Witch_Engine

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Enemy descriptions are difficult to read -- you have to target them, open a menu, and specifically pick 'description'. They aren't fed to you passively like mission intro/outtros, or behind a single click menu like clues.

Therefore, I treat them as niceties, extras, easter eggs, nothing more. I'll write custom descs, but often it'll just be a one line joke or some other comment about them. Occasionally I'll do some background info on that particular critter, but nothing critical, nothing you NEED to know -- just some enriching text. Can't rely on people reading it.

As for the rest, clues and intro/outtros and dialogue, those are must haves. I also go for redundancy; outtros and intros should summarize your most important talking points, in case people skipped the clues.

And as for people who never read anything and mindlessly zerg because they don't care about story and just want MOAR XP, they're not the ones I'm creating for, so I don't care if they miss out on the plot or get confused as to what's going on. The text is there for those who enjoy stories.

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What's funny is that the first thing pretty much everyone in my supergroup does on an MA mission when a new enemy shows up, is stops, and checks out their bios, as well as the bios of every boss or special enemy in case something is there. We actually find it really disappointing if there's nothing there - it smacks of laziness if they can't bother with even a single line to explain the enemy. They're often some of our favourite parts of a custom mission. I even have a macro to call them up mid battle if they appear in an ambush.

Least important text overall for us is probably the green text for interacting with clickies, but only because only the person clicking them can see it.

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The new "Captured (Energy Field)" animation is almost exactly the same as it was before, minus the large rays of psychic energy emanating from Penelope Yin. If you're seeings something radically different and wouldn't mind posting a screenshot, it might help me track down what's going on.

It's actually an effect for a Rikti 'containment field'. If I remember the mission correctly, they had captured Penelope Yin and were using her as a psychic battery to open a portal to their homeworld.

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Aboslutely - here you go, side by side for comparison:

Before, impressive pillar of pink/violet energy, perfect for a swarm of Storm Elementals, minions of a mad god, who share those colours mind you, to use to contain their incredibly powerful prey.

After, a tiny, sad, wussy ring of green and blue that doesn't match their colours or have a tenth of the visual impact or grandeur the old one had.

Comparison (Link)

I'd just like to nth the statement that the energy field emote needs to come back - it's rather extensively used in one of my arcs, and it doesn't make sense using the other options since the FX of the removed field actually matches the colour of their powers. Now it just looks horrible.

with an estimated 150,000 subscribers, if even say, 0.05% of them were griefers, that's still 75 of them, more than enough to wreck any arc's rating given that a vote of 1 requires 9 5-stars to counteract, and a 0 requires 11.

It only requires 10 griefers 0-voting an arc to require 110 5-star votes to bring it back to 5 stars, which is vastly more votes than most arcs ever see, and thanks to being pounded instantly back into obscurity the moment they see any sort of actual chance at exposure, the more than many will likely ever see without a large network of allies spreading word of mouth, and aggressive promotion. The way HoF works, each 0 vote effectively cancels out the votes of a dozen other people, giving anyone who wants to sabotage an arc's voting absolutely tremendous power to do so, should they be so inclined.

I've had my arc get on the first 3 pages of the MA search on three separate occasions, each time with almost all 5-star votes (and the occasional but rare 4 star). Each time, within 30 minutes of this happening, the arc is bombarded with several 1 and 0 star votes. Every time. This has happened, this exact same way, in the exact same time frame, to a half dozen other people I communicate with regularly in game.

After that blitz, when the arcs are buried again from the low votes, they go back to earning almost exclusively 4 and 5 star votes until they crawl back up again. After which the cycle repeats. This happens to all of us, not just me.

Gemini:
If the arcs were really so bad as to deserve multiple 1 and 0 star votes over the course an hour of them reaching front pages why is it only when they reach the front page do they get these votes, and only for a tiny window upon reaching that point? Predictably and reliably, with the low votes ceasing every single time completely and utterly after they are off the front page?

I am genuinely interested in your thoughts on how this pattern can happen over and over and over again and not be suspicious at all.

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I started snickering at this:
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- Forming non-MA teams is incredibly hard to do at the moment.

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and started laughing outright at this:
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- The existence of so many "Meow-50s" is really bothersome at higher levels as experienced teams must either tutor these inexperienced players, or the inexperienced players can make the difficult, higher level game content even more difficult by making "newbie" mistkes.

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Emphasis added to point out what was so funny.

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Don't forget "much of the game content requires teaming to complete successfully". I...don't even know where to begin on that one.

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Lemme know how that solo STF, RSF, LGTF, ITF, Eden Trial, and the solo Shadow Shard TFs go, k?



You know the funny part is I actually don't MIND farming, and have a farming toon for occassional use, but still see some of the concerns others are pointing out about the effects that MA have had as valid things for the devs to consider. Consolidating them in one post was an attempt to take them out of the "DOOOOMM!!!" category and into the "Ok, how much of this is real and how can we make everyone happy" category. Which is why the initial post asked this this NOT become a debate-based thread, but instead a perception based thread on concerns people have.

Instead we ended up with "quit picking on us farmers cuz w3r leetz and none of your worries are even worth reading noob!!! lolozzzzlzol1111!!!!!1!1!"

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One of the SS TFs is soloable, actually, and I wasn't aware that 8 missions in the game explicitly designated as team content constitutes 'much of the game content'. Heck, even if you throw every task force and trial into the mix, it is still only a tiny amount of the total content, and, if you want to split hairs, most of those have been soloed, too, by most ATs, even.

Grossly exaggerating the problems to the point of ridiculousness isn't going to help your cause. You're screaming 'doom' at problems that don't even exist. End game content is easier than early content if anything, most of the game can be soloed, and market prices are actually hitting a level where recipes are affordable to the common player, creating a more level playing field. If you can't find groups, try joining a super group or making a few friends - I've never had a problem getting a team, not before MA, not after. You're creating shadows to jump at out of absolutely nothing.

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I started snickering at this:
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- Forming non-MA teams is incredibly hard to do at the moment.

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and started laughing outright at this:
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- The existence of so many "Meow-50s" is really bothersome at higher levels as experienced teams must either tutor these inexperienced players, or the inexperienced players can make the difficult, higher level game content even more difficult by making "newbie" mistkes.

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Emphasis added to point out what was so funny.

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Don't forget "much of the game content requires teaming to complete successfully". I...don't even know where to begin on that one.

Last patch removed the level 1-54 Rularuu enemies from the game, but kept the 41-54 ones, which are identical other than the level range, which broke a few arcs.

This is doubly odd since now you can't use Rularuu under level 41, but they appear as level 35-39 enemies in Technician Naylor's arc so at the very least that level range should still have remained.

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Were the powers available to the Rularuu at the lower range different than those 41-50?

My best guess would be that they don't exist in the real game at the level so you can't use them. There are other groups where you can't do this, for instance, Rikti don't go below lvl 30, meanwhile other enemies don't go above a certain level, things like skulls and hellions I believe. This would go in line with other groups from in the game.

The Devs never designed that particular group to exist at that level range and likely consider something they could do either broken or exploitable.

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The powers they had were identical to those the higher level ones had, and they existed and were used in game as they were used for the issue 2 event rather extensively. So, it baffles me.

Last patch removed all level 1-54 Rularuu spawns from the architect, making any mission that uses them permanently invalid, and won't let any person trying to play an arc containing them start the arc.

The level 41-54 Rularuu are still all there, but this doesn't help me since my arc requires them as level 32-35 enemies on one mission and I'll have to scrap the entire arc if they're not returned. Since they have the same powersets as the 41-54 Rularuu, and those are still in, they shouldn't be causing any issues, so I am wondering why they were removed. If it was an error, will they be put back? Any help on this is appreciated, I already /bugged it but it's really upsetting to completely lose an arc that I can't re-do without completely and utterly changing the story, in essence, starting from scratch.

Post deleted by Niviene

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I explained why pretty well like two posts up. It's less a matter of 'hey here's a nice thing for players' and more a matter of 'the longer it continues the more the resources to make them are wasted on an ever-shrinking segment of the population, which will eventually reach a point where it'd make more sense to make things everyone can enjoy because the people who can benefit from them is disproportionate to the effort to add them'.

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The resources required for the vast majority of vet rewards are negligible. Most of it is reworking things that are already in the game so that a vet badge unlocks them. Think Sands of Mu, Nemesis Staff, travel power at 60, more respecs, free costume changes, etc.

The costume bits (wings, trench coats) are similarly quick to develop and turn on with a badge.

Once the infrastructure for vet rewards was in place, the incremental costs of adding new ones has most likely been minimal.

Customer loyalty is extremely important. While vet rewards don't make their holders better people (or even better players), they represent a reward for loyal customers who have invested a large amount of time and money in a product. It's a nice gesture.

Management of CoH is already well aware of how limited their resources are, and the nature of vet rewards already indicates this knowledge. They are not extravagant by any stretch.

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I would argue (and this is a slight derail) that any player who's already been playing (and paying) long enough to get the 60 month badge would be doing so with or without veteran rewards. Implying that people only remain loyal to the game because they are rewarded with veteran powers seems intellectually dishonest to me.

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Stever, if you're just going to keep ignoring my points and make troll posts/mock me, I'd like to kindly ask you to stop. It's not constructive and it's derailing the thread.

Your entire comparison to 3 year vets vs 1 year getting the same rewards doesn't even make sense, because those vets DID get their rewards retroactively. It's not even the same issue, you're arguing retroactive rewards and I'm discussing the possibility of rewards that will never be rewarded in the first place. If you want to mock me, please at least try to do it in a way that actually has some bearing on what I'm actually saying.

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Not mocking you in any way.
Presenting logical and historical points
If you see no comparison between <ul type="square">[*]people who played the game for 2.5 years with no VRs. and[*]People who may miss out on the last couple of years of VRs[/list]Then I guess we can't help that.

But it is just logic and history.
Please do not let it make you feel mocked.

at least not by me.
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The huge and painfully obvious thing you keep failing to see is that those players did get all those veteran rewards. You can't be rewarded something that didn't exist, so them not having them for the first 2.5 years is a complete non-issue. The players who didn't get them for the first 2.5 years DID get them all. You'd have a point if people who'd been playing those 2.5 years didn't receive ANY of that playtime retroactively towards their rewards and had to start their vet timer at 0 the same as someone who'd started the day vet rewards were introduced, but that's not the case.

You fail to see the difference between still getting all the rewards, but having a delay (because the system didn't even exist) with never, EVER getting the rewards at all, and the compounded problem of each reward becoming accessible to an ever increasingly tiny portion of the player base.

If it reaches a point where a veteran reward will only ever be obtained by a couple dozen players, (and by definition, it must reach this point unless CoH remains online forever AND longtime players never unsubscribe) is it really worth the time and effort to develop and code it when that same time could be used for something that would benefit the playerbase at large?

It's simply a logistics problem - resources to code said reward vs. actual benefit to the game for doing so.

Stever, if you're just going to keep ignoring my points and make troll posts/mock me, I'd like to kindly ask you to stop. It's not constructive and it's derailing the thread.

Your entire comparison to 3 year vets vs 1 year getting the same rewards doesn't even make sense, because those vets DID get their rewards retroactively. It's not even the same issue, you're arguing retroactive rewards and I'm discussing the possibility of rewards that will never be rewarded in the first place. If you want to mock me, please at least try to do it in a way that actually has some bearing on what I'm actually saying.

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Speaking as someone with the 54 month vet badge, I really, really, really hope that 60 is the last vet badge.

They're a horrible idea and largely give things most players should have off the bat (ie boxing gear) and, let's be honest here, people who have been playing long enough to get the higher end badges would have been playing without them (and you didn't 'earn' anything folks, stop acting so superior and stuck up just because you've played a game longer - it's a game, if you feel spending money to earn things in it makes you better/deserving of these rewards somehow, you have a sad perspective on life), and realistically, given the lifespan of most MMOs, it's highly dubious that any player that starts now will even see the 60 month badge before the game is retired, even if they play for the entire rest of the game's lifespan with no break.

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Why?

Why can't NC Soft be kind to the people that have given them so much of their time and money on CoH? Of course, they aren't obligated to do so, but some Veterans (like myself) appreciate it.

At 60 months, you are looking at about 900.00 or so in Fees alone, not to mention Retail boxes, DVD Editions, Collectors Editions, and the various Perk packages. (Wedding, Cyborg, Valkyrie, etc...)

I'd like to think my contributions to the success of this game (via my money, time, and referrals) have contributed in some small way to the games success. To me, Vet Rewards are NC Soft's way of saying "Thank You".

I wish the "Vet Hate" would stop.

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I explained why pretty well like two posts up. It's less a matter of 'hey here's a nice thing for players' and more a matter of 'the longer it continues the more the resources to make them are wasted on an ever-shrinking segment of the population, which will eventually reach a point where it'd make more sense to make things everyone can enjoy because the people who can benefit from them is disproportionate to the effort to add them'.

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... And as a result, you do have control over it; continue to pay and play the game. That's it. Plain and simple.

--Rad

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Realistically, any player who starts playing now, will actually probably never get the 60 month vet power ever, no matter what he or she does, given the average lifespan of most MMOs.

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Yes, when CoX was 6 months old there were people predicting its imminent death.
And I would have laughed if anyone would have said I would still be having the time of my life playing it 5 years later.

And yet . . .

And yet . . .

Here CoX still is,
and here I still am, having a blast!

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Predicting doom 6 months in is -just- a little different from predicting an online game (most of which, even more successful ones than CoH, already have notoriously short lifespans) with a largely stagnant player base and an engine the devs have admitted is pushing its limits in several areas, will not be around in TEN YEARS from its launch. (Double the -entire- time of its existence to date.) If you cannot tell the difference, ...

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Those 6 month doom criers gave apparently logical, kind of believable, reasons too.

And yet . . .

And yet . . .

Well, let's take your suggestions as reasonable though...


Oh Noes!
I guess we may be doomed to just acepting more VRs as they come.
And I guess we will just be forced to continue having barrels of fun till 'The End'.

alas!

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Thank you for completely, purposely missing the point, and mocking players instead of having an actual, intelligent response to my point. If I wasn't sure you were just trolling before, this has confirmed it.

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Realistically, any player who starts playing now, will actually probably never get the 60 month vet power ever, no matter what he or she does, given the average lifespan of most MMOs.

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Since my crystal ball is cracked, I can't see that far in the future. The world may end in 2012, the servers may shut down before then or the game may last for 10 years like UO (taking us into 2014 and conveniently 5 years from now). Look, I understand that some may not get every reward. You may be right those starting now may not make it to 60 months to use the reward. But, all of those are factors outside of the veteran reward system. The argument still boils down to the same thing I said in the quoted post - the desire to want it right now. But, if the reward is good enough to be desired, then I believe NCNC succeeded in creating a compelling enough retention incentive (which is of course what vet rewards are). Will some who start feel they cannot keep up with vets? Obviously, the post I responded to reflects just that sentiment. Will some that feel that way leave because of it? I have no doubt. Does it matter in the grand scheme of things? No more than when I, as a vet choose, to cancel my subscription.

--Rad

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Actually, my argument has nothing whatsoever to do with wanting the rewards 'RIGHT NOW'. It has everything to do with looking realistically at how much they're going to keep stretching the rewards vs. how probable it will be that it would even be possible for a player to EVER see them, no matter how patient they are.

Once you hit the imaginary line dividing the halfway point of an MMO's lifespan (whatever this may be, obviously nobody can see the future) than any future veteran rewards added beyond that point become impossible to achieve, ever by new players. The longer beyond that point you go, the fewer and fewer players, no matter how much they try, will be able to access that content, and beyond a point it becomes a waste of resources to keep developing them as they'll be designing them for an ever-permanently decreasing segment of the population.

Again, I HAVE the 54 month badge already on my characters. Wanting the rewards 'right now' is a total non-issue for me. I'm fine with having players have to wait 5 years for the rewards, that's fine. My entire point is that there comes a point, somewhere, where the vet reward system becomes silly, because you have an ever-growing number of veterans who will never, ever, see many of the rewards coded into it.

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... And as a result, you do have control over it; continue to pay and play the game. That's it. Plain and simple.

--Rad

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Realistically, any player who starts playing now, will actually probably never get the 60 month vet power ever, no matter what he or she does, given the average lifespan of most MMOs.

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Yes, when CoX was 6 months old there were people predicting its imminent death.
And I would have laughed if anyone would have said I would still be having the time of my life playing it 5 years later.

And yet . . .

And yet . . .

Here CoX still is,
and here I still am, having a blast!

.

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Predicting doom 6 months in is -just- a little different from predicting an online game (most of which, even more successful ones than CoH, already have notoriously short lifespans) with a largely stagnant player base and an engine the devs have admitted is pushing its limits in several areas, will not be around in TEN YEARS from its launch. (Double the -entire- time of its existence to date.) If you cannot tell the difference, you're being a fool, or purposely obtuse.

It's far more reasonable that we'll see either a huge engine overhaul or CoH 2 five years from now - the age and limitation of the engine itself (which is no fault of the devs by any means, for its time it was a pretty revolutionary game at launch, it's simply the reality of the situation,) combined competition from other, newer superhero MMOs will also further accelerate this process. Remember CoH did not have genre competition up until this point. I love the game but the engine is, by computer standards, archaic at this point, and has a lot of really strange restrictions. You cannot always look at the game with rose coloured glasses - to think this game will be around in an official format perpetually is fairly delusional.

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You're missing my point. I *AM* saying such a thing as being able to skip a prereq should have downsides. As it currently stands, though, there is absolutely no penalty whatsoever if you weren't using the prereq for anything. Those with this reward can get the benefit without paying any cost, unlike everyone else.

And, second, my complaint is that this is being doled out to only *some* of the population. Skipping travel powers entirely by relying on temps is not a "HUGE advantage over everyone else" because said everyone else has the option to do the *exact same thing*. But only those with this reward even have the *option* to skip a travel prereq while still getting a real travel power. And, again, only those with the reward have the option to save a power choice while using anything but fly.

Really, this is about the 'haves' and the 'have nots'. Unlike almost every single other division in this game (rich/poor, high level/low level, uber PvPer/newb PvPer, etc), the vet/newbie division *cannot* be erased by any effort on the part of the newbie. No matter what he does, the vet will *always* be X months ahead of him in the endless vet reward treadmill. And *that's* why I resent things which are actually game-changing (rather than simply conveniences or perks) being doled out based on the one distinction I can do absolutely nothing about. (And, yes, this is game changing. It would drastically change how I build many of my characters, and so, *at least for me*, this is a game changing ability - one that I have *no possibility* of getting any other way.) Look at the veteran rewards: respecs you can get other ways. Costume sessions you can get other ways. The temp powers are mostly conveniences to let you do faster something that you can already do (kill stuff, get places, etc) or are almost totally fluff (pets). But this, this is something you can't mimic any other way. (And, yes, I have almost the same complaint about the costume parts, but it's more of an intellectual concern for me since I'm not focused so much on looks.)

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Everyone has the same opportunity to get this reward. Everyone bar none. It is being 'doled' out to all of the population. It is being 'doled' out to all of the population. The only difference between the 'haves' and the 'have nots' is that the later are not are getting it right now. They still have the ability to get it in the future. And as a result, you do have control over it; continue to pay and play the game. That's it. Plain and simple.

--Rad

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Realistically, any player who starts playing now, will actually probably never get the 60 month vet power ever, no matter what he or she does, given the average lifespan of most MMOs.

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Will all the travel pools be this way? Like can I take Fly, Super Speed, Super Jump, Teleport all on one toon and not take the previous power or is this a one time thing for one pool?

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All.

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Castle - is the 60 month badge planned to be the final vet reward or is there going to be more after it?

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To the best of my knowledge, future veteran rewards are planned. However, I'm not on the rewards team, and don't know that answer as a certainty. Positron would have to give a difinitive answer.

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Ah, that's a shame. Thank you for responding, though.

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Will all the travel pools be this way? Like can I take Fly, Super Speed, Super Jump, Teleport all on one toon and not take the previous power or is this a one time thing for one pool?

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All.

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Castle - is the 60 month badge planned to be the final vet reward or is there going to be more after it?

Speaking as someone with the 54 month vet badge, I really, really, really hope that 60 is the last vet badge.

They're a horrible idea and largely give things most players should have off the bat (ie boxing gear) and, let's be honest here, people who have been playing long enough to get the higher end badges would have been playing without them (and you didn't 'earn' anything folks, stop acting so superior and stuck up just because you've played a game longer - it's a game, if you feel spending money to earn things in it makes you better/deserving of these rewards somehow, you have a sad perspective on life), and realistically, given the lifespan of most MMOs, it's highly dubious that any player that starts now will even see the 60 month badge before the game is retired, even if they play for the entire rest of the game's lifespan with no break.

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Any comments to those who felt locked out of the fun?

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Stop crying?

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See, it's the neverending blatant trollish posts like this that ensure people from freedom and virtue continue being hostile to those of the other servers, ensuring they remain barren wastelands. Some people just can't empathize with others I guess, who just wanted to play their favourite guys and were having troubles with it, I guess

Witch Engine of Virtue Server.

The shoulderpads and "skirt" are supposed to all be part of one giant, baggy shirt.

Witch Engine Costume
Witch Engine Costume - multiple angles for reference
Here's a doodle to show you what I mean about the shirt thing.