Techbot Alpha
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Quote:No. I just feel particularly vindictive at the momentOriginally Posted by Samuel_Tow
Um... You listed three people - yourself included - and three stabs. Did you take your own life there?
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Quote:If that were to happen;Originally Posted by Dispari
What, you don't want to pay 800 points to get an item that has the potential to give you another item that is 1/10th of a single costume part... maybe?
From left to right;
[Insert Suitable Dev], Myself, Posi
Stab, stab, stab... ¬¬ -
Quote:Just don't even THINK of charging Valve prices for stuff. SeriouslyOriginally Posted by CactusBrawler
Pretty much if the devs want their microtransactions to work, they should look at other games microtransactions.... like TF2... hats so many hats
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Quote:All the witches hats say hi.Originally Posted by Xanatos
While the entire CoT redesign has been a complete waste of time...
...I gotta agree with not including the pope hats. They would look SO STUPID poking out of force field bubbles. -
Quote:I'm still mad about the lack of big PPD and IDF gloves...Originally Posted by Vanden
I, like many here, am sick to death of getting shortchanged on these NPC conversions. I don't care if they clip with 20% of the available costume pieces, that's still 80% they WON'T clip with. Just like with the IDF pieces, I wanted to make a costume that looks like the group's bosses, but instead I'm stuck with looking like the minions. This is not acceptable! At least with this set I can voice my displeasure by not buying it.
There is literally NO good reason for that. David mentioned the 'forcefield/energy raction sfx' being unique to IDF and PPD...so why not REMOVE the damn sfx? I don;t even want that, I just want the gloves! -
Quote:No, I'm saying what the Dev's seem to view as 'minimal clipping' (which seems about as mercurial as said liquid/metal/element) and the Player view seem vastly disjointed. And I would wager the Dev version is a lot more draconian without much actual point to it...Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
So because they haven't stuck perfectly to their aspiration of minimal clipping, they should abandon it entirely and just release any old junk players ask for regardless of whether there are any pieces you can use that it doesn't clip with? I'd much rather the devs at least try to keep some modicum of polish on the content they release. This remains the superhero MMO with the best general character look precisely because they take care not to add pieces that look awful, forty nine times out of fifty.
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Quote:Not like that's been a major request for, oo, years now?Originally Posted by Lady Catnip
Although.. I suppose they could just stop making new pieces of stuff all together and instead just rework all the old costumes. But i supposed then people would get hiffy and mad and start complaining nothing new is coming out. LOL
Wait... -
Right, thanks for the heads up folks.
Will be moving my poor 'Fender to blueside instead of Goldside so that I can actually enjoy levelling her
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Quote:Believe me, I will happily stand on the Devs side when I believe they are in the right.Originally Posted by Lady Catnip
I'm not saying that people may not have a valid reason to voice their complaints. But at least try and look at it from their point of view instead of only seeing it in 2D so to speak.
This time is not one of them. 'Because it clips' is an excuse (yes, excuse, not a reason) that is as old as Statesman's underwear. And it STILL hasn't stopped pretty much every costume piece to date, the vast majority of which can and will clip with a variety of other pieces. Hell, certain female shoes still clip with the feet they are on. If that's not double-standards I don't know what is. -
Winter: That would be a valid point...IF the argument 'But stuff clips' hadn't been used for as long as I can remember being on the forums.
CB: T'be fair, you're not helping our side. We're trying for reasonable argument here, not a flamestorm. Hell, *I've* been accused of being a 'Dev Apologist' when posting on threads during the many downtimes, because I view necessary hardware upgrades somewhat more essential than damaging a few peoples pretendy fun-time time. (Because hey, I couldn't play then either. But I found other stuff to do, problem solved)
However, there is a valid counter to the 'no clipping' excuse, and I for one would rather not have bad-mouthing detracting from it (hopefully) being taken seriously. -
Quote:Because tails and hair and various hat-hair don't clip with a huge amount of jackets.Originally Posted by Zyphoid
Ok, I can see where the big hat and the long skirt would clip. That I can accept, and see where the Long skirt would play hell with the MA and StJ animations also. For the live of me I can't figure out what the strapped gloves, and the spiffy bejewled belt would clip with.
Well, I can see for story reasons why not to give the belt. The strapped gloves though?
Because nearly ALL the shoulders don't clip hugely with most jackets, which in some cases actually creates some good stuff.
Because-
Yeah, you get the drift. 'Because it clips' is the worst excuse to still be trotted out. It might as well be a skeletal horse for the amount of times it's been trotted out to die and be flogged... -
Quote:Problem is, none of this will be 'valid'. The amount of faith in the playerbase seems to be nearly non-existent and 'it's for our own good'.Originally Posted by DumpleBerry
Well said.
Whenever I'm designing a new costume, I always have to take clipping into account. It's just a function/limitation of the game.
That is, unless it's one the devs deliberately place on us.
I don't expect much further comment on this, t'be honest. When it comes to most stuff like, it seems the norm is to be 'We are Law' and all that.
While I love Freedom and First Ward and such-not, I'm still not happy enough to drop certain points that still seriously irk me. -
Quote:Agreed. Sadly.Originally Posted by Carnifax_NA
So you spent all this time redesigning the CoT group so you could release Player cossie pieces for it, attracted a vast thread criticizing many of the changes (as well as some hilarious new memes), redesigned it again and then when it comes to release many of the things people were looking forward to aren't included because of "clipping issues".
Time well spent. Kudos to the art team. -
Quote:Then why are there still TONS of costume parts that DO clip through geometry, Pos? Why is that rule true some of the time and not the rest of the time? As a general rule of thumb, players WON'T create stuff that clips horribly but, really, shouldn't it be up to the players to decide what looks good and what doesn't? Why else would I (for one) keep seeing comments from you guys about 'Wow, we didn't expect to see that used like that...that's actually really cool!' etc?Originally Posted by Positron
Hey everyone,
I know there is some disappointment in a few of the COT pieces that didn't make it into the package, and I want to dispel some of the rumors that we do this to keep unique pieces in the NPC's hands.
What is more likely the case is that the pieces in question clash with over 20% of the other pieces in that area (cutting through geometry, in general looks really bad). In these cases we reserve the right to withhold these pieces in order to maintain the good looking characters you guys are capable of.
Not an answer that will make everyone happy, but we do our best to ensure that a vast majority of our costumes, current, past, and future, work with everything else. Not everything will fit the bill, and just work with one or two other pieces, but that is a situation we work hard to avoid in the first place. Sometimes a look just has to win out though, and the piece gets made anyway. It's just that we work under slightly different guidelines when concepting and making parts for an NPC group than we do for PC costumes. -
Does it treat all characters the same? I.e. is there any point in me running my Sonic/Beam Defender through Praetoria to get Praetoria dialogue, or do the contacts in FW magically (pun not intended) not know you're a Praetorian as soon as you get there?
Asking since
1) I keep seeing mention of it in other threads
2) I hate Preatorian mobs. I love Praetoria's story, I just hate the mobs you have to trudge through to get anywhere.
If there's no unique dialogue, I'm gonna re-roll my lowbie blueside and save the hassle >_> -
Quote:Exactly. That 'argument' is about as valid as...an invalid thing that landed in an invalid space ship from the Invalid Planet.Originally Posted by Mephistroth
Not to mention you can now permanently buy those Halloween powers that make you look EXACTLY like alot of the enemy group NPCs.
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And this is why not getting up early has it's bonuses.
*wanders off to poke shiny new Mids and possibly blast stuff on Xbox* -
Quote:They might not cover every possibility, but they DON'T, and here's the important part, FORCE you into a very narrow corridor of possibility like Graves does. In fact, they specifically omit mentioning certain things, which in turn let YOU, the player, fill in all the blanks you want without incident.Originally Posted by Megajoule
I happen to know Twoflower, and I can state with some authority that his arcs are written with the specific intent to address some of the limitations of official content in this area (among other goals). Even so, they can't cover every possibility. Also, the player doesn't really have any more freedom of choice than the official arcs; it's just better hidden, with the character addressed as a superior rather than a lackey and the initial assumption that the character has chosen to undertake this villainous plan, rather than having it foist upon them.
I'm not familiar with the other two (contacts? authors?) that you mentioned.
For example, how the hell could a Robot use a cloning lab? It never says you can't, it never forces you to give DNA samples, so by courtesy of omission you can safely assume that you simply tweak the cloning lab to instead manufacture copied chassis that are programmed as you, the Boss, see fit.
Sometimes omission is safer and more freedom-giving than inclusion. D-Mac and crew manage that balance for the better. Graves does not. -
I'd rather they changed the scales on the female model.
Make physique effect PHYSIQUE, NOT how damn big the thigh/hips/butt are. Seriously, physique does approximately sod all to the actual arm and leg muscles. It's really annoying that ALL female characters have to be either stick thin or bulky in areas they shouldn't be just to have the illusion of muscle mass. -
Quote:^ This, a thousand damn times.Originally Posted by Zyphoid
And why should they? There are all of 3 people on these boards who think they should hold back costume items for NPCs. The signature characters I can get behind, but not the common mob that I can kick the *** of every day to take their stuff.
The 'but they have to be unique' BS died a death many, many years ago with the introduction of VEATs, Cimeroran armour (you can make a PERFECT copy of a Roman Boss) and VG armour. -
Quote:Spectrals are a small portion of the greater CoT mob poolOriginally Posted by Zombie Man
Add these to other 'broken' NPCs:
Spectrals with their -ToHit
Rularuu and Cimerorans with their -Def
Illusionists with their phasing
Vanguard Magi with their -End and -Res
Succubi with their Confuse
EB rezzers/ambushers
Final Bosses with some unresistable damage, especially in patch form (move or lose)
So, um, yeah... business as usual. And I love it.
Nice to see the uber Defense ATs sweat once in a while, especially when squishies have the tools to circumvent the foes' gimmick.
Rularuu are barely fought these days, and Cim's seem nicely balanced. They have tons of def and -def but they still take a Bone Crusher to the face the same as anyone.
Illusionists are easily predictable. Ignore them when they phase, Energy Transfer to the skull when they pop back. Again, one mob out of the whole Carnie pool.
Again, one specific mob that you can lock down and wail on until it's a mushy puddle.
Again, one mob, a BOSS mob no less. Of course they should have the tricksy stuff.
EBs, AVs. I expect these things to have nasty tricks, because that's the whole point of them. Although totally resistance to any damage type is just cheap, and the Devs seem to agree given the last change to various tier 9 powers that were making it impossible for S/L ATs to do jack to them.
Having an entire enemy group at a certain level range that can infi-stealth and confuse any melee AT is not a challenge. It's not fun, it's not even hard. Their tricks didn't 'circumvent' anything; they were still pinging off my Tank like thrown pin-tacks. Or possibly cheese.
It was just frustrating and annoying. THe only 'sweat' was on the level of "No, **** you, I cannot be bothered to deal with an entire mission of this. Good day /Abandon." -
Having actually examined the CoT mobs up close, courtesy of the Who Will Die? arc...
I actually don't hate them so much anymore. They don't look anywhere near as 'busy' as they seemed in screenshots and, while Ruin mages colours still look daft (blue, orange and yellow. Not a colour conscious mix) the rest of the stuff actually looks pretty nice. Soul Mages especially look quite threatening. -
Quote:^ Agreed. I could have run that mission on my Invul/Enrg tank without much damage taken at all. Except damage to my patience and dealing with frustration as my targets vanished despite me using small yellows, to the point of simply using Energy Transfer on every single minion out of shear hatred for their pixelated innards.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
I wouldn't call the Resistance "challenging." They don't hit any harder, they don't die any harder. What I would call them is "annoying," because you're only actually fighting them half the time. If you're on a character who's at least reasonably survivable - and I usually am - then their actual threat isn't all that imposing. They're just irritating. I've fought them with a variety of my own characters and never found the mission impossible or even all that difficult. It just takes longer and frays my nerves considerably more. And then people bark at me for being grumpy and complaining too much.
The resistance are on the same level of "annoying" as that Mastermind bug which causes enemies to scatter to the four winds whenever you lay down a Poison Gas Trap - it doesn't make things so much harder as it just pisses me off. -
Quote:Perhaps I was a tad too irate when posting the OP.Originally Posted by SpittingTrashcan
I was snippy. More than warranted, objectively.
This is why I was snippy: my threshold for what constitutes "broken" is very, very high. Much higher than, say, "not very good". I am tired of seeing things called "broken" when they are merely not very good. "Broken" is a term I prefer to see reserved for "there is literally no way at all to do this, no matter how ludicrous", which is a very high standard indeed.
I agree with the poster upthread who mentioned mez as something that is not very good. Sadly, most of the things that can be done with perception and stealth also fall into this category, because like mez, perception and stealth are implemented in a very simple binary fashion. This, along with the stacking math for buffs and debuffs and the tremendous miscalculation of the advantage of AoE damage, is the root cause of many things that are not very good (although sometimes amusing).
On the other hand, I do not call it "broken" when the developers choose to strip away one or another of the many advantages we have over NPCs in an attempt to make an encounter more interesting, unless doing so actually renders the encounter completely impossible when it is intended to be possible.
It might not be very good, though.
But, then again, surely a mission that causes the player to go "This isn't impossible, but to hell if I'm putting up with this for a whole mission!' and simply leave it, abandon the mission from the list and go do something else entirely (bearing in mind said player usually has a high patience threshold ) isn't exactly the pinnacle of design? So much so that it could bear a once over to make sure things aren't being more unreasonable than they should be.
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Quote:D-Mac and Leonard.Originally Posted by Megajoule
"I go my own way, I make my own path, I have complete freedom!"
You are correct that the game currently does not support this for villains. IMO, it has never supported this. It is uncertain whether it can support this, as it's an almost completely different style of MMO design ("sandbox" vs. "theme park", if one uses those terms).
I say again, it's always like this (all the way back to the design phase, where you would start out as a minion in one of a few existing villain groups, plus Arachnos). I'm not seeing any new complaints, really. Why did you expect different now?
Really, there is not much else to add.
Those two arcs are as close to perfect as possible. Mortimer Kal isn't bad, nor is...oh, whatsis name. The Rogue Legacy Chain member.
How is it possible to go from writing gems like them to re-vomited turd like Graves? Really?