Arcanaville

Its not quite that simple. But it might be possible to look at how the Korean CC did the "loop back" to make the character data local, and hack the real game clients to do that. Also, the real clients need to actually connect to real servers to allow you to make characters because real characters are stored on a game server. But faking that out might be a lot less difficult than recreating an entire server instance.

But... but I have more of those than actual primary and secondary powers.

Actually, now that I think about it I have more of those than most players have influence.

Then they would be Chinese and not Korean.

Your friend was probably referring to PLA, the other popular plastic used in hobbyist extrusion printers. As far as I know, with some reasonable priming steps both ABS and PLA can be hand painted. I'm not sure about the other materials Shapeways uses, but I'm assuming its similar.

BaB seemed to think so also.

Shapeways appears to use (among other things) laser sintered printers and other powder-binding based printers. Those can print basically any shape without support structures because the powder acts to support the objects until they are completed.

Different print materials use different print processes, so that might be worth investigating a bit if you're thinking of using that option.

I'll get the brain bleach.

And this guy:



Edit: that's the second time this week

Once it hardens, ABS is almost indestructible.

Interestingly, however, acetone dissolves it. So you can theoretically use acetone to smooth out an ABS printed model. I tried it with a small brush and some acetone, and it worked, insofar as I was making it up as I was going along. But you have to be careful, because acetone doesn't eat plastic perfectly evenly, especially when its been laid out with an extrusion printer.

I didn't do that with the model above, though. That just has the support scaffolding cut away with a hobby knife but no other finish work. Also, funny thing about the size limits of 3D printers. That picture doesn't go all the way down to the bottom because the model doesn't go all the way to the bottom. I forgot to scale that model correctly and it hit the vertical stops in the Cupcake just below the knees and just a hair below the cape. Its actually tilted slightly backward and resting on the bottom of the cape as a result. Oops.

Shame, because extrusion printers print ovalish cylinders quite well. Which means on most prints, LA there has nice gams. Also, even something like strappy heels actually print fairly well. I have another model where the entire model printed out pretty well. And then I tried the acetone experiment above. And then I accidentally left the model sitting in the pan touching some acetone, and those heels completely melted off.

In general yes, with the caveat that the specifics of individual 3D printing technologies and actual machines usually place a limit on the detail resolution that is dependent on the printing circumstances. For example, my Cupcake didn't need anything much better than 0.25 millimeter resolution on the models. More tessellation than that would not help the Cupcake. A Replicator could probably make use of tessellation down to 0.1mm. Some reasonably priced fused depo systems I've seen can probably go down to 0.05mm.

Dual Archery was an original suggestion of mine, by the way.**

On the other hand, my brain does not work in a manner capable of dreaming up fish armor. It did, on the other hand, years ago suggest boomerang fish as a ranged set.


** It was inspired by a marketing image on the internet for a fantasy product long ago that had a picture of a woman with a nocked bow standing on one leg. Someone asked why they were standing on one leg and I said it could be because they needed the other leg for something else and when they asked what, I said for dual archery.

I wouldn't mind McDonalds removing Chicken McNuggets from the menu if they didn't also say the reason was that they were going to make chickens extinct.

Remember that CO doesn't have archetypes like CoX does**. The offensive/hybrid/defensive stances are one way to deliver a similar concept in a different mechanical way.

What's the difference between an MA/SR scrapper and an SR/MA tanker? In City of Heroes, the SR/MA tanker has higher defensive modifiers, more health, etc. The MA/SR scrapper has higher damage modifiers, higher damage buff modifiers, criticals, etc. There are archetype differences which mean there's a difference between MA/SR and SR/MA.

In CO, there are no scrappers and tankers. Instead, there are stances. In CO, you can be MA/SR (really MA/LR) hybrid which is basically a like a CoX scrapper. Or you can be MA/SR defensive, which is basically like a CoX tanker.

Its not that you're "forced" to use them, its that's just what they mean. And you can't be MA/SR offensive (melee or ranged damage), because the two offensive stances don't allow Lightning Reflexes as a slotted passive, just like you can't be a Blaster and take Super Reflexes.

The difference is that in CO, you *can* be MA/Id and be in melee offensive stance, and then switch to MA/LR Hybrid and be a scrapper, and then switch to MA/LR tank and be the equivalent of a CoX SR/MA tanker.

The closest equivalent to MA/* melee offensive stance is a CoX blapper.

Don't think of it as if you want to play a scrapper you're limited to two stances. Think of it as if you play in Hybrid, you get the numerical equivalent of being a scrapper. If you play in Tank, you get the numerical equivalent of being a tank. If you play in other modes, you will get results that equal other things in CoX, or sometimes something with no analog in CoX.

Its the CO analog to deciding archetype, except its mutable (you can change it) in CO on the fly.


** Edit: I keep forgetting non-Gold members are limited to archetype-like constructs, but you know what I mean.

The truth is I'm a serious cinema buff. In my mind, I pictured Positron as Priam: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiI0bC7aaFM#t=1m25s

It probably wouldn't have been Positron though. But I'm going to picture Positron doing that anyway, because its funnier.

I never trusted them. And to be fair, they never asked me to trust them.

But, and I know this will sound hollow, if I had stayed away from NCSoft, I would have never gotten to play City of Heroes. I would have never gotten to know the developers at Cryptic and Paragon Studios. The same shmucks that did this thing today were the gatekeepers to some wonderful things I wouldn't have traded away. Had I known in 2004 this was coming in 2012, I would have still gladly signed up and paid my money.

Don't get me wrong: a part of me is very angry. I've thought up every way to get even with NCSoft I'm theoretically capable of and some of those involve the use of nuclear weapons. But Paragon Studios itself is proof that a company like NCSoft can contain people worth knowing, worth working with, worth taking a chance on. And that tempers my anger a bit.

I understand completely the people for whom this is the impetus to sever all ties with NCSoft permanently. I'm not going to advise otherwise. NCSoft has given them more than enough just cause. But I think to myself, what would I have said to someone thinking about joining the City of Heroes community a month ago, but had reservations about NCSoft itself. And I know I would have said City of Heroes was worth the risk; Paragon Studios was worth the risk. And I still believe they were worth the risk today.

I don't know any of the developers of Aion. I don't know any of the developers of Guild Wars 2, at least to the best of my knowledge. I didn't really care for Aion much when I tried it, and I've only had literally a couple hours of playtime with GW2 so far and it was sketchy for me. But if someone at Paragon told me they knew so and so working on GW2, he's a good guy, give him a chance, and give the game a chance, I would probably do so.

I'm not asking anyone else to. I'm just admitting what I would do.

Don't get me started.

Since that was tied to systems involving money, I'm not sure the devs are capable of doing that anymore. But they might be able to grant in-game access to the things VIPs had access to, like character slots, the invention system, incarnate powers, etc. There may be ways to do that using systems they still have access to. They might not be able to flip the VIP switch itself, but they might be able to go around it to give players the ability to play their characters without those restrictions.

Right now, the most important thing is to be able to let players log in their characters. To give them one last go around, to say goodbye, and to capture mementos. And to be able to run tools like Sentinel+. I'm hoping the devs can figure out a way to do that, or negotiate that for the players if necessary from NCSoft.

As Brigandine mentions, the important takeaway is that in CO, defensive passive powers are the equivalent of an entire defensive secondary in CoX. You can have Invulnerability, Regeneration, Lightning Reflexes, which are analogs to Invulnerability, Regeneration, and Super Reflexes here. Then there's Force Fields, which is like if FF was a Scrapper secondary and used Absorb. I wonder if they ever fixed it to work correctly with block. And then there's Defiance which is something completely unique to CO: imagine if tankers got a version of Fury that improved their damage mitigation instead of damage.

Everyone only has one passive slot, so you can only slot one passive power, offensive or defensive, per build.

When the game was launched, the offensive passive was totally worthless, so virtually everyone slotted defensive passives. It was partially that fact that caused me to comment, on more than one occasion, that CO was essentially a game of Ranged Scrappers (the other reason was that melee attacks sucked). Offensive passive powers have been substantially improved since then, but I don't have much personal experience with them.

It depends on the printing technology. Lets go back to the one I posted in the OP:



Here's something that's not obvious. That was printed upside down.

With extrusion printing, you're printing with melted plastic that hardens as it cools. Its not instantly solid. So there's certain things that are harder to print. If you try to print a character with a cape, since the cape doesn't reach the floor its suspended in midair at the bottom. If you try to print from the bottom up, there's no way to start the cape. The normal solution is to print a support structure that the cape can rest on, and then remove it later. Which is possible, but is sometimes like trying to cut apart LEGOs with an exacto knife (the ABS plastic many extrusion printers use is essentially the same plastic used to manufacture LEGOs, actually).

But imagine flipping the model upside down. Now, the cape starts at the neck and grows upward. There's less of a need for support structures to hold it in place, so its easier to print.

One trick it took me some experimentation to figure out is that for most standing characters, it was easier to print them upside down than right-side up. If you look at that model above, the cape, the skirt, the hair, even the arms, all would be difficult to print because they dangle in the air with nothing under them. But upside down, all of them start from a root base and extend upward into the air straight enough most of the time to not need support structures to keep them stable as they are printed.

If you look carefully, you can see the one part of the model where its obvious if you print it upside down there would be a noticeable overhanging structure are the shoulders, and those parts are a little rougher, because extrusion printing doesn't handle that sort of thing well (and I didn't print it with a support structure for the shoulders).

If you're going to print the cape all by itself, you're going to need a support structure of some kind to hold it up: its too thin. But attached to the model as I did it above, the cape had something to hold it upright as it was printed. So it depends on whether you're happy with the result of it being attached or not.

I may be a little dated here, but while CO has ranks that are roughly equivalent in name, in practice they don't really have critters that have the same threat level in all cases. In fact, it would not be too far from the truth in my opinion to say that in CoH terms, CO doesn't have minions. They have henchmen which are between minions and Lts, Villains which are like weak bosses, Master Villains which are like very strong bosses or weak EBs, and Super Villains which are like strong EBs and AVs.

When I was most active in the game and had a better sense of things, my opinion was that you're stronger in CO than CoH in the early going, but the potential at the high end was higher here. It was also a lot easier to get suddenly in over your head there than here when soloing, until you had a strong build and good passive defense.

And you have to like blocking, at least if you solo. If you don't like the blocking mechanic, in my opinion soloing is going to be tough to enjoy.

That might be problematic, but I did ask a couple of red names to look into the possibility of either handing out a ton of server slot unlocks or just unlock every slot with a character currently in it, so players can at least log in any character they want.

Probably, but you would have to ask them.

We do know more advanced LUA scripted cut scenes and missions were coming because Dr. Aeon mentioned that. We know the powers team was targeting Tankers next after Blasters. We know the storyline was moving to the Coming Storm.

I *think* more solo incarnate content was coming. Everyone seemed to know new powersets like Psi Melee were coming. There was the pummit-designed Radiation Armor coming and the costume sets.

The devs would have to provide the specifics, though, and I don't know yet what they are allowed to talk about. Aeon was pretty safe about LUA, because it was already established technology and it gives no real industry secrets or IP away. But technically NCSoft owns all the design work the devs have done to this point, and the devs probably aren't allowed to release all the specifics of it.

I originally found the basic gameplay fun but shallow. But they've had a lot of time to expand the game and I haven't kept up with all the goings on there, so for me jumping in now will be almost like jumping into a new game. I'll have to see if it can keep my attention better than it did at launch and for some time after that.

There's some crazy stuff going on in the game if you stop to look. I wonder what War Witch would have thought of these:

T for teen? Sure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvg8D53kOVY

Oh my god what the hell is the Skull on the right thinking? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju05ymyY3Uw

Who bows in this top? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJpxO6xxDwI

Ok, I've heard about completely not giving a F-, but this is the ultimate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI8S9XUbpKQ