Shadow_Kitty
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Posts
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Joined
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Some of my personal favourites (of the little that trickled to Sweden):
Tripods - one of my first introductions to television sci-fi.
The Prisoner - a must-see (and I'm talking about the old one from the sixties).
House of Cards trilogy - three mini-series of four episodes about... well, post-Thatcher politics. Imagined post-Thatcher politics, but nonetheless.
Spooks - one of the few secret agent shows that I enjoyed.
Neverwhere - urban fantasy, lacking in budget, not lacking in atmosphere, writing or Neil Gaiman.
Hornblower - naval drama of the napoleonic war, extremely well produced and authentic.
There's a series of Sherlock Holmes series starring Jeremy Brett that I loved, but it seems to be hard to get by nowadays (at least in Sweden). I regret not getting the big DVD box with all episodes when it was available, but at the time I couldn't afford it, and now there's just bits and pieces available.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Robin of Sherwood series when it was aired in the 80s, but it has not aged well.
Oh, and add Red Dwarf to the list. -
Quote:Me.Originally Posted by MrCaptainMan
Europe rocks!
It's got:
What? Me megalomaniac? You jest! -
Quote:I'm very aware that every arc's illusion of choice is just that: an illusion. They are all scripted linear events. That includes the Dark Mirror arcs.Originally Posted by Warkupo
I find it odd that you pick this particular series of missions, the only missions that ever gave you any choice or sense of freedom at all, to aim your complaint about hostile character take over. Every mission up to this point, save a few missions where you can choose to do nothing and have some sense of moral superiority about it, has been an entirely scripted event where you were along for the ride and merely doing whatever your contact told you to do with your only other option being to just abandon the mission and pretend they didn't exist.
My point is that by attributing me, the player, with the author's thoughts, the illusion is shattered. There is no longer anything hiding that the arc is a scripted linear series of events. I have exactly the amount of room to maneuver in the Mirrors arc as I had before in every other arc (that is, zilch! nada! nothing!), but now they have stolen the (non-functioning) steering wheel and don't even pretend to fool me that I'm not just a passenger for the ride.
I want my illusion back. It's as simple as that. Even if it is just an illusion. -
Quote:Bwahahaha!Originally Posted by Mandu
While checking up on the thread you skim over your original post and suddenly realize that you were completely wrong. You actually quite enjoy the mission author telling you what your character is thinking. "Must have been the lack of caffeine." You think to yourself as you mentally shrug your shoulders and continue on to the next thread.
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Quote:And that is actually my point. It is well written and executed. It isn't particularly great - I mean, someone wants something and can't do it herself and needs you to do it, and there are some obstacles, and then you're given the choice: betray your employer or die. Not much of a story.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
True, Ghost Widow's arc is well written and executed...
But I'm not talking about the story. I'm talking about the telling of it.
Well, I can see why Daos is waving his trouser snake in my general direction: Recluse certainly has more use of a dead Widow bound to Arachnos than a live Widow doing as she pleases. It's quite well-established by that point through earlier arcs and lore, but that's besides the point.Quote:Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
Ghost widow wants to... Live again. Oh, no, the horror! It burns! Must... Stop... Wait, what? Why am I bothered that she'll live again? Doh, right. I'm not! So the only reason I actually go out and betray Ghost Widow is because Daos pulled his pants down and waved his willy in my general direction.
In the other cases, I want to betray my patrons. In two of the cases because they're out to kill me, and in Emo-boy's case because he's about to undo the game, which is bad because without a game... So in those cases it's more like self-preservation against... well, nothing. There's nothing to lose.
So why not? I don't even think twice about betraying Emo-boy, Sushi-man or Bullsh*t (endearing nicknames, isn't it? it shows how much I care about these characters). "You don't need to wave John Thomas in my direction, mr Daos - I'll gladly kill him for you for free. Where do you want me to deliver his head?"
Ghost Widow is the odd man (or woman as it were) out: in this case, it's self-preservation against the affection of a quite likable character. I don't want to kill her, but it's her or me, because Daos would rather want a dead bound Widow than a live free one. It is a choice that matters so much that people (not all of them, but at least me and some other voices I've read on the board before the EU/US merge) seriously considered to force it by not completing the arc.
And if people care about a character that much, the authors are doing something right. There is a hard choice right there. Hard choices are all about conflicts, conflicts are drama, and if the hard choice is yours, well, the drama is yours.
Yes, the story is about as paper thin as the other arcs, but it is well told.
I like the Dark Mirror stories. I just don't like the way they were told.
...here's the problem: author's are not mind-readers. I was thinking and wanting one thing, and suddenly I was told I thought and wanted something else, and had to carry the idiot ball in an idiot plot anyway.Quote:Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
I'd rather be told what I think and what I want if what I think and what I want are what I ACTUALLY REALLY think and want, rather than the game sort of quietly assuming what that might be and forcing me to be carry the idiot ball in an idiot plot.
And this time I didn't even have the illusion that the story was about me. -
Quote:Agree. I would kill (well, not really) for branching stories. They don't have to make it worse by bad storytelling. As the old saying goes, a diplomat is someone that tells you to go to hell in such way that you look forward to the journey.Originally Posted by Umbral
Remember, the story arcs in the games already control our actions and decision making processes.
My favourite arc is still Ghost Widow's patron arc, because I identify myself not only with my character but with Ghost Widow as well, and when it comes to the betrayal part, I don't get the pathos smashed to bits by telling me in the clumsiest way what I feel. I was seriously considering to not complete the arc - to make myself the choice that the system didn't have.
But the Dark Mirrors arcs? No. Didn't work. It had the potential, but no. It's a good story, but bad storytelling. It may be as straght-forward and linear and potentially compelling as the Ghost Widow arc, but by removing the little illusion of "my story" there was - the blank, if you like - they didn't make me look forward to the journey. -
I suggest that the author of the Dark Mirrors arcs gets a kick in his hiney.
I really like the Dark Mirror arcs, but there is one thing about them that I don't like. And the reason is the "you" part. "You realize you have a piece of paper", "you remember that thing" et cetera. The little yellow part at the bottom of each dialogue part that tell you what you do or think. And that is a great storytelling blunder.
If you ever play tabletop roleplaying games, you quickly learn the different lines that you can cross, can cross if you are allowed to, and can never cross. You can always tell a player what happens to him. You can sometimes tell things that he feels and how he reacts, for instance when the character is hurt. You can never* tell him what he thinks. As soon as you do that, you take his character away from him. It's no longer his.
In computer games, the identification between the player and the character is even more limited because the lack of tabletop roleplaying games' flexibility from a referee. That's why characters in RPGs often are mute, to provide you, the player, with a blank to fill in your character's response, or you are given a choice between certain reactions to emulate what you feel. You don't want to break the identification between the player and the character, because that kills immersion and thus kills the game.
Telling you, the player, what your character thinks means that the mission author just stole your character. If I recall correctly, the tips about Mission Architect even discourages from such behaviour. Still, that's what the author of the Dark Mirrors arcs just did. It looks to me as if the designers of the Dark Mirror arcs think like authors of books, not authors of computer games or even tabletop roleplaying games. There is a great story in the Dark Mirrors arcs, but it's told in a blatant and clumsy way.
I know that there are lots of people out there that don't read the mission text. It's a wall of text that you click away to get the red blammo on the map so you can rush there and smash things. I know that there are lots of people that read the mission text but does not care, because they just want a story.
But there are also lots of people that do care about having a good story told about their own characters, and on behalf of those I would like to revise the original suggestion: please rewrite the mission texts of the Dark Mirrors arcs in such a way that they don't steal my character.
Thank you.
* I know that there are quite a lot of co-op storytelling in the indie movement, but I'm a trad tabletop roleplayer and don't give a flying fsck about the conventions in co-op storytelling indie RPGs. -
And now I can't log in to my master account to see the reply to my ticket on the matter.
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Ditto. According to PingPlotter, the high ping rate starts at 195.16.161.58, somewhere in Frankfurt near the datacenter. Everything up until that point is fine (telenor and tinet).
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Quote:Okay. Anyone that names their cat after a Russian aircraft construction bureau/company deserves respect.Originally Posted by War Witch
And then I got my cat, Miko (short for Mikoyan-Gurevich), who is a Russian Blue.
Even if they like dogs. -
Quote:Of all the possible reasons - terrible teaming, too easy, too console-y, too little content - access to every power is actually the one I least expected. To me, it feels kind of silly to not being able to shoot with a gun just because I have a sword.Originally Posted by Wondering_Fury
It sucked. Seriously...
Everyone has access to every power?
How lame. -
Quote:This worries me.Originally Posted by War Witch
However, while I'm playing the role of pitbull and poking my nose where it doesn't belong, if you have any questions about why I love Europe so much, what my favourite chocolate bar is, or why Canadians are so awesome, ask away. That way, I can keep you periodically entertained while we wait.
The general attitude to keep humans entertained by allowing them to invade your personal space to pet you, ruffle you up, confuse you with laser pointer spots on the floor and Glod knows what these opposing thumbs-equipped mammals may come up with, is an innate feline attitude.
Just compare to all other domestic animals: dogs will happily get the leach as soon as you're ten feet away from the door; birdies are happy as long as they get their cracker and something to perch on; rabbits just munch on anything carrot-like; but above all, they do this out of ignorance or for their own entertainment. Cats alone take entertainment of humans so serious that it has to be considered a job.
And yet she takes the role of pitbull?!!
Seriously, War Witch, which one is it? Cats or dogs? -
Quote:That depends on whether their QA/CS guys read their inbox or not. I /bugged it on Feb 14th, and I would be surprised if I were the first.Originally Posted by KianaZero
I wonder if this is a known issue? I mean, they knew about it before, but do they know about it now?
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I got it to work for at least two restarts in a row by turning off UAC and then turning it back on. We'll see if it remains like that for some time.
It still feels a bit unsafe. I don't like turning off security measures like UAC, firewalls and antivirus, and every time customer support tells me that I should, I feel like they're telling me this:
"We're sorry to hear that your car won't start. Please try to drive your car sitting naked on the hood without seatbelt, and come back to us if it doesn't work."
Security measures are there for a reason. If someone can't make a program to work with them, they better learn how. Microsoft have pretty comprehensive guidelines on how to do it. -
Quote:My problem is that it works once.Originally Posted by Niviene
As an FYI if you updated before the EU update server was restarted, you may need to follow the below directions posted by Rent_. (tested and they do work)
Translated version of the instructions are on the way however feel free to translate for your fellow players.
Once the computer is turned off (I do that every night), the cohupdater.eu.exe file magically reverts to its unworking state, at which I have to copy the downloaded file to the CoH folder again. -
Bunneh!
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The only thing that's crusty and old is the sediment in my coffee mug. That could possibly one-shot Mako if I washed the mug.
But in three months' time... -
Quote:That one mostly happens when there's a lot of spikes in the netgraph. I've always assumed that the data packet telling the client to play "open door" animation got lost somewhere, but as you can push through the door anyway I assumed that you guys thought it was a trivial thing.Originally Posted by BackAlleyBrawler
Ugh...those kind of bugs are nigh-impossible to track down. Only happens sometimes, and only happens to some of the people who are there to witness it.
We might be with this one for a while...hopefully we'll get lucky and figure something out.
At those times, there are often times when the server seems to forget to tell the client that a certain animation should be playing - not only doors, but other people's toons as well. -
Female avatars that uses the Drink emote pours the content into their left eye.
See image at http://home.foxtail.nu/trailers/bilder/drinkemote.jpg -
Take one: Tripods. Big stonking martian Tripods, blasting everything in its way, leaving only civilian clothes falling to the ground as they're hit by the heat ray, and the land is slowly covered by a strange red weed. While one group of heroes fight the tripods to delay them, another group have to enter all the secret biowarfare labs to make a virus that could kill the martians.
Take two: Fimbulwinter. The wolf Skoll swallows the sun, the wolf Hati swallows the moon, darkness falls and the world is blanketed in snow. Then, after brother fight brother and all kinship is broken in this wolf age and axe age, gods and giants fight the final battle.
No, there isn't anything the heroes can do, except to die well in the final battle. But for three winters with no summer in between, they have to fight to uphold some dignity, because every villain that dies will fight on the giant's side in this final battle.
Take three: The amazon planet. A strange planet, inhabited by beautiful green-skinned four-armed warrior women, has entered the solar system. Unless the heroes makes a gravity repulsor and places its two parts on Earth as well as the strange planet, the two planets will collide and both will be destroyed. If successful, there will be a new planet in our solar system. And the warrior women on the other planet will be tempted to invade the Earth and steal all its men. There will be a great debate on the other planet whether they should or should not, and only our heroes can persuade them to not do it.
Edit: And if they invade, they do it in martian tripods. -
Cel shading = rendering technique for making a 3D image look like colourized line-art: like an old animated movie, comic pane, rather than photo-realistic.
The name comes from animation, where the animators draw and paint on transparent celluloid (later cellulose acetate, as celluloid could decompose and was highly flammable) or "cel". In that way, the animators can concentrate on their respective element in the scene, and also look back in time and see how the animation flows. Then, the cels are arranged and stacked on the background to make one frame, and photographed onto film. -
Levelling speed has almost doubled (MA not accounted for) in the last two years. We run a weekly event in the supergroup, where we play for about three hours every Monday with some reserved toons that are not used outside the event.
First time around, it took about 64 weeks = 192 hours to reach lvl 50. Last run, the first toons dinged 50 after 38 weeks = 114 hours. We weren't playing efficient any of those runs. We were in it for the fun, and we often used capped TFs to let stragglers keep up.
Yay for patrol XP and general XP boost. -
Still here after 47 months, still being the house cat of the Echelon, and I don't plan on leaving anytime soon. In fact, I like what I see so far.
I would like some more information about I16 and beyond, for instance rough time frames and direction of content. Nothing in detail, just things like "I16 is slated for late fall or winter, and will have more story content, I17 is due for spring next year and will have a new cool system" - things like that. -
We have a saying over here. "It'll be alright, an' if it ain't it doesn't matter".
Even if I can agree that I15 is a bit thin, it's an issue with things I like. I care about more cossie stuff. I care about TFs and missions, and yes, I'd want more, but there's a MA full of stuff. I'd say it's brilliant - it doubled the amount of content overnight.
Of course there will be more farming, because there's more content overall. Besides, people seem to like farming. There are people that for some strange reason like PvP too, and I won't stand in the way for their fun.
I play CoH to be a superhero/villain with my mates. I don't play CoH to be dazzled by all the stuff that the devs could put into the game. So they don't dazzle me with I15 - so what? That's not why I play.
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Okay, there are three things I really would like added to this game.
<ul type="square">[*]Smaller issues more often. Not these mega-releases twice a year, but smaller ones every two to three months. That means more story content, maybe more graphics, but probably not any big systems. They would be cool to have, but please put another team on those.[*]More tails.[*]And animated hair, just to see what GG would wish for next.[/list]
...but as the two latter are very unlikely, period, and the former seems to be heralded with I15 anyway, I'm not dissappointed. So there. -
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Also, mashing buttons 3-6-7-8-1-4-2-3-4-2-3-5 repeatedly is pretty much how the entire game goes. Including AV fights. If that bores you, I don't see why you're playing CoX (or (most) MMORPGs in general) at all.
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Because of the people and the non-button mashing parts of the game-play, of course, and specifically CoX because of the cossie generator. It rocks.