspired the character, that's all there is in the Description.

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I suppose I was just expressing a desire to see CoH make the same impact - regardless of the difference in game styles.

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A worth desire, but it isn't going to happen. Power levelling and end game are too deeply ingrained in the majority of MMO players' psyches.

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I don't suppose the community team is recruiting? lol

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Check the job section. They were recruiting a while ago. I know my partner would have applied (she speaks four languages), except that we would have had to have moved to Brighton.

Keep smiling and ignoring the fact that they should be all over Steel and Skyway.

Yep, it could well be. I just don't know. It's possible it isn't baked in, it could well be as well.

Logically, this should be easier to do than full power customisation since I'd assume the projectile model is seperate from the impact model (which is the bit they currently can't change).

Can't see the point of changing the arrows, you barely see them anyway. The multiple shuriken styles seem a bit, um, pointless, though I could see the variants, like the sawblade.

The other reason for not doing the arrows is that they do have an impact animation. Your rularuu arrow (whatever that is) would become a normal arrow once it was sticking out of the target.

Dual Rollingpins.

I know someone with a LRP-safe frying pan, so dual frying pans could be interesting. Might work well with a Junkyarder character.

The Office Temp: Dual wielder of staple guns!

I was a little confused at the title, expecting a 'this community is going downhill' rant, so I was rather pleased that wasn't the case. It seems you are talking about the community liaison team rather than the community. Well, the NCSoft offices are in Brighton, if they go much further downhill, the'll need aqualungs, but aside from that, yes, I was also a bit concerned that the web site seems to get news items posted to it and everything else has barely changed since I left 18-odd months ago, so I see your point.

OTOH, the game itself has seen an upheaval of dramatic proportions in the switch in developer. I suspect, as Scarlet Shocker does, that we may see some serious changes around the time I13 comes out. Major web site changes also require a fair degree of development time and, if I set aside my pessimistic nature, I could see the lack of changes as a sign that work is underway for a revamp.

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I just feel as though it's not that the masses don't want to play - it's that the masses don't know we're here having fun without them! LoL

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Here, I don't entirely agree. CoX is something of a niche game and I like it because of that. It's not that I would not like to see more people playing it, but I do recognise that a fairly big majority of the MMO playing (western) world is highly attuned to the style of play to be seen in WoW and other games.

WoW (and LotRO, and most other games it seems) are heavily biased toward end game content. The levelling process is largely there to teach you how to use your character's skills/spells. The real game starts when you hit the (current) level cap and begin doing high-end instances, raids, and PvP.

CoX is all about the levelling and content. I'm pleased to see that (on my return) I have things to do with my only level 50, but fundamentally, the thing about CoX is alts and repeatability. It also has both the best soloability of any game I've played, and the best teaming mechanisms, especially the sidekick/mentor system. And while there is a vast amount of excellent content, so much it's next to impossible to do it all with one character, this will soon be suplemented by player created content making the game even more repeatable.

However, none of that matters if the player enters the game for the first time expecting to ramrod his character through 50 levels and then start playing the game for real, which is the mindset of a fair amount of players. CoH is a roleplaying game in the sense that you play it to be told the stories and have your character take part in them. If you never read the mission briefs and clues, you never get that and you aren't going to appreciate the game.

So, I'm rambling, but the point is that, no, this game is never going to be another WoW because WoW is an entirely different kind of game and people who think WoW is totally great are never going to understand what's good about CoX.

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They're new recruits getting combat experience before moving into the truly dangerous areas

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Well, it's been about two years, shouldn't they have actually, y'know, moved into the dangerous areas?

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Reminds me of all the fuss over Longbow being a "private army", with a "set uniform". Let's just overlook Supergroups for a moment...

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I doubt even the largest SG can match Longbow for size and combined power. And the city did not call upon the SGs to police the streets, they got Longbow in, a private organisation, rather than what should have happened in that situation which is that the National Guard should be patrolling the streets.

I don't really care that they have a uniform. I kind of care that they are there to handle a threat (Arachnos, not the Rikti) which has never materialised and they have never been stood down.

Was there ever a convincing in-game reason for planting Longbow all over the place? Or a OOC game reason for that matter?

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Tha National Guard could handle Hellions and Skulls, but not Arachnos.

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That is making the assumption that the National Guard in our lovelly parallel world is the same as that here. Unlikely. While I, personally, would not give them water pistols, I should imagine the NG there have access to some fairly hairy equipment. And it's better to have a branch of the government on your streets than a private paramilitary organisation.

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And as for the lack of a threat, perhaps the fact that Arachnos have so far only managed to get footholds in Siren's Call and Faultline is proof that Longbow are actually doing their job, and containing Arachnos?

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Also unlikely. Their placement is restricted to core areas of the city which would require Arachnos to overrun several outlying sectors in order to get to them. They may well be doing their job in Siren's Call, but that still does not explain their placement in the core sectors with no presence in the regions most likely to be the next targets, Steel Canyon and Skyway.

I'd like chinese-style swords for Broadsword as well.

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Then they should be parked all over Siren's Call and Steel Canyon. What are they doing in Atlas Park and Galaxy City where you don't see a whole lot of Arachnos there.

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Meh, they can do what they like over there. Place is a military state anyway.

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Oh, I don't know, there was just the small matter of Arachnos getting into the city via Siren's Call.

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Then they should be parked all over Siren's Call and Steel Canyon. What are they doing in Atlas Park and Galaxy City where you don't see a whole lot of Arachnos there. Interestingly, the only Longbow officer in Steel Canyon is the one that was put there for the intro mission to the PvP Zone.

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Reminds me of all the fuss over Longbow being a "private army", with a "set uniform". Let's just overlook Supergroups for a moment...

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I doubt even the largest SG can match Longbow for size and combined power. And the city did not call upon the SGs to police the streets, they got Longbow in, a private organisation, rather than what should have happened in that situation which is that the National Guard should be patrolling the streets.

I don't really care that they have a uniform. I kind of care that they are there to handle a threat (Arachnos, not the Rikti) which has never materialised and they have never been stood down.

Was there ever a convincing in-game reason for planting Longbow all over the place? Or a OOC game reason for that matter?

I dunno, Blue Steel just always seemed a bit seedy to me after the Clockwork King business.

Now, the problem with repurcussions for all is that the game has no concept of dark heroes. The idea was kind of added in over a couple of years in background and the comics. The original idea from a game mechanics standpoint is that everyone is a legally registered hero and it's only roleplaying that allows you to be a straight vigilante. The game still assumes that you are on the straight and narrow at all times. So, despite the fact that my finishing move on that guy I'm arresting was Golden Dragonfly (aka Headsplitter) and he should be in two pieces, miraculously I did not chop him in two and he's now on his way to the Zig (the only prison in the world with swing doors on the cells).

Perhaps if they ever get that Going Rogue system working and you can stray from light to dark, there will be a midpoint where you can be fighting evil, but doing it in a way people wouldn't like. Contacts would need to change (though I can't see Indigo or Crimson minding if your methods are a little rough) and maybe you get some dodgy reactions from some people you would expect to be on your side. Maybe boss mobs could offer to surrender before reaching zero hit points, and you slide toward the bad side if you then go ahead and finish them off.

Anyway, I'd like for there to be repurcussions for PCs too, but Blue Steel's tale is a background thing and could have them. Both BAB and Manticore got 'punished' for their bad behaviour. Blue Steel created a major criminal matermind by acting in on revenge and got away with it because no one officially knows what he did. Police cover-up...

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Furthermore, anyone who uses a weapon set, a variation on fire, etc, has no right to complain about the guy with the shield.



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I iz Kat Scrapper. I don't have an issue with excessive force, but it is, technically, 'unheroic' to beat some snot-nosed kid to a pulp because he killed a cop. Blue Steel should have known better, but he lost it and there were no repercussions.

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I would LOVE LOVE LOVE an opportunity for heroes to take him down and boot him out of Hero Corps - he's got no place being there IMO

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He's actually a PPD officer, not part of Hero Corps, but your point makes even more sense in that context.

Mind you both BAB and Manticore have been known to use, um, more direct methods in their hunting of criminals, and does anyone else get the feeling that Ms Liberty is far from libertarian in her attitude to law enforcement?

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LIES! It means how many posts they've made.

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Not always. Your post count gets reduced if something you posted gets deleted. So, you could actually have made more posts than your post count. And some people make posts which shouldn't be counted anyway (IBTL posts, for example) so their post count is higher than their real number of posts.

I suspect that it's the way it is by design, and then there are various web sites that can probably supply the information. If I get enthused sometime, I might build a spreadsheet.

Actually, I wouldn't mind some software to collate all my alt's salvage. Maybe I'll get creative.

Well, post count may equate to experience. It probably equates somewhat to length of time playing. That's about as much as it shows.

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I'm saying rather than ANY natural origins out there got it all wrong if they chose to play a controller.

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Not that I said that, of course, even if that's what you read. There are two kinds of Natural, humans with skills and aliens (in general anyway). The latter can explain anything, but you need to be a bit more careful about the former.


@PRAF: I see your point, but not necessarily the need for it. Though there was the case of one well known (to GG anyway) hero who made a 'mind controller' who did his stuff by receipting poetry and prose at his 'victims'. A few stanzas from an epic poem and people fell asleep. Weird that. Leif made him, IIRC. I think he was Natural. You can do some very odd things if you mind is warped... er, creative enough.

*sigh*

There are two options which can be used independantly.
Hide:
* Recipes I don't own.
* Recipes I don't have all the components for.

if you activate the second one, but not the first, a crafting terminal will tell you every standard recipe available which you could make, if you had the recipe. You may then buy the recipe from the terminal, or go check the CH/BM.

The only thing it will not tell you is the Set IOs you could make with those components. I assume that is by design.

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Alowing players to hack thier missions would give them more freedom.

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Easy enough to protect against. Just encode the files and use a seperate MD5 hash key on them, or use a digital signature.

Preventing savegame hacking isn't difficult...

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You massively underestimate the abilities of most hackers, FFM.

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Nah I don't. I just know it's not exactly difficult to prevent the buggers.

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You would need to store the MD5 on the server to prevent it being changed. At which point you probably might as well store the mission files on the server as well. Preventing hacking that way is a lot easier than doing it the other way.

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Alowing players to hack thier missions would give them more freedom.

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Easy enough to protect against. Just encode the files and use a seperate MD5 hash key on them, or use a digital signature.

Preventing savegame hacking isn't difficult...

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You massively underestimate the abilities of most hackers, FFM.

Sounds good. I know it's not entirely suitable, but why not proliferate AR as a secondary. I'd assume the same models so they could probably cut out the redraws that way.