TonyV
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Posts
1977 -
Joined
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I don't know exactly how many battles it takes to win, but it's a lot. Some nights, I go there have the zone completely to myself. I'll fight all night, like five or six hours, and still haven't moved the bar all the way over. Really, I kind of wish they would change that. Without interference, you can finish the zone events in Bloody Bay, Warburg, and Recluse's Victory in an hour or so, if you're taking your sweet time and take a bio break or two. Finishing the zone event in Siren's Call is an all-day affair. I'm not saying it should be as fast as the others, but damn, it's just so long now.
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I'll say it again, because I see too many people here thinking it's an all-or-nothing issue.
You were being perfectly reasonable asking for Speed Boost. You were perfectly reasonable being irritated when the Defender gave you grief about asking. The Defender was wrong about threatening to leave.
However, kicking them halfway through the last mission after all of the massively hard parts of the task force were done? Not cool. You had already put up with it for at least a couple of hours or so; calming everyone down and putting up with it another 20 or 30 minutes wouldn't have hurt.
As it is, it sounds like you got sucked up into the bickering and kicked them because they didn't agree with you on the "right" way to play, not because there was any real threat that the team wouldn't succeed. I don't hate you, and I don't blame you for being mad, but sometimes when you're running a team, you have to put aside being mad and focus on the goal. -
Congrats, Mr. W!
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Quote:Heh, that's a good one. If I don't win, of the submissions so far, I hope you do.Originally Posted by Dark_Respite
"[Broadcast]TheOcho: One slot left on Numina TF... last man standing gets it."
Oh wait, are we allowed to comment on other people's entries? Especially if it's positive? -
The debate over who was going to participate in Numina's task force quickly intensified when Infernal's frat brothers showed up.
If I am a winner, I permit NC Interactive, Inc. and NCsoft Europe Limited to use my name, likeness, photograph, hometown, and any comments that I may make about myself or this contest that I provide for advertising and promotional activities. I also certify that I am at least 13 years of age and am eligible to participate in this contest. -
Good luck, and thanks for the fun things you added while you were here. I hope everything goes well.
Quote:You know, most community reps have said this in the past, but strangely enough, I never see them around after they leave. I think CuppaJo posted a couple of messages after she left, but then that was it for her.I would say that I’m going to miss you, but trust me – I’ll still be around.
I suppose it's possible that they may be around playing the game under a different global name and I just don't know who they are, but that would seem kind of weird to me. I mean, if I worked for NCsoft/Paragon Studios and left and continued playing, I can't imagine I'd hide who I am. Granted, I'd probably create some macros to say, "I don't work there any more, I'm just a player like you. Please contact the current community reps and/or support department to address your issue." I wouldn't want to give up that warm and fuzzy feeling of almost everyone knowing who I am and most people being friendly.
*shrug...*
To be honest, I don't miss most of them. I don't mean that in a mean way, I don't actively dislike them or anything, but I think that people lose site of the fact that it's a job, just like any other. Maybe a fun one, but one that I suspect doesn't pay especially well and that, some days, is probably extremely frustrating. It's not like any of them are in my supergroups, have run task forces with me, hung out in Pocket D with me on any occasion other than announced events when there was a mob there, etc. They seem like nice people, and I certainly wish them well, but to be honest, my main thought is of who is going to take her place. I've got a few things I'd like to help get publicity on.
Anyway, if I do see you around, I'll see you around. If not, then good luck wherever you land, and like I said, thanks for the neat things you added while you were here.
Edit: I do miss Ex Libris.
Of all of the community reps, she's probably the one I had the most one-on-one interaction with. I think someone should call all of these people up and do a "Where are they now?" retrospective or something...
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I'm glad they didn't roll over on the whole AE thing. They said from the outset that it was expressly for the purpose of creating stories, not farming. Granted, they underestimated the lengths to which farmers would go in making everything about farming.
At that point, they had a rather difficult decision: Let yet another facet of the game be jerkhacked, or take some unpopular steps to get it back in line with its original goal. It really was a toss-up for a while in my opinion whether they would implement some half-hearted attempts to fix what was wrong, let the farmers ruin it and move on to something else, or take some kind of strong, decisive action to let people know, "We really mean it!"
I'm glad that they didn't choose one of the first two options. I'm also really happy to see Dr. Aeon's efforts to publicize and popularize the Mission Architect system, as I really think that when it comes to game mechanics, this is the one thing above all else that makes City of Heroes different from other MMORPGs, and that as time goes on an the system improves even more, it can turn into a key aspect of the game. But it all depended on people using it as it was meant and not hideously exploiting it as they were. -
Quote:That's not a bad thing. I like that normal, mortal people can actually win now.Originally Posted by Caligdoiel
ETA: This is what happens when whiner babies say the games are too hard. This is your fault.
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No, it's not. They've shut down pretty much all avenues of trade. The practical consequence of allowing any trade between the two is that it will effectively merge the markets.
I'll let others with more time than I have right now argue over the merits of whether or not that should happen and why. -
Quote:You know, I hate to say it, but I have to agree. Niv and Avatea, please, please, please proofread the words you put into this puzzle!Originally Posted by Morbid Star
that is not fair ... Artic Mastery is NOT an Ancilliary Power Pool
Again, I'll point out that this puzzle is being presented as a skill-based challenge, and it is still more of a lottery as to who just happens to guess the right thing to do in any given week, if there is even a right thing to do at all.
Seriously, grab one of your coworkers to look at your screen for a minute (if even that), and say, "These are the words I'm planning on putting in the puzzle. Can you please look them over to make sure I haven't made any typos?" If there's a word that you're not absolutely, positively, 100% sure on, look it up!
Just so I'm not completely busting your chops, I'd like to say that I do appreciate the fact that you've gotten away from the possibility of two- or three-letter answers this time, and I think it helped a lot. -
Quote:I don't play Villains much, but if I did, this would be the person I'd want on my team.Originally Posted by Bronze Knight
I was zoneing to a Mayhem mish at the time I didn't want to do a full write up. However if you want me to.....
In short it sucks because it's THERE. Like some festering wound on COV.
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Quote:What you are describing is passive, not active.Originally Posted by Lemur Lad
For what it's worth, I'd consider firing useless debuffs and AoEs on an AV and ignoring needed team buffs to be Actively keeping the team from succeeding.
Does firing useless debuffs and AoEs on an AV hurt anything? I mean, obviously, once the battle is engaged? Of course not. If the Defender weren't there, the team would have been no worse off; therefore, no harm.
Does ignoring needed team buffs hurt anything? No, even that doesn't measure up. Again, if the Defender weren't there, the team would have been no worse off; therefore, no harm.
Does some idle bickering hurt anything? Yeah, maybe a little bit, but if that's a kickable offense, then about 90% of the teams I've been on would have been disbanded five minutes after we started. From the OP's recounting, it was certainly not enough to keep the team from succeeding.
Kicking someone from the team, especially halfway through the very last mission of a moderately difficult task force, is an active act of aggression. Due directly to the OP's actions, that person is out a Synthetic Hami-O and the completion bonus experience, prestige, and influence, and probably at least one or two nifty drops, and maybe even up to three badges. Whether you think it's justified or not, there was harm done.
If I were the OP, here is a short list of things that I think were justified in the circumstance as presented by the OP:
- Editing the player note to remind me that this player isn't very good and won't listen.
- One-starring them so that I wouldn't team up with them again.
- Telling everyone to calm down and just focus on what they're doing to get done.
- Telling the person that if they want to leave, they're welcome to.
- If they proceeded to do something to actively "spike" the task force, then (and only then) kick them.
If I were the leader I wouldn't have kicked them, and if I were on the team it would have kind of tweaked me that someone who had helped out didn't get the task force reward even if I weren't involved in the whole SB/no SB spat. As weird a concept as it is, I sometimes believe that both parties in an argument are wrong. Maybe not equally so, but wrong nonetheless. -
<QR>
As most of you know, I detest the practice of farming. I did not log on a single time this weekend, not even once. I always avoid "double experience" weekends precisely for the reasons mentioned. Personally, I wish they'd do away with them completely.
I have played double experience weekends in the past, and I have seen some of the most unbelievably rude and obnoxious behavior during them. People being kicked from teams for no reason, people being yelled at for slowing a team down or even just for not making a fast team faster, people criticized for not having the "right" build or the "right" slotting, and so on. To add insult to injury, they made it coincide with a reactivation weekend, which means that people who might consider coming back got to see the worst of Paragon City front and center instead of the best.
Ever since the very first one, I've thought that it's a silly promotion. It's gimmicky, it has no in-game tie-in or rationale, and all it does is kowtow to the "give me MOAR!" crowd that, frankly, does the game more harm than good in the long run. The only positive that I see coming out of it is that it makes people with the attention span of a flea get bored faster and leave sooner than they probably would have if they had to actually earn their experience. Other than that, I honestly feel that double experience weekends are a complete waste. -
My take on it:
I wouldn't have kicked her. The only reason I've ever kicked people before is because they did something to actively keep the team from succeeding at whatever it was attempting to do. If she had, for example, deliberately drawn multiple AV aggro to the group, I would have done it. People getting mad and sending me nasty messages in tells, I really don't care so much about. I would have added a note so that I wouldn't team with her again, but that's about it.
Also, she had participated in all of the missions up until the very last one, and really, had helped out through the hardest part of that one, too. Unless she got really nasty to the point where it was causing so much distraction to the team that they couldn't finish the mission, I would have kept her on the team just because whether the team liked her methods or not, she did put in the time and effort.
And she does have a point. I don't like it when people tell me how to play my characters, either. If I think there's a better way, I might suggest it as you did, but if they say no, I usually just drop it. I've found that most people are pretty stubborn, most teams do fine in spite of not being as optimal as they could be, and really, sometimes people who are trying to be helpful to me are just plain wrong. Even if she was "doing it wrong," by kicking her, you made sure that what she was adding was gone.
Like I said, I probably would have been pissed off, too. I would have added a note and one-starred her to make sure I didn't team up with her again. But in the end, I would have just said something like, "Everyone calm down, and let's just get through this," and grin and bear it out.
Edit: For what it's worth, when I see people broadcasting slanderous comments about someone else in the public channels, I almost always assume that they're just being petty and I give what they say no weight at all, sometimes even "negative" weight, in that it usually reflects a lot worse on the complainer than the complainee. If I had witnessed all of this, your reputation really would have been better off had you just not said anything in response to her broadcasts. -
Quote:Hopefully, open beta will hit soon, and you'll be able to see and experience it for yourself. By policy, folks who are in closed beta can't (or at least, aren't supposed to) share what they're seeing and doing, or risk getting kicked out. Having participated in closed betas before, I can tell you that it's a highly motivating factor not to screw up so that they'll ask you again.Originally Posted by Evolution13
Are there any anywhere? All I can find are screen shots, which show only the shadows and reflectivity features, everything else is either frustratingly absent (Like.. characters!) or too small to make out any details worth noting.
As for official material from Paragon Studios, they're probably still trying to nail down all the nitty gritty details and don't want to overpromise anything, but I really do think that it will be sooner than Soon before we start getting lots of info. -
Quote:The planners, both online (SuckerPunch) and offline (Mids) are part of the Titan Network:Originally Posted by Plusone
Hiya, I left game a few months back and have decided to come back but can't remember where i downloaded Mids from, anyone got a link?
Thanks!
http://cohtitan.com -
Quote:I'd have to agree with this assessment. To be honest, I think that the winner has historically been a matter of random chance more than skill at finding words.Originally Posted by Zombie Man
This is one of the worst run games. Ever. You think with all the legalese about participation and compliance with state and national laws there'd be a little more caution with running this a little more carefully.
Each week, a puzzle typically has ten legitimate answers, along with three to five answers that happen to end up in the puzzle due to chance. There's a significant chance that you will end up guessing one of the incorrect answers, and if you do, you are irrevocably disqualified from trying again. If you point out that there are more than ten correct answers in the puzzle, again, you are irrevocably disqualified. The thing is, in both cases, you have done nothing wrong. You have followed the rules to a tee, demonstrating that you have indeed found ten words that are being sought.
What I think is being misunderstood is the scale of just how daunting task that really is. Mathematically, if there are only eleven legitimate answers in the puzzle, the odds that you happen to pick the right one are 1 in 11C10, or 9.09%. If twelve legitimate answers are in the puzzle, then the odds of you picking the correct one shrink to 12C10, or just 1.52%.
Just to be clear, I can certainly write a generator that can forcibly avoid duplicates in the puzzle. However, there will still be the problem of answers that are legitimate, but that were unplanned.Quote:Originally Posted by Zombie Man
Time to find a new game for Mondays, please. Or, let TonyV help you as he keeps offering.
I could include a second list of words to not put into the puzzle. Of course, this means that if a puzzle is wanted of, for example, badge names, then someone would have to input a complete list of badge names, then transfer ten of them out of the "do not include" column and put them into the "do include" column. I'm not sure if they'd want to go through that much trouble.
I rather agree with Zombie Man on this one, that a minimum word length of five or six could virtually eliminate legitimate words finding their way into the puzzle by chance. If a puzzle generator is being used, what is the difference between putting "Ge" in the puzzle and "ChoGe"? Not much.
I think that there definitely needs to be rules changes to be more community-friendly. Here is what I would suggest:
- All correct answers will be at least five letters long.
- The first puzzle submitted that contains ten correct answers--any ten correct answers, not just the ten that the puzzle author happened to pick--will be considered the winner.
- Duplicate words are only considered one correct answer. So, for example, if "ChoGe" is a correct answer and you found it, but not in the place where the puzzle author placed it, it counts. If you point out that it's in the puzzle twice, it still counts, but the two duplicates count only as one legitimate answer.
I know that it's a bit deflating for you to post a puzzle just to have it solved five minutes later. But believe me, it's even more soul-sucking to us to post a correct answer and get excited because we think we've won something, just to be told that it's wrong, we can't submit a re-entry, and on top of that, we've just given away ten correct answers for everyone else to use to try to post a "correct" submission. As Zombie Man said, it's not fun, it's frustrating as hell.
Here's Tony's take on things. Costume codes are cheap. It costs you guys nothing to churn out more. If it takes people only five minutes to solve a puzzle, then so be it. They're barred from entering again anyway, so it's not like that same person will win week after week. Really, it's so easy to generate these puzzles that I might consider posting as many as one every weekday. The people who are cheating will get their costume codes in the first few weeks, be barred from entering again, and that will leave a fun little puzzle for everyone else. Yes, that means that over 200 costume codes will be given out each year. So what? It's not like it's impacting your revenue, it's still a small enough percentage of the player base to make it something special, and it will make us feel like it's not so impossible for us to get right that we don't even bother trying. -
Okay, first of all, I really do appreciate the fact that you're coming to the East Coast. This has been a sore bone of contention for me for a long time, that West Coasters have been able to get all of this fancy swag because NCsoft/Paragon Studios has been all up and down that coast. San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle... It's apparently really handy in-game perk-wise to have a zip code in the nines.
Having said that, I really do consider it a flub that you announced that you're going to be at an event only after it's impossible for us to actually be able get into the event. If I lived in Boston, I'd be very sorely disappointed if I couldn't get to this panel. Nevertheless, I'm really glad that you're having the meet-and-greet. And yes, to others who have posted here, I can't imagine that it would be at the event; it will almost certainly have to be at some third-party location where you don't actually have to have an event pass to attend.
Having said all that, I don't live in Boston, I live in Atlanta. It would be cheaper for me to get to Boston than the West Coast, but considering that I'd only be going for four hours or so of activities, I just can't justify spending the hundreds of dollars it would take for me to go. I'm not griping; on the contrary, what I'm getting at is that I hope that this is a new push towards trying to reach more fans.
If I can be a salesman for our fair city for a minute, Atlanta has a HUGE event every year called Dragon*Con over Labor Day weekend that would reach a large number of existing and potential new players, it is a major regional hub of the entire Southeast (Hartsfield-Jackson is the world's busiest airport; both Delta Airlines and AirTran are based here, as is UPS if you're really cheap), it's spread out and easily accessible for a major city, it has a lot of nice amenities, the weather that time of year is just gorgeous, and there would be a TON of stuff for visitors to do other than convention-related stuff if they want to make an actual vacation of it (CNN world headquarters is within walking distance, as is the Georgia Aquarium, the World of Coca-Cola, and lots of other neat stuff).
Anyway, like I said, I really am glad to see Paragon Studios stepping a few degrees off the longitude they've been so huggy on in the past. -
Quote:I've got $5 that says they change their mind on this before they actually start selling pre-purchases.Originally Posted by Avatea
The City of Heroes Going Rogue: Complete Collection costs $39.99 (€29.99 / £26.99)...and cannot be prepurchased (only the separate expansion can be prepurchased).
At any rate, I'm betting that the item pack is either $9.99 or $4.99. $9.99 seems like a good number, because that's the difference between just plain Going Rogue and the Complete Collection. (Okay, it's a penny off, sue me.) $4.99 seems like a good number, because it acknowledges that those who just wait and buy the Complete Collection are getting a free month (~$15) of play.
So if the upgrade pack is $9.99, you're basically paying $15 to get early access to Dual Pistols and Demon Summoning. If the upgrade pack ends up being $4.99, you're paying $10 to get early access to the additional powersets.
I know, some folks don't like the idea that it will cost extra to get early access to these things. If you're one of those folks, there is always the cheapest option: Wait until July, pay $40, and get ~$15's worth of play time with your purchase. You'll get everything for a discount net price of around $25. If it makes you feel better, I guarantee that your dual pistol or demon summoning whatever would have been thought of as just another flavor-of-the-month character. Of course, there's also the downside that your dual pistol or demon summoning whatever will be (presumably) forever barred from earning the 6th anniversary badge.
But the point is, what's more important to you? $10-$15, or having three to four months of extra play time with your dual pistols/demon summoning character? I'm not suggesting one way or another is better, it's just your personal preference. -
Quote:You do realize that the first one or two pictures are designed to be unwinnable, right? Keep looking for forthcoming pictures. The idea is that eventually, something will trigger that, "Ah, I know where that is!" moment, at which time you can collect your code.Originally Posted by Kohei
Now these things require a lot more attention and time than I have to give. Never mind the fact that they seem to be un-winnable.
I'm pretty sure that by tonight, if no one gets it sooner, it will be painfully obvious where it is. -
Sure you don't want to take me up on that offer to write a generator that will guarantee no duplicates for costume code? I can even make it a javascript generator, so that you can download it to your own computer and guarantee that my server won't be watching over your shoulder to give me the answers or anything.
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Quote:Keep in mind that they're not done with it yet, so the requirements and recommendations may still change. It's not a bad idea to keep the exact specifications under wraps until they know for sure; you wouldn't want everyone going out and buying new equipment just to turn around and say, "Um, that won't work" later.Originally Posted by craggy
bit sad that they're showing us screenies (ooh, shiny) and telling us that Ultra Mode is coming "if your computer can handle it" but not telling us what our computer will need to have in order to handle it.
Nevertheless, Matt did post this list of video cards that should be able to handle the job pretty well. You might want to take a look at it if you're in the planning stages of an upgrade. -
Thanks, guys. I thought that she wasn't taking it because it wasn't framed exactly how she wanted it. I was standing there trying to figure out what position and camera angle would best get the shot exactly as she had it. I tried standing up on that porch area, even hovering a little bit above the ground. I kept thinking, "If the camera were further away, I think I could get it..."
Then I thought, "What if the camera were here, but I were way back there?" When I looked to see what was back there, I realized that behind the bar would be a tricky place to stand, and I took the picture when I was back there.
I didn't even see the fourth screenshot until after I posted my message. (The notes at the bottom were edited in after.) When I looked at where the bartender was, I saw Niviene standing beside him and thought, "Sweet googley moogley, that's it!"
I wouldn't have gotten it without the earlier posts, though. Maybe I'll be able to return the favor in the future.
These contests usually take place during the day, so I'm probably not going to have many opportunities to win stuff from them. It's just blind luck that I happen to have this week off and can participate in them. -
Actually, I think she's standing behind the bar, as RIGbot Tango is here...
If I am a winner, I permit NC Interactive, Inc. and NCsoft Europe Limited to use my name, likeness, photograph, hometown, and any comments that I may make about myself or this contest that I provide for advertising and promotional activities. I also certify that I am at least 13 years of age and am eligible to participate in this contest.
This is her standing next to the bartender, from the fourth screenshot:
Here's a close-up of Tango, since the lighting and distance makes it hard to see him in the original screenshot that was an attempt to duplicate Niviene's:
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Typically, when pre-orders become available, they'll post a news item with locations where you can get them on the front page. They'll probably post a news message on the forums, too, to let folks know that it's available.
From there, you'll know whether acquiring it in the UK is or isn't an option.