AmazingMOO

Serious Request, Beastyle. Would you be so kind as to pass it along to the art team?

Can we get some art of Praetorian Aurora without the overcoat? And maybe an over-the shoulder shot?

That'd be pretty darn awesome.

I assume this is just all the unlockable Winter Holiday costume bits, but I haven't seen the official 'Featured Items' post and can't get the store to tell me what's inside.

Anyone know for certain yet?

/salute DC

Godspeed, sir.

The quote by Shadow Kitty is actually really good, despite being a little silly. Let me remove the options that I think are silly, and we'll find that most of them are still left.

Thoughts on Trials after i12.5 - Mob Rule

Since the announcement that Dark Astoria was going to be revamped as an Incarnate Content zone, I've found myself a bit more willing to do trials. The fact that my characters will not be 'Stuck' in a 'nothing but Trials' routine has been a warming change.

However, there are still some serious problems with the whole Trial scene. While the two new trials, TPN Campus and Minds of Mayhem have added new dynamics to the Trial equation, they haven't necessarily made everything better. They both have some serious problems of their own.

Positron has mentioned a worry that if the solo and single-group Incarnate content is more rewarding than the trial content, then the trials will wither and dry up. To me, this indicates a pretty serious problem. I've mentioned before that the trials are not very much fun. If the single-group and solo Incarnate content is fun at all, and it certainly has the potential to be, I think it's going to serve as a pretty rude wakeup call. I think that people are going to angle for the non-trial content because it won't be as painful as the trial content. The trial content will wither and dry up even if it is more rewarding simply because folks don't like them.

So why isn't the trial content very much fun?

The devs have stated that they want the trial content to be fun and accessible. The problem lays pretty squarely on the last bit. The content is NOT very accessible and is therefore not much fun. This happens for a few different reasons.

The first reason is the league mechanics. Despite assurances that it would be fixed, the 'Team-up-Teleporter' still seems to be reporting very skewed times. There was also no 'official' patch note that it was fixed. While this is broken, most people seem completely unwilling to use it. They have to volunteer to stay away from instances of any kind - the vast majority of the game's content - for an undetermined amount of time.


My suggestions to fix this are to first, exclude any players from leagues that enter the queue more than 60% 'full' from the average. A lot of leagues will announce that they're launching in a Global Channel and if players want in, they should queue. When players queue and get in 30 seconds later because they KNOW a trial is rolling, the average is reduced significantly. Likewise, drop the lowest queue times to help smooth the statistics. Last, the average should be of a 90 minute window. Lots of servers have slightly different peak times. If the average measures queue times since the last server reset, there will be long stretches of 'non-peak' times when the average is very low compared to reality, even if it were working perfectly.


Another reason is league leadership. I heard a player tonight on Victory announce that they had a team built in Pocket D for a trial, but needed someone who could lead it. That says to me that there is willing, but no confidence. The person who was confident enough to build the team did not feel that he could lead it. This is a problem. There are parts on all the trials where a lack of leadership will doom the trial to failure: the escaping prisoner phase during Behavior Adjustment Facility, the maze hunt during Lambda, ALL of Keyes, the Lichen-Infested Warwalker fight during the Ungerground, ALL of TPN, and the Mother Malaise fight during Minds of Mayhem. It's not enough that players are familiar with how to accomplish the goals. They need, at the very least, someone to make sure that the sub-goals are being accomplished in the right order, that anyone making mistakes is corrected, and that if someone is griefing, they are booted from the league.

The 'Vote to Kick' feature isn't exactly well-documented or very accessible.

BAF and Lambda have been around long enough that people will step up to provide leadership during bits they understand. Even then, it's still very possible to fail. MoM is MAYBE doable without the leadership since the goals are straightforward. Keyes, UGT, and TPN are simply not doable without a strong leader. That's not accessibility. If these trials are going to be 'fun' and 'accessible', then the goals are going to have to be SIGNIFICANTLY simplified. Even with the changes to make Keyes less punitive, there are still LOTS of folks who don't understand the goals after several runs.

That's bad design.

The alternative to simplifying the trials is to make them single-team content. You can expect a single team to be lead through complex challenges by a willing private. An army of 18-24 players needs a general.


Developers, let me challenge you here: We know that the trials scale and that the limits are arbitrary. Build test versions of Keyes, UGT, and TPN that will allow you to go through with 6-8 players. Go through them with teams of 6-8 and see how different YOU think they are in terms of fun.


My thoughts on Keyes:

All three reactors need to have the mechanisms for unlocking terminals be exactly the same. My suggestion is to remove the bit where you have to lead Anti-Matter to them and instead make it so you have to clear the Warworks away from them. Make Anti-Matter more aggressive to compensate for him not being at the reactors. If you want the terminals on the 2nd reactor to stay accessible, don't have the Warworks spawn on top of them until Anti-Matter arrives.


My thoughts on UGT:

This is a fun two trials. It NEEDS the extra rewards. However, the mechanism to use the Lichen temps on the Infested Warwalker is confusing. Make these work MORE like the Pacification Grenades in Lambda. We need screen popups that say something like 'Lichen Infested Warwalker is Regenerating. Use Lichens!' Ditch the glowing NPC lichens that help with his regeneration or make them destroyable like the crystals in the trap room. Most Leagues spend a lot of time trying to position the Infested Warwalker away from them. The fact that they CAN and that it seems to be NECESSARY to win the battle is, again, BAD DESIGN.

Additionally, there's a pretty serious problem in that all the Giant Warwalkers tend to get stuck in the walls causing the trials to fail because no one can hit them. This needs to be fixed.


My thoughts on TPN:

The 'Approval' feature on this trial is confusing. It doesn't make a lot of sense unless someone explains it to you and there's nothing that says, 'If you lose all approval, you fail.' Either eliminate it and go for a straight 'You need to activate X number of terminals' metric or spend some time explaining it IN the trial. A cutscene where H.D. explains it at the very beginning of the trial would be a good idea.

The 'Chase Maelstrom Away/Defeat the Telepaths' phase is the funnest part of this trial, but the mechanics for converting the Citizens are confusing. Leave the citizens BLUE until they're converted. Rather than have rioter defeats reduce the Approval Rating, add a badge in for not defeating any of them.

I'm personally really surprised that players are reporting that there don't seem to be any significant changes to this trial since it was in beta, despite the long delay. Why did you bother delaying this if you thought it was ready? Why release it if it wasn't ready after you delayed it once?

The rare recipe on this trial is really dumb. The fact that the Empyrean unlock is for one character only rather than account wide is also really dumb.


My thoughts on MoM:

The whole trial is pretty fun. The 'Create a void to fight Penny Mayhem' is the weakest part. The NPCs are hard to see and this mechanic is confusing. I suggest making the NPCs much more visible and to have the void NPCs be untargetable.

It's also confusing to try to figure out which room you're in when trying to keep Shalice from hurting Aurora. I thought I was simply lagging badly the first time I went to buff her and that the multiple clones of Mother were lag artifacts. There needs to be some HIGHLY VISIBLE graphics to differentiate the reflections, Shalice clones, and Aurora. I suggest very bright auras on the Shalice clones and the reflections. The two rooms could also be two different colors. A switch from red to green highlights would be adequate.

I would also do more explaining on the fight with Mother Malaise. The fact that the monsters can help slow and root Shalice is not readily apparent. Give us a popup like 'Defeat Monsters next to Shalice!'.


The fact that any of these trials is failable due to players simply not understanding what's happening is BAD DESIGN. It CAN be fixed, but the developers need to make some hard decisions either way. Either simplify the goals so a mob can understand them, or cut that mob down until it's a single group. I think you're going to have to do one or the other, or they will indeed wither and dry up the second there's an alternative.

Is the fix for the Average wait timers for the TUT/LFG queue in yet?

Can we get Gunslinger set clipping problems on the Known Issues list?

In particular, can we list the collars that clip with the female model's neck and the hairbow that lives partially inside the model's head?

>>> Costume piece is a rare drop during an incarnate trial.

FAIL.

>>> Costume piece can be bought for farming incarnate trials for Empyreans.

DOUBLE FAIL.

Costume pieces should not be lottery tickets. This was stupid when I9 came out, and is no less stupid now.

Seriously, have you guys been learning absolutely nothing from the hate storm generated by gated costume bits, let alone incarnate burnout? You've already made this mistake... multiple times. The players don't want it. It's a suck mechanic and everyone at Paragon KNOWS THIS.

What you SHOULD do:

Even if you want to make the recipe tied to the trial, which I think is EVERY BIT AS STUPID AS HAVING EMPY-ONLY COSTUME PIECES, place it in Astral Christy's inventory and at Merit Vendors, including those in Fort Trident and The Crucible.

The SMART thing to do here is to tie this piece to the 'Eye of the Storm' badge, or something similar.

DON'T tie this to the incarnate system. DON'T make any costume piece drop a lottery ticket. DON'T DO IT. Don't repeat mistakes you've already made.

Thoughts on the Collect Window

Of the many bugs plaguing this release of CoH, the one that makes me the saddest is the Knockback bug.

It appears that someone dropped a decimal point when figuring knockback, causing all knockback to be scaled down to (almost, but not quite) zilch.

The really, really sad part as that this was being cheered by many meleers.

(Really, guys. That hurts! Do Energy Blasters, Stormies, and FF Defenders cheer when you're nefed, accidentally or not?)

One person brought up the option of having Null the Gull give the players interfaces to control their own knockback powers.

I'd be willing to support that, except I happen to know a few individuals who'd harass others to turn off their knockback.

No, what I want is for Null to offer the following options: 'Regular Knockback', 'Double Knockback', and 'Increase Knockback with Power Boost'.

You haters can have a 'No knockback' in there, I suppose, but don't expect me to group with you if you want me to turn off my knockback beforehand.

Another odd bug: I had a character suddenly lose any kind of access to the global server. He couldn't get global names or receive global tells or messages from global channels. However, others could see the messages he was sending and could send him local tells in response.

I relogged and suddenly got a load of queued global tells from people telling me that it showed I was 'offline'.

Mind you, this happened in the middle of a conversation with no changes to my settings.

On the BVP bug...

It seems to be affecting only Villain Bases. I've chatted with another player on Victory who's villain base is attacking (and attackable), but not a hero.

The same is true for me. The items in my hero base are all flagged 'Ally', but the items in my villain base are attackable.

WHAT. THE. HELL?!

Holy crap, this patch is broken.

I can confirm the knockback bug, the UI resetting bug, and the horrible placement on the 'Collection' window.

The knockback bug is seriously game-breaking for me. It's like all knockback has been turned into knock-down. This is... not workable, in any sense.

Additionally, the 'Long Range Teleport' door in Peregrine has been removed. I figured that was not WAI, but you guys could have logged the change in the patch notes.

I remember reading that there was a change to fix the estimated wait time on trials. I do not see that in the patch notes. Is it in or not?


Seriously, this is a roll-back quality patch, even with the trial changes. Roll it back and push the 'Future Build' version when it's ready. In many ways, the game is broken beyond playability for a LOT of characters.

Random/helpchatter 1: DFB LFM

Random/helpchatter 1: DFB LF6M

Random/helpchatter 2: Does anyone do anything in this game BESIDES DFB any more?

Me: Positron and Synapse offer a lot more experience, really.

F2PDarkDefender: Yeah, that's what I heard, but then when I tried to get a team for them, everyone told me, 'You want DFB'.

Me: Yeah. Anyway... Hero tips team in Atlas lfm.

Random/helpchatter 1: DFB LF6M

Random/helpchatter 1: DFB LF5M

Random/helpchatter 1: DFB LF5M

F2PDarkDefender: Really? Will you take along a noob?

Me: Why yes. Yes I will.


I recruited in Victory Badges and /help for a few seconds more and got about five more folks together to run three hero tip missions at level 49. We spent about 45 minutes bapping Council, Carnies, and DE. I had the privilege of explaining the Carnies' and DEs' unique mechanisms to my new friend, F2PDarkDefender. He leveled from 14 to 16, I think. He also got to use Tar Patch for the first time and was wowed by its effectiveness.

Me: So, F2PDarkDefender: So, what'd you think? Better exp than DFB?

F2PDarkDefender: Yeah, and the missions are something different! LOL!

Me: These are kinda generic missions, honestly. The morality missions are much better, and the taskforces offer all kinds of unique goodies. Except Citadel. Citadel just has you fighting Council in caves for an hour and a half.

F2PDarkDefender: If you ever need a healer again, let me know!


So... the next time you do missions... pick up a DFBer or two and show them what the rest of the game is like. You'll really be glad you did.

Also, no, I did not so much as chuckle about a dark defender being a 'Healer'.

CoH does a good job of doing violence to everyone regardless of race, creed, or gender. That's kinda the point of a Superhero game, really. However, a few people are starting to call 'Women in Refrigerators' on the recent in-game events.

For an in depth look at the phenomenon, visit the above link. However, a brief description is having BAD THINGS happen to female characters in order to move the story along, be it to give major male characters grief to emote against or a reason to strike at their enemies.

Some people simply call 'Misogyny'. However, one of the more common, more reasonable explanations is that since most comic writers are male, it's easier to write for male characters than it is to write for females. They get more mileage out of griefing their male leads by heaping torment upon their female leads than the other way around. Murder, ****, and other kinds of torture are doled out to be reacted to.

Barbara Gordon's crippling and subsequent sexual harassment at the hands of the Joker in 'The Killing Joke' solely as a measure to torment Jim Gordon stands out as the most prominent example in my mind, but there are many, many others.

(CoH spoilers ahead)

Certain in-game deaths in the last few pieces of content released seem to focus more heavily upon female characters than male characters. Praetorian Vanessa's death seems rather heroic rather than pointless. She died for the sake of getting the truth out.

However... Miss Liberty's death (and Manticore's reaction to its possibility) seems rather pointless and plotted solely to grief Statesman and spur him to possibly irrational action in future episodes of 'Who Will Die?'.

I don't know that this is 'Women in Refrigerators', but I think it may be coming close. Is it intentional on the part of the writers, say purposefully reflecting the phenomenon in comics? Is it simply one of many minor characters who are about to tally their bucket lists?

What do you think?

Okay... seriously. I want player characters to be able to use that model and animations.

Also, is there any way to make the Beast Run animation work more like what Spot is using there?

I had a nice, long message written up with how the Autumnal Path Aura meshed perfectly the with backstory of one of my superheroines. I heaped praise upon the developers of said aura and may have called for a compensation increase. I'm not sure.

I usually compose longer posts in the editor of my choice, but I didn't expect this one to become so large. I could theoretically force a memory dump out of Firefox and scour the contents for the POST data containing my message, but that's terribly a lot of work, and I don't happen to have any of the tools installed that make it easier.

Anyway, nice work on the Autumnal Aura, devs and artists. If possible, I'd also like a version that's been scaled down, say, 50%. That'd be really nice.

I noticed while crafting this evening that you no longer get the message, 'You already have this power', when attempting to craft a temporary power like the St. Louis Slammer.

Instead, you get extra charges when you craft it.

I don't remember seeing this in any patch notes, but it's been something I've been wanting for a while.

Thanks, devs!