Zortel
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I have a Praetorian Mastermind. If he'd been born on Primal Earth though, he'd be a heroic Mastermind. Not one that started off evil and went good. Just, heroic from the get go.
He is Doctor Zahir Rolando, and he was a fire support technician for the Praetorian Police Department. His robots are semi-autonomous, non-sapient battle units. Three act as fire support, two are defensive units, and one is a siege unit. His Traps are various devices he uses to protect those around him, enhance his robots performance, and damage the enemies will to fight.
There is nothing villainous about the powers he uses. He, as a person, has no intent towards villainy. He just wants to prevent a war between his homeworld and Primal Earth, where he's met nice people and even encountered his counterpart, markedly different are they though in terms of modes of operation.
If he was born on Primal Earth, he'd have likely followed the same life path to bring his expertise to the PPD, or maybe the U.N/NATO.
We know people aren't born evil. We know tools and innate skills have no inherent morality to them, only the way that they are used. We've even got a Latin phrase for it for our medical practitioners: 'Primum non nocere' which in English is 'Above all else, do no harm'. Because medical knowledge could be used to harm someone with incredible intensity and efficiency if used in a malign manner.
We've thankfully gotten Side Switching. And now, we'll have an option to start characters out without having the first 20 levels pre-determined for them based on what they can do, rather than who they are and what they may do. To step backwards would be a dark day in terms of players freedom for concept and character, and as has been mentioned before, mechanically difficult as well -
Quote:Originally Posted by MajorPrankster
IME, they even resent people like me that want to figure out _why_ they think and feel they the things they do, be it the spicy food they ate giving them heartburn and thus making them cranky, or the way they have been taught to think and act by society.
People don't like people trying to get inside their head. That's where they keep all their important things. Also, it seems like you're missing some basic things in your idea.
For instance, why would someone who is playing this game who comes across a change/thing they dislike complain and offer their viewpoint and suggestions instead of just waking away from it, or ultimately, the game itself?
Time, Money, Emotion and Social Investment in the game. I've spent almost £700 on this game over the past 6 years, at least. Many more hours than that as well. I have attachments to my characters and the friends I play with in game. This creates a strong emotional link that makes it a bit harder to cut and run from the game, as I've invested so much into it I'd not like to see all those things go to waste by leaving.
Then there are things we like, that have things we don't like that get in the way.
Example:
You like making costumes. The game adds a bunch new auras to it. You want to use them on your characters and play about with them for concepts and ideas.
Problem. They're locked behind level 50, multiple team content, or some of the options are locked behind two single team task forces that that award 1/10th of the required cost for each one, both, per day.
The only way to get access to something you like, is to do something you dislike, or have the process drawn out over 5-10 days for each one, or more likely, simply don't use them.
Another point to make is the posting environment. When every bit of criticism is seen as an 'attack on the game by sad people who love moaning who want it to fail' or 'people who just don't understand and are doing it wrong', that will provoke tempers, and you will see (As we can currently see now) people locking horns over this.
Now, me? There are things I dislike. But I'm hopeful for the future of CoH with their Hybrid model launch coming at the end of the year, and I hope it works for them.
But will I not say "Hey, I don't like this, maybe this would work better?" or "Here's an idea I'd really like to see implemented, and here's why?" or butt heads with other posters on points of disagreement?
Hell no. -
Quote:Quite!Originally Posted by AkuTenshiiZero
Okay, so...$15 a month gets me the same thing it does now, plus some other stuff like (another) ingame currency.
I can deal with that.
For your current subscription Fee, you become a VIP Member of the game. This entitles you to:
A stipend of 400 Paragon Points a month (Worth $5)
A Character Server Transfer Token a month (Worth $10, stacks with others)
Access to each month's Signature Story Arc (Worth $5)
Access to the VIP server
1 Paragon Reward Token for each month of Subscription, that can be used to unlock things from the system replacing Veteran Rewards.
Live Chat Support from the NCSoft Customer Support Team
And everything you currently have access to in the game.
From this month, you will get 400 Paragon Points per month of subscription, that will become available to you when City of Heroes: Freedom launches (So if it launches in September, you'll have 1200 points to play with (Depending on when your billing date falls) and then 400 each month afterwards). You can use this on the in game store to buy whatever takes your fancy, and if you see some things you'd like, you could either wait till you have the points for it, or throw $5 or more at the store to get some points to buy things with.
In essence: You'll be getting a whole lot more bang for your $15/month. -
Quote:I'm going to let you in on something very important.
I'm merely suggesting these because the differences between villains and heroes are starting to blur far beyond just an idea of specialization.
I want my hero to feel like a hero amongst a community of heroes, and a villain to feel like a villain amongst a community of villains.
It's not what your powers are, but what you do with them.
A ninja blade is not inherently evil. It's a tool. You could use it for evil means, sure, for personal gain and glory. Or you could use it for the greater good. Someone born with the ability to create poisons and other organic chemicals isn't naturally going to turn to a life of crime. A person and their group of friends with Uzis may turn to vigilantism, or even just defending the streets at night rather than be in things for their own profits.
I for one am glad that my reporter character, a prospective Fire/Fire brute will be able to start in Paragon rather than having to get to 20 in Praetoria or the Isles and switch. Her powers burn hotter the more she uses them. Thus, Fury is the perfect inherent for her. Scrapper's Criticals or Tanker's Gauntlet does not fit her. -
I tend to find that the character dictates the choice of set, inherent and ultimately AT, or somethings I take them into consideration at the same time.
Defiance, the Blaster inherent, I justify for the characters. For Zortel, its the build up of residual energy in her power suit that increases the throughput of subisquent blasts, with systems in the suit working to scrub the energy to prevent overload. For Fusebox, her powers build up a charge around her that amps up her power, and soon dissipates after stopping. For Fear Trigger, each shot builds up her psychic lock on a person, allowing her to make them fear pain more and feel more hurt than they are.
I have two Brutes planned for Issue 21 and beyond. The first is a Fire/Fire Brute who has been an NPC of mine for a while. She's a reporter, and a mutant who can generate fire. The problem is once she starts burning, she finds it mentally very hard to A: stop and B: Not set other things on fire. A dangerous mix of pyrokinesis, pyromania and pyrophilia. Fury, the inherent, represents this mental condition taking hold. The longer she fights with her powers in active use, the hotter they burn, and it can also go to explain scrapperlock in the player. Once she stops, she starts to get back under control, the flames die down.
For the other, is a planned Titan Weapon/Energy Aura Brute. In battle, Fury (along with the aura that will give a +recharge for enemies in range and the Momentum mechanic from Titan Weapons) will represent getting into the flow of battle in her magic suit of power armour (think Exalted's Warstriders or a shrunken down version of Escaflowne's Guymelefs). As she fights, she gets into the rhythm of battle and hits faster, harder and more often, until the last enemy falls.
These justifications, the power sets and the play styles of the characters make them more varied than just being one of 14 ATs, and ultimately more fun for me. -
Quote:Electric Assault came in Issue 12, Electric Control arrived Issue 18.Originally Posted by Zombie Man
Without Dark Control, Dark Assault would be lonely.
And the tricky thing about Dark Control is that it will have to work with Dark Miasma for Controllers, which will be problematic since Miasma is already very controllery.
Earth Control came in Issue 12, Earth Assault was added Issue 16.
Synergy loneliness doesn't appear to be an issue, as it's cropped up in the two major additions to the Dominator power set selection, and I could well see Dark/Dark Blasters as the test bed for Dark Assault, with Dark Control arriving at some point after that.
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Character slots permitting, current plans on primary account:
Issue 21: Fire/Fire Hero Brute. Considering Ninja/Time Manipulation Mastermind. Dark/Dark Blaster.
Post issue 21: Titan Weapon/Energy Aura Hero Brute.
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Opinions for Powerset Proliferation 4.0:
Scrappers: Energy Melee, Ice Armour
Defenders: Poison
Controllers: Dark Miasma (Altered)
Tankers: Broadsword, Energy Aura
Masterminds: Cold Domination
Brutes: Martial Arts
Stalkers: Icy Melee (W/Revamp)
Dominators: Dark Assault -
Quote:While you're at it!Originally Posted by Zwillinger
Thanks for the suggestion, I'll be sure to pass it along
Vanguard Redding Sidearms for Dual Pistols Characters!
Impervium Mace for War Mace Users!
Please! :> -
Quote:I don't need to learn how to farm cereal crops to buy a box of Praetor Wheats.Originally Posted by Arilou
That still requires team content.
And besides, Hami-O's came before the market.
A person doesn't need to run a Hami Raid to buy a Hami-O.
I can do my job/play solo or with a small group of friends and take the money/influence to buy a delicious Cole Administration-approved way to start the day/Hamidon Origin Enhancement. -
Quote:Fail Conditions are the timer runs out, and in the case of Lambda Marauder leaves the compound, and in the case of BAF 20 Prisoners escape.Originally Posted by Arilou
IIRC the devs stated in one of the dev diaris that one of hte things they'd learn is to ALWAYS have clear fail conditions. Because if they leave it open-ended players will spend hours and ours banging their heads against unwinnable situations and then being very angry afterwards.
Better to have a clear "Now you failed, try again." to bottle up that rage.
From the sounds of it, the OP's team wasn't failing, they were doing well with one below minimum, and suddenly the game decides 'Hang on, no, not letting this happen' and fails the trial for them with no warning.
There's no difference between 11 people doing it, and 12 people doing it with just one standing in the hospital in principle. In practice, 11 people had their trial run failed even though they were progressing, and 11 people with one body in the hospital would not by virtue of having a player shaped lump doing nothing on the team.
And if it just comes without warning, that's not a clear fail condition.
In fact, this situation would cause -more- rage. You're one down, fighting valiantly and thinking "Hey, we could actually do this! Go us!" only to get slapped down suddenly by the game. -
Inability to take no for an answer, lame chat up lines, poor taste of style...
I know who Desperate Guy is!
PS: Just because he's persistent doesn't mean he should get a break. DJ Zero should take him aside for a "Check yourself before you wreck yourself" and some advice. He does fine with Luminary. -
Quote:It's more of a case of not having the current resources to feed the excess population/provide water/provide work than not having a place to put them.Originally Posted by BrandX
When we have states with vast open areas of nothingness. Or just big countries, where there's miles and miles and miles of nothiness.
We're not close to over population.
Unless you're counting the areas were people bunch up and try to pack so many into a 2 mile radius.
There'll have to be some big, big changes in the ways of farming, power production and water/waste processing soon. And you need stable conditions to do so as well. A certain breadbasket isn't one any more due to soil mismanagement, and in America you can look at the Dust Bowl for what kind of damage can be done. On a global scale. -
Cry Doom, and let slip the fruit baskets of appeasement!
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1: Have the Incarnate Shifts Apply
2: The Master Of Badge requirements reward an extra Astral for Each Badge requirement fulfilled, and an Empyrean for a run where all are fulfilled.
3: Have the enemies within drop threads.
4: Have the reward table at the end award Common/Uncommon/Rare/Very Rare Thread components. -
I'd still like to see the Rikti War book come out. :/
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Quote:Originally Posted by je_saist
If that means shutting down a in-progress trial that has dropped to 11 players from 12? Well, sorry, them's the breaks.
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It's one of the big problems with raid-style content, when you get to the level where you need the higher power, then people late to the game are at a bit of a disadvantage (as those who would normally be doing the Trials will be doing the latter ones).
Another game handles this by 5 man instances that earn you tokens to get raid-level things, which is there to try and help people gear up as old content they would otherwise have gone through is no longer being run.
They could reduce the iXP and Thread requirements for components and have threads drop as iShards do now as another option. It's that point where the small team content tends to be necessary, otherwise you get issues with just not having the ability to get the bodies to run it. -
Quote:Always strikes me as odd, that.Originally Posted by MrCaptainMan
I've run it 5 times now, and it's been exactly the same each time.
Watch cutscene.
Kill some warworks.
Congregate in big crowd on tennis court near buffers/healers.
Wait for sb to pull Nightwing, defeat her.
Defeat waves of non-attacking runners for 5 mins.
Go back to tennis court.
Wait for sb to pull Seige, defeat him.
He rezzes, Nightwing arrives. Attack them both so they eventually fall within seconds of each other.
BAF, Union Style:
Wait for people to zone in.
Trigger Cutscene
Defeat 40 War Works.
Everyone goes to Bivouacs, draw Nightstar between them, defeat her.
1 Team goes North of Tennis Courts, 2 Teams go South, to choke points.
Defeat Escaping Resistance.
Go to BAF main building.
Fight Siege in entrance. Once Defeated:
1 Team Stays and fights Siege there.
1 Team goes to 9CU/Vicky Spawn point to defeat spawns
1 Team goes to fight Nightstar at Bivouacs.
Sync their HP at 20, then at 10, then at five. Wait for new spawn of reinforcements.
Add team burns down 9CU/Vickys, both teams take down their AV.
With luck, Trial completes. Bonus Astral Merits for taking them down without dragging them to the Tennis Courts, for not touching the gun tower controls, hopefully for not letting any mindwash prisoners escape, and hopefully for having no adds about on defeat of Nightstar/Siege.
Bam. One BAF, Union Style. Tennis courts? This ain't Wimbledon. -
Quote:Fireworks, Ice Block, Stone Block, Pure Energy, Nuke.Originally Posted by Leandro
I'm trying to find a list of which ones are from the Empyrean store. I bought them all and now I don't know which ones are new.
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Quote:The flaw is the exception that proves the rule!Originally Posted by Aura_Familia
Interesting way of looking at it. However the flaw in that is the Incaranate armor doens't affect your combat stats or the stats of your allies or the stats of your enemies. . .
Actually that is a good argument to in fact ADD such effects to the armor.
(And the fact that only level 50 characters are eligible for that, compared to post-character creation for the other rewards.)
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I'm going to talk about my most Incarnate-powered character, Rushmore.
Rushmore is a Stone/Stone/Earth Tanker. He started off heroing at the age of 16, where on a visit to Mount Rushmore, he came across a mysterious crystal in a box. Picking it up, the Spirit of America gave him the power to fight the villains, crime and disasters that faced her citizens.
After fighting crime in his home state of South Dakota for 2 years, he came to Paragon City in 2007 at the request of a hero to join a training initiative. Over time, his powers have increased, as shown by his progression up in levels.
At level 22 when I upgraded him to SO's, his basic outfit changed to gain a cape, granted to him by the Spirit of America for good deeds and progress. At level 30, when he go Fly (The Iconic power of heroes, IMO) he gained a glowing aura, and his costume gained the addition of armour (Using the GVE Justice Pieces) and his height shot up a bit more.
At level 41, his costume was tweaked a little more. He was given some mastery over American soil, allowing him to summon up pillars and cages of earth, turn the ground to sodden mud to slow his foes, and call up shards of stone to get the attention of others.
And then he hit 50. No longer was America just going to be facing problems in the country. So she granted him the status of 'Ambassador'. Before hand, if he went into Mexico or Canada, his powers would fade and he'd resume being the young man that he is. Now, he can not only go to other countries and still keep his ties to America's power, but he can go to other dimensions also. He fights fitter, takes blows better, and stands as a pinnacle of the virtues of America he believes in. (Rare Cardiac Alpha)
But he's progressing. Growing stronger. And America is granting him the abilities befitting someone of his devotion, conviction and resolute nature (And his love for his county. Jamie Matthews is proud of who he is and where he's from, and hopes to go into politics to further help his home state and his land. He (as Rushmore) also love to go to the various memorial days, see the landmarks of America, and actually gets power or just gifts for doing so.)
His visit to Memorial Day parades granted him a Civil-war style jacket and cloak, something more formal to wear. (The Victorian Jacket with the arcane cloak, will have to grab a screenshot.)
His visit to Yellowstone National Park ended up with his powers gaining the ability to ignite his foes with righteous fire, burning away their will to fight (Reactive -Res, Fire DoT).
When the Praetorians invaded, he was given access to the lightning that strikes America's highest buildings, to show the invading forces just what they were facing. (Ion Judgement)
In times of strife and war, people will get hurt, and morale will decline. With Call to Justice, Rushmore can rally the spirits of people to take the fight back to the enemy. With his Rebirth Destiny power, he can heal those around them and let the residual power continue to aid them for a time.
And soon? Soon Rushmore will be getting married. And America will gift him with spirits representing Truth and Justice, to look out for him in the field of battle and ensure he can always come home to his wife. (Lore Phantom pets.)
What will the future hold for Rushmore? Well, it depends on what challenges he will face. Even now, he still trains hard and works to increase his baseline abilities (using the IO system) and he's setting his mind to spend the next decade or two working up to election for Senator for South Dakota, all while being a good husband and inspiring hero.
What powers he gains next from his beloved America? Well, that remains to be seen from what the Incarnate System presents us with.
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Quote:For me, I look at it like this:Originally Posted by Aura_Familia
I disagree. It goes directly to the idea that auras are an increase in power. If they are then the booster packs are basically allowing you to BUY an increase in power, something that many players have already stated they won't tolerate going forward. For those reasons alone I don't see Auras as any sort of increase in power. And like emotes should not be locked behind the Incarnate system. At least not ones that do not in any way allude to being an incarnate.
Does Aura X affect my combat stats or the stats of my allies or the stats of my enemies?
If Yes: Not a cosmetic item.
If No: Cosmetic item.
The auras, the trail auras, the costume changes, the emotes and the non-incarnate chest symbols do not affect my combat ability in any way, and thus should not be gated behind incarnate rewards. -
Quote:/kudosOriginally Posted by Shadow_Kitty
It might have to do with situational bias. When you trial, you often play with trial-liking people. Hence no complaints. When you don't trial, even if you play with trial-hating people, you don't trial, and hence there is nothing for the haters to complain about. Hence no complaints.
Here these two groups meet. Here these two groups have a sense of reaching the devs with their opinions. So here you get the complaints.
I don't mind people liking trials. Heck, for all I care, they can play their trials until their eyes bleed. Please do! I mean it, trial to your heart's content! Do it! Love, man, and peace!
What I don't like is the gating and the grinding. I don't like obviously non-incarnate content (swooning emote?) being locked behind incarnate trials. I'm not particularly fond of the idea of grinding at all, for whatever the reason. Hence, grinding to unlock gated content is something I really really really don't like.
There are two arguments against this point of view. One is the "go to bed without dinner" argument: you have to do the trials to get the reward and it's your choice to do it or not. And here is the problem with that argument: it isn't a particularly good choice.
I like cake, I want to have some cake for dessert. If I am to have that cake, I have to eat my dinner. That's not the problem: the problem is that the dinner is spinach, and I hate spinach. I'm never forced to eat the spinach, but if I don't eat it I have to go to bed hungry, grumpy and angry at my parents who serve the food I hate on purpose to cater for my dieting older darling sister - who, by the way, cares nothing of the cake, because she's on a diet.
If there was any other option to spinach, even carrots, I wouldn't have a problem. But now there isn't. There are only two choices: eat the spinach and get the cake, or go to bed hungry.
But it is my choice, I give you that.
So I choose to go to bed hungry, grumpy and angry.
The second choice is the "shut up and eat it" argument. It goes like this: trials are fun and the devs like them, so you better get used to it and learn to like it as well.
Spinach is good for you, and your sister likes it, so shut up and eat it.
Yay. That makes me so much more happy. Combined with the "go to bed without dinner" argument, it seriously makes me consider to run away from home to Auntie May, who at least knows the benefit of a varied diet.
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And there you have my beef. I don't like gated content, and I don't like grind. And the "go to bed without dinner" argument and the "shut up and eat it" argument really doesn't make me like gated content or grinds. At best it makes me angry.
That's the best way I've seen of putting across this discussion. Bravo, this and thumbs up. My feelings exactly. -
In the end it all comes down to options.
If I want the Stone Block Costume change, my current options are as follows:
1: Do 3 successful Incarnate Trials.
2: Don't and not have the Stone Block Costume Change.
If I want the Electric Trail Aura, my current options are as follows:
1: Do 3 successful Incarnate Trials.
2: Don't and not have the Electric Trail Aura.
If I want the Magnetic Aura, my current options are as follows:
1: Do 2-3 successful Incarnate Trials (Astrals).
2: Do 2 successful Incarnate Trials (Empyreans).
2: Do 10 runs of the Incarnate Task Forces. (5 Days Minimum time)
3: Don't and not have the Magnetic Aura.
If I want the Swoon Emote, my current options are as follows:
1: Do 2-3 successful Incarnate Trials (Astrals).
2: Do 2 successful Incarnate Trials (Empyreans).
2: Do 10 runs of the Incarnate Task Forces. (5 Days Minimum time)
3: Don't and not have the Magnetic Aura.
If I want the Barcode Chest Emblem, my current options are as follows:
1: Do an Incarnate Trial.
2: Do either the Tin Mage or Apex TF.
3: Don't and not have the Barcode Chest Emblem.
So, in some places, I have 3 Options: iTrials, iTask Force, Don't have. In Costume Changes and Path Auras, I have 2 options: iTrials or don't.
And some of these rewards aren't really, truly 'symbols of Incarnate ability' like some people have been saying, and if they were, then why when unlocked can little Level 1 Slime Boy use them?
It just seems like someone's gone "Oh, you want auras, you want costume changes? Here you go! Oh, you need to run content you might not want to, several times, to get them."
If they're going to be on sale in the Paragon Store, I'd just use the 400 points/month VIP players get to purchase them and be done with it. I couldn't care about the Ascension armour, truth be told. Or the incarnate symbol chest emblems for that matter. The emotes, costume change emotes, non-incarnate chest emblems, auras and path auras? Those, I do care about, and would happily fork over points for.
(As an outside option, what about the chance to do a mission to unlock the non-Incarnate emblem/ascension stuff? Take down Gravity Control using Clockwork or something, get Magnetic Aura. Take down powerful lightning-using villain, get Electric Trail aura.) -
Quote:Yesterday evening, I crashed to desktop on the Warehouse portion of Lambda. I was able to get back in game quickly, but could not rejoin the Trial as it said it didn't exist or had been completed. But if it had been completed, then the people would have been in PD. And they weren't. There was no further option to rejoin the Trial after getting that message, it just took me to the normal LFG window.Originally Posted by Necrotech_Master
rejoining through the LFG tab does work, i had to use it at least twice yesterday, i think that issue got fixed when they did the emergencey maintenance on the global server which is why global chat and stuff was down for a few hours
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Of course, to be mentioned is that you may not get 3 shards per hour at all.
I played for two hours yesterday on my 50 Tanker and got no shards. I actually got more Orange Invention Salvage than I got Shards.