Rubberlad

Whether it's deliberate or coincidental, they've *never* been able to release new content prior to a long holiday weekend. The real loser here though is NCsoft because thats at least a week of potential booster pack sales lost while they get Freedom up and running. It will all work out otherwise.

I work in Herndon, Virginia (a hop,skip from DC) and it was the craziest thing when it hit. I was hosting a meeting in my office when the building shook 3 times and gravel spilled off the roof. We evacuated and were left outside for about 40 minutes before being told to go home (Hubby and I live in Maryland so it was a long ways for me to get home!). We have no cell phone service but internet's on (and hubby just came home safe from his job in Bethesda just a little bit ago).


I have to remind my west coast folks who are laughing at our overreaction that we, the East Coasters, have nothing to fear from the quake itself. We have reason to fear our building codes. Our structures aren't built to withstand an earthquake - and I'm more than sure a number of our old buildings will show where the builders cut corners after this. We have minor reports of walls, trees and telephone polls collapsing, spires at National Cathedral breaking off, and slight particles of rubble falling off the Washington National Monument (its not leaning though despite the Twitter sham). There's already photos floating about of the wall that collapsed on cars over by Tyson's Corner, VA.


Thankfully this wasn't as bad as it could have been but there's still reason to be nervous that in a couple days or weeks, a weakened building structure might actually collapse. For those who live in the area, just be vigilant the next couple days. For those outside the area who might still be laughing at our overreaction, just remember: not only have most of us never lived through this before, but we really don't have safe and sturdy buildings like others might. And the power DID go out at our two local VA nuclear reactors...... they're running on back-up generators currently. So lets count our blessings and be glad this isn't a secondary catastrophe on the scale of Japan.


Hopefully everyone makes it home safe tonight. I saw two accidents on I-270 going home but nothing too serious. Its gonna be a long and slow ride home for some regardless so hang in there the best you can.


Hugs,

Rubberlad

Two words: power customization.

Make two sets of F/X available: one with clock faces amidst the swirls, the other just swirls (or even sandy swirls to represent the sands of time). For a powerset labeled time manipulation, its not wrong for players to want F/X that visually embody time symbols.

And how can you overlook alternative F/X for any new powerset without considering power or weapon customization? Or are you planning to sell alternate powerset F/X options at a later date?

So let's say you want to work up an alliance with the Council - who have a beef with Knives of Artemis. You run a few missions for the Council, earn faction loyalty points which can be redeemed for exclusive NPC costume parts and badges but you also risk increasing ambushes by Knives of Artemis whenever you enter one of their "owned" zones...

Or scratch that idea entirely because its completely lame. But is it really too late to add *some* kind of NPC Faction system to the game? It would add a whole new level of interaction and meaning, I should think.

What kind of "starter city" would you build if you had unlimited time, money, labor and resources to get it done? What would you need? What should it look like? And what kinds of NPCs/content would you need it to offer? Do you want something gritty and realistic? Polished and futuristic?

Enquiring minds wanna know.

Seems he has some unfair advantages - particularly:

1) He can teleport THROUGH the bridge (unlike players)
2) He can summon jump bot pets after all the Sky Raiders are defeated
3) He moves faster than any lvl 20 player ever could...
4) He never tires (versus the players who tire just chasing after him following mega fighting for 2+hrs)
5) He can summon an airstrike UNDER the bridge which seems wrong somehow.
6) I like a little cheese with my whine - and Duray clearly doesn't. That's a problem when trying to keep the team's spirit lighthearted and fun.


Don't get me wrong, its a really good but extremely long TF that's very draining. By the time it came down to defeating Primal Duray, and that took 2hrs on top of the 2 hrs it took us to GET to that point, the never-ending boss fight was extremely tedious. So how do people defeat Primal Duray at the end of the Admiral Sutter TF? And is it possible he's a boss that needs to be toned down just a tad? Personally I felt like this would've been GREAT end game Incarnate content - not sure why its only available for lvl 20 - 40 though. I'm not even sure how a team of lvl 20 toons *could* be suitably equipped enough to succeed at this TF. Is it really possible?


We were four players (All lvl 50 exemped to 40) and we just couldn't beat him (although we cleared out the sky raiders and the other duray, no problem). Eventually our folks just dropped out from frustration and anger (one of whom sweared he'd kill his account because no game was worth so much frustration after fighting as long as we did - and we put in quite a lot of effort as a 4-man team which is why everyone was ticked that we failed a 3hr+ TF because of one virtually unstoppable boss. That said, I'm still trying to talk our buddy out of cancelling, lol).

So any guidance or advice for a small team of 4 to defeat this would be appreciated before we ever attempt this again.

Thanks.

Now that is one cool sushi bar...

War Witch mentioned something about bases getting love a couple of months back but not sure whatever happened with that. Probably shelved for now.

Power proliferation aside, will we ever see any new non-Incarnate power sets or were electric control and kinetic melee the last new sets we will ever get?

When you play something more that your average mission, do you prefer single instanced trials with multiple goals or taskforces with chained together instances and mission objectives?

Or do you not see a difference between either?

One million dollars a month for a 7 yr old MMO game that still maintains a subscription fee isn't just good - its damn good! And you know the game has more than paid for itself by now. So that's easy money to boot.

I think the old gurl still has a few good years of life in her yet.

Just curious. Be nice if backpacks could expand a toon's storage capacity when/while they are equipped. Is that possible?

Woot, 7 years and going for City of Heroes! Its been an absolute blast and continues to be so! Thanks to the Devs, the players, and all those darn NPCS that keep us coming back for more after all these years!

Happy anniversary City of Heroes! And here's to many more!


XOXOXO

Rubberlad

Thank you!!!

My first-ever professional writing commission was just announced in the UK today! I'm so excited!!!

The anthology is called Obverse Quarterly: "Elements of Danger" and features the the uber-heroic adventures of the masked Mexican wrestler, Senor 105! Watch as he takes on opponents from other planets, supernatural dimensions and the Mexican film industry!

The collection features stories by Julio Angel Ortiz, Lawrence Burton, Cody Quijano-Schell, Jon Dennis, Blair Bidmead and yours truly (mine is the opening story for the collection and is entitled "Glyph"). Folks who remember my AE original story arc "Church of the Broken Dove" might want to give this epic adventure a try as well!

Don't worry, Murphy's a temp.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think what you're asking is: Will Issue 21 have anything new for the solo player or will be another issue dedicated to team trials and incarnates?

I'm sure its way too early to start sharing details about Issue 21 but I think it'll have a lot more of the QoL fixes and new costume options you're looking for (and the Devs have been hinting at) plus maybe some base love at long last. An issue like that would probably give them the time they need to get the next phase of Incarnate content out (ie Issue 22).

Anyhew that's my take on it. Truth be told, the Devs have been excruciatingly quiet of late - but I'm sure there's a very good reason for that. I can't believe I'm telling you this but "hang in there as best you can." Something good is coming - you just have to give the Devs time to get their official script together.