AngryRedHerring
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Posts
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Joined
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Purple and yellow, baby, all the way. With black racing stripes.
...I'm soooo pretty.
Freedom Force version!
...Man, I have that Champions character sheet around here somewhere... -
Quote:Yeah, the first rooms weren't really decorated (apart from the medlab, which carried it's deco's over from the old base). I blocked off the new areas with some large sewer equipment so I could work without anybody seeing it before it was finished, but I had to leave the functional areas available to the SG while I worked. The first new room I built was the large lava room with the patchwork bridge.Originally Posted by GreatRock
Great work. Although i think the first couple rooms were kind of lacking, the rest of it was very good -
Quote:Originally Posted by Sardan
My first blaster's battle cry was "Not in the face!"
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Took a long time to get around to revamping the villain base post I-13-- the second floor of the heroside base's living quarters dang near gave me carpal tunnel. But a wild hair got me last week; it took about four days, and I still need to add a jail, but here it is so far.
From the entrance, to the left are workshops and medical...
...to the right, transportation.
Workshops have been expanded, but not really decorated yet...
...though Dr. Destrukto's medlab made it through the transition without too many changes.
Teleport rooms combined...
...with buff stations placed close by for convenient access.
The hangar.
Now into new areas. The hallway to the meeting room.
Meeting room.
Into the center of the base-- during expansion, hidden ruins discovered!
Into the new control room.
Into the Overlord of Crime's private office.
The, uh, 'persuasion' room.
"You ate my Little Debbie snack cakes! Admit it!"
...I was really pulling from my memories of the Lost City levels in the original Thief: The Dark Project through all this...
At the end of a cluttered tunnel, a crack in the wall...
...leads to a maintenance access tunnel...
...which emerges near the meeting room and hangar, for quick escapes.
...And now the jail.. I'll also post pics soon of the heroside base, with new living quarters and portal to the UNDERVERSE! -
Quote:Yeah, the best I can get out of them are the turret animations; they at least move around, looking for targets. But the stealth suppressor broke my heart; would have made a great disco light.Originally Posted by Doctor Vivian
Whether the base is Raid-ready or not, base defense items only "activate" during a Base Raid.
I.e., Shields, Fields, Guns, Scorpion Missile Turrets, Slow Fields, Pain Fields, etc., etc., etc., all only exude their effects during a Base Raid (although some will show their effect momentarily, when placed, like Force Fields, but this will shut off after exiting the base).
There is no way I am aware of to trigger them outside of a Base Raid.
I had forgotten to float the thing, yes. I just played with it and yeah, the field is visible. Doesn't help with my lava effect, sadly. I can see how it would be great for pools of water, though.Quote:Originally Posted by Fire_Away
Well, there's no on/off switch for these items if that is what you mean. Some (but not all) will animate when you first place them. And I just checked, my slow field "water" effect is still working (requires a "float" of the slow field item).
No gurgling items that anybody knows of? I know I'm reaching... -
The control items make noises; I particularly like the eerie sounds the Obits of Control, etc., put out. Torches and fire pits crackle. What other base items make sounds? Is there a list somewhere? I'm looking in particular for an item that makes a gurgling/bubbling noise, but I'm generally interested in items that make sounds.
What about animations? Again you have your torches; and there are also those two floor grates in Tech that send out waves and particles. Control items have their attendant animations, but are limited in their placement options, so what about animated decorative items?
And are there any tips on how to get base defense items to animate? They look great when you first place them, but anytime you enter the base after that, they just go dormant. Does the plot type matter (hidden or secure)? Does it need to be a fully PvP enabled base? I'd love to get these items to doing their thing, but am still not sure what is required. I can't even get the slow fields (for water) to animate any more-- did that change? -
Quote:I do it in freakin' Paint Shop. "Why isn't this thing- ...Oh, yeah."Originally Posted by Tyrak
So does anyone else try to move the camera when looking at some of these pictures?
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Quote:Ehhhh, good point. Regardless, I've been very happy with how things have been going since that changeover, and any move to CO, for me, just feels like starting over for no good reason.Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
/nitpick
It's not "since Statesman left," really, it's "Since NC bought the IP, hired over all the developers but one, and dumped money into the franchise while expanding the team."
Honestly, Cryptic left it on life support. 15 people? That's why things weren't feasable to do - and with a larger team, more money, and the support of NCSoft (without that extra layer of management, etc.) they're feasable now. -
I have (well, had) several macros for my Mercs where they would all do an animation and each would speak an individual line. My favorite was where they would cower in fear of me, each of them begging "Please!" "No!" "Mercy!" with the last guy pointing and going, "HE did it!" Another good one was them all sucking up to me-- "Great idea, boss!" "MAN he's smart!" "Genius!" ...with the attendant thumbsup, clapping, etc.
These days, though, while I can get the animations to work-- and those are commands in a string linked by "$$"-- the speech bubbles don't work anymore. I had heard some time ago that petsays were bugged; is there a fix for this yet? -
Quote:It seems like ever since Statesman left, the devs have been on a long campaign of giving the people what they want. Before that, it was all about tweaking what already existed, and adding new content, but Quality of Life was very low on the totem pole. Since the Positron era began, we have been given a great deal of candy.Originally Posted by Justice Blues
Not to mention, the Nemesis system was first thought up by Positron, but Statesman didn't want it (Or possibly didn't think it could be put in) so they have not added it in yet. But if they do manage to add it, with COH improvements of course (My pick for next big thing after GR), then it would hardly be stealing from CO. It would be the originator putting it into the game he thought it up for.
I find it a bit hypocritical that CO's list of features is topped by stuff we had been begging for in CoH during the Statesman era. Oh, now you're offering us this stuff? The best one-- made me laugh out loud, and forward it to my SG buds-- was the lure of a do-nothing in-game pet if I joined CO beta.
Sorry, but I have a lot of time invested in all that I have created here, and trying to get me to abandon it all for your new game, with promises of things that you didn't seem to think were worth the time when you were on this side, just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. "Becky and I aren't friends any more. You should stop being Becky's friend and be my friend!" I have experienced life under Statesman, and life under Positron, and I vastly prefer the latter. Why would I bail on things as they are now to go back to a Statesman-run universe?
...And now I have to get back to our Villain base upgrade, which I have been working on for three days, and hopefully will be ready to reveal to the SG today. Yeah, I have just a little bit invested in the world of CoH... -
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Quote:Ain'tertainment!Originally Posted by MrCaptainMan_NA
I think the pronunciation is 'ay-ee-entertainment', said quickl. It sort of ends up like 'ay-ee-yent...' tbh, but its easy enough and no slower than 'AE Entertainment'
eco -
I just wanted to note that I say the title of this thread out loud in a Frankenstein voice.
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Quote:OK... LOVE the name. Heh.Originally Posted by M_I_Abrahms
In a world overflowing with review threads, three players take a path less traveled...
Admittedly, this is a late entry to the review game. At this point, the Heavyweights have already been established, and are on their second and third threads. If someone wants to jump into the game now, they have to do something different, something to set them apart.
Aentertainment Tonight is a new snow on KJSR, a radio station that started right here in the City of Heroes. It is an on-air review show for AE arcs, where listeners get the opinions of not one, but three reviewers, DJ Rastafari-Man, DJ WRider, and myself. This gives listeners the chance to get multiple opinions, from a couple of different views. For those that are interested, the submission form can be found here. The show begins August 20th at 7PM Eastern, and will air weekly. -
Thanks very much for the review, Airhead. In particular, thank you for expressly not griping for not being able to solo an arc that's marked as not being a solo arc.
Quote:Heh heh. GOOD! I wanted the player to be looking at this guy, going, "Dude. That's not funny." And I wanted him to be a different person when it was all over.Originally Posted by airhead
Okay, as a hero, I despise my contact already...
Did he really have Build-Up? I thought I nerfed that.Quote:The big-bad in the first mission was pretty tough! Took everything to bring him down, then he got back up again. Despite me zapping him all the way, he made it to the exit at the far end of the ship. Seemed to have some major build-up, despite being only a boss (I'm on level 1 difficulty). These things concern some reviewers, but for a team challenge, and an optional objective, it seems fine to me.
It's the Captain's assumption that Checkmate is going to run things from Giannutri. But everything Checkmate says to you indicates he's coming to Paragon-- he wants to see chaos of his revenge first-hand, especially when it comes to the Pulverizer.Quote:But the plan's changed? Checkmate is no longer planning to control Paragon City from his Italian island? Not sure why, but we're back to the city then.
However, I will say that there are points where my story glosses over certain details more than I would like. The main reason for that was that as I was writing the story, I was quickly running out of mission file space; while I deleted some details to make more room, I hit a wall where if I deleted any more details, I was crippling the arc as far as I was concerned. So text entries began to get shorter-- for example, that's the reason the mission briefing for the final mission is so hurried and short. I think I was around 99.6% at that time, so I just went "AAAH everything's EXPLODING get OUT THERE!".
Now, though, due to various patches and not to any changes I made, my mission file size sits at around 94%, which is more than enough room to flesh out the story with some more text entries. The trick with this for me is that I have to find those spots. I've already done a couple I've found, but I'm very much in a "forest for the trees" situation: I've played through this thing SO many times, I'm so familiar with it, that my mind unconsciously fills in the holes with things that I know, but haven't conveyed to the player.
A good example of something that may need to be explained better. First off, you're an experienced superhero, so you're not unfamiliar with mental attacks. Secondly, you first experienced the signal when it was its weakest, and have been fighting it off in every mission since then-- you've built up a resistance to, and an awareness of, its effects. And lastly, you're certainly not immune to the mind control once you're face to face with Checkmate (unless your powersets give you that resistance).Quote:Incidentally, why am I immune to the mind control?
...You're the first person to have asked that. I'd been wondering when someone would...
...Mmmmmmmmaybe...Quote:Do I have something in common with the girl from the last mission?
You're also the first person to see the new Insaniacs (pretty sure yours was the first play since I revamped them). There used to be only 4; Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice. Then came THE WONDERFUL ADDITION to the mission editor-- the ability to rename and re-bio in-game enemies. I remember that being one of the first things I asked for, as did several others, when MA went live, and I have to give the devs a big thankyouthankyouthankyou for that.Quote:Fifth mission! Everything has to hit the fan here. My contact is swearing less now, might have expected it to get worse.
Awesome group here, the Insaniacs! Lots of variety in names.
Well, he IS the Pulverizer.Quote:I defeat the big bad's sidekick with the help of Pulvis. For a lieutenant, he's extremely destructive.
Thanks very much for all the notes. They really do help in finding those things I need to tweak.Quote:Cheers, airhead
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Okay, so I had been playing fairly sporadically for the past couple of months (imminent I16 has got me got me back with bells on, tho'). I'm a 4 year vet, but... well, I guess some things get lost in the back of my mind when I haven't played much in a while. So this is kind of a re-noob moment.
Last week we had the whole SG on and were running missions, while I was doing a lot of that "OK, what do these buttons do again?" that's always present when you dust off alts, and even more pronounced when gameplay's gone from once-a-day to once-a-week. We're running scanner missions in Talos.
We finish a mission and zone out. It's dusk-ish outside. As we're standing by the mish door, waiting for a new mish to come up, in the distance I see a huge dark silhouette against the war wall-- the shape resembled Juggernaut, but, like Godzilla tall. Over Teamspeak my cry is heard:
"WHATtheHELL is THAT?!"
"What?"
"That huge dark shape over there! What is it?!"
They look around for a couple of seconds, baffled... then, "Dude. That's the Talos statue."
Far in the distance, silhouetted in the twilight, and at such an angle that his horns blended into his shoulders, giving that sloped-head-no-neck appearance, that statue scared the bejeebers out of me. I was suddenly certain that a new Giant Monster had been added somewhere in I15, I hadn't heard about it, and that new GM was REALLY giant and was about to step on us.
After they laughed at me awhile, the consensus came, "...You know, that WOULD be really cool."
"Yeah." -
Arc Title: Check... and Mate
Arc ID: 15095
Creator Global/Forum Name: Global @ARH; AngryRedHerring
Suggested V/H/N: Heroic
Faction(s): La Scacchiera (custom), Insaniacs (custom), Family
Difficulty Level: Hard , 45+ enemies
Synopsis: A two-bit psychic thief who was run out of Paragon City in traction has returned with a chip on his shoulder and the power to take revenge.
My old Checkmate thread has vanished into the ether, so here's a new thread and a revivfied arc, thanks to new architect tools! This is meant as a team-play story arc; while the first four missions can be soloed, that last one is still a nightmare. I've only managed to finish it solo with my 50 Illusion/FF and 50 MA/SR, so fair warning.
Have fun and all comments welcome! -
Fixed the image links broken by the forum move, and put the images in the OP. More tweaks to the arc, thanks to more options in the Editor! (Hoorah for text customization of standard enemies!)
And still working on "Revenge of the Vh'kiir"! Was hoping the ally fly bug would be fixed by now, but... ah well. -
I've gone back and forth with support a couple of times on this issue, but no sign of getting it fixed so far. They must be busy with customizing every single power in the game or something.
It does break my heart, though, because one of the ways I created the chaos of "Invasion on Earth BX1132!" was by having lots of flying enemies and allies-- shots flying everywhere, mayhem in the skies, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria.
Since the first patch to I14, though, allies do not fly-- at least allies set to follow. I've tested this with both Flight and Reflections/Effects. Allies in patrols will fly just fine, but... well, I've copied the reports I made to support below, starting with my original in-game petition back in mid-May:
Quote:More detail provided in the email exchange:Allies in MA missions have not been flying for me since the last patch. The best I can do is make them fly for a second if I'm flying when I rescue them or return to them, but then they immediately turn off fly.
I was told this was being reported as an official bug, and I went on my merry way. Later, I went back to working on my sequel to BX1132, and again ran into problems with allies with Flight.Quote:Yes, it is a mission architect arc, and it is mine. The arc # is 98943, "Invasion on Earth BX1132", and the allies are in the 3rd mission, on the Carnival Commercial Outdoor map-- but this is NOT an arc-specific issue. Ever since the last patch, allies with Fly... don't.
The best I could get them to do was to fly for a second when I rescued them or re-established contact with them, but only if I was flying myself-- they would come up in the air to meet me, then they would IMMEDIATELY turn off Fly. Flying into the air while they are following you, however, just leaves them behind on the ground.
Again, this is not a problem caused by my arc-- allies flew fine before the last patch, and now they do not. It is also not a problem with those specific characters: the same characters show up in patrols in the same mission, and the patrols fly just fine.
Something in the last patch borked flying allies, and I'm not the first one to bring this up; I've seen several references to this exact same problem on the forums, but as yet no acknowledgment from the powers that be that this is an actual issue. I know you guys suggest posting things like this on the forums, but so far that has done no good. Without any acknowledgment on the forums, the only thing I could think to do was to issue a support ticket; if this ain't a bug, well, I don't know what is.
Thanks for your time,
Dave Harlan
This time, however, Flight was bugged while I was working on the mission, as opposed to me discovering it in an already-published mission-- now I had a lot more room to play around with the bug without mangling my published arc. While doing so, I noticed a behavior common to both arcs, and common to both patrol allies with fly and follow allies with fly; the best I could come up with to call it was the 'hop-step'.
Now, while ally patrols can fly if necessary, sometimes they walk along and then start the hop-step, as though they're trying to turn on fly and can't. It does not shut down the ability to fly, though, it just that they cannot dependably use it.Quote:Well, flying allies still do not fly in AE missions (since the first patch to I14). But I have noticed a behavior that may help in resolving this.
Playing and replaying the affected (third) mission in my arc# 98943, I noticed that sometimes the allies-who-are-supposed-to-be-able-to-fly would walk with a little 'hop-step'; it's like they start to jump, then immediately stop. It makes them walk even slower than the normal walk animation. This effect of them starting to fly, then immediately stopping, is very similar to the effect I noted in an earlier email:
"The best I could get them to do was to fly for a second when I rescued them or re-established contact with them, but only if I was flying myself-- they would come up in the air to meet me, then they would IMMEDIATELY turn off Fly. Flying into the air while they are following you, however, just leaves them behind on the ground."
I'm working on a sequel to that arc (currently unpublished), and in the first mission I have a detail with an ally boss who, upon rescue, runs to the nearest door (I know there are easier ways to do this, but I was experimenting with allied bosses). The ally boss is capable of flight; which, of course, this being an AE mission, means he doesn't fly at all. I started working on this mission *just* before the patch to I14 that borked ally flight-- and in those first couple of tests he flew to the door. Ever *since* the first patch to I14, he no longer flies. Instead, he does the little hop-step-- ALL THE WAY TO THE FREAKIN' DOOR. To quote Mike Nelson, "John Goodman on Hume Cronyn's back could outrun this guy".
I got frustrated and back-burnered the mission. As changes were made to AE, I would go back and tweak my missions to make sure they worked, and it was during this tweaking that I noticed the allied bosses in mission 3 of my arc# 98943 doing the same little hop-step. The allies behaving in this manner are in patrols. The allies set to follow in the mission, however, do *not* do the 'hop-step'.
These are the common elements of the two NPCs that get stuck in 'hop-step':
1. They both have flight, but cannot use it.
2. They are both bosses set to ally.
3. Their 'hop-step' occurs at a point when they should be activating flight.
4. They are both allies that are FOLLOWING AI PATHING, NOT FOLLOWING A CHARACTER.
As best as I can tell, the 'hop-step' occurs as a result of repeatedly attempting to activate flight, then immediately turning it off. It's very quick: Fly-Off-Fly-Off-Fly-Off-Fly-Off. While flying allies set to follow will run after you, albeit remaining earthbound, flying allies with AI paths get stuck in this 'hop-step' loop.
OK. That's all I have for now.
...Can you tell that I really really *really *want my AE allies to be able to fly again?
Thanks very much,
Dave Harlan
Allies on follow, however, do not do the hop-step at all-- they follow at a normal running pace, but if you outdistance them, they do not activate fly to keep up (like they used to at I14 launch). And if you fly, they just stay put (no 'hop-step').
So that's as much as I've figured out; Allies that follow AI pathing can fly, it just doesn't always work, and they often get stuck in the hop-step. Allies that follow Player Characters cannot fly at all, but they run just fine.
I know there are others out there who have encountered these issues; does anyone have any observations on this behavior that I have not noted? Anybody have any ideas why this has been happening since the first patch to I14? Anybody notice that this is driving me completely insane? -
Another vote for Mercs/Traps. That was my first 50 villain, and I burned through things solo.
...Of course, in those days I could teleport my acid mortar, and Pain was not an option... -
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Quote:/signed, if only because I suggested the exact same thing right after MA was released:Originally Posted by NinjaPirate
Add this ability to the existing Mission Computer!
I mean, it's got the perfect name already!
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=129267
The mission computer doesn't even offer the nonexistent Cathedral of Pain trial now. All it does is insult me. "Not for the likes of me"? I BUILT you, you @#$%^&* piece of !@#$%....
Basically, my idea was to make the Mission Computer a mini-AE, with arcs selected by SG leaders. They would have to be valid arcs currently published in the AE-- the SG leaders put their favorites, or arcs by SG members, in the Mission Computer list.
Then stick a mini-hologram column, phone-booth sized, next to the mish computer. Or rig it to where the mission shows up on the list of available destinations on the base teleporters' list, like when we have an outdoor mission accessed at the train station.
It wouldn't introduce any more farming into the game than what's already there, it would be a good way for people to get their stories played, and it would also add more activity to bases, turning them into a true meeting place. Stick a red blinking light on the computer when there are new arcs, and bam, you have a TroubAlert-- creating the illusion that your SG is being contacted to take on an emerging threat.
Signed again. ...Can I get in trouble for that?
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Quote:I'm using Photobucket too, and was having the same problem. Then I stumbled across something...Originally Posted by SaraMC
Hello,
Im having trouble getting my avatar to show up. It is less than 100x100 but it still wont show up. I am trying to post the link from photobucket...
The original link to my avatar that Photobucket provided was http://img.photobucket.com/albums/07...g?t=1249167630 . I couldn't get the foums to recognize it to save my life. Then I accidentally copied the link without that last string of numbers-- the link came out as http://img.photobucket.com/albums/07.../ARHavatar.jpg . That worked! I saved it, and have since changed my avatar again without any problems.
I also could not get my signature image to display at all, despite following all the specified guidelines. What worked there was the same trimming of the URL, and placing the URL in my text signature with [img] [/img] tags. -
Also (you may not have noticed) in the Options menu, at the bottom of the General Tab (? pretty sure) are two buttons for saving and loading chat tab configurations. If you have at least one character who has all their chat tabs just that way you want them, save those chat tabs and then just load them for every character.
That option and window placement save/load have saved me immeasurable amounts of time. 2 great QoL additions.