Zamuel
-
Posts
2194 -
Joined
-
The goo person still somewhat exists if you're making an AE custom. Due some sort of overlay quirk, the silver mercury guy has the bubbles and glow from the goo guy.
-
Quote:Arguably, the real question would be why did they not have the forethought to plan for a male Carnie sash considering the constant Kheldian sash requests.Originally Posted by Kheldarn
Robert Boone: COH I just found some screens of the Carnival of Light sash piece and it is verrry similar to a Kheldian sash. Is there any chance of porting it to males before i22 is released?
City of Heroes: We have communicated about players wanting the sash to be ported to Male/Huge. At this time, however, it is not possible to port the piece over at this timeframe. We may revisit it in the future. -
I'd say avoid the built in search like the plague (it's utter garbage and the devs have shown no interest in fixing it) and use various forum resources.
-
Merely curious, have any NPCs with Titan Weapons been added to the game like Super Stunners for Electricity Control, Chi Masters for Kinetic Melee, etc?
-
Quote:I'm curious, have you tried other people's missions a second time? I word it that way since there seems to be a bit of recurring theme of playing a few bad arcs in I14 and swearing off the system rather than attempting anything else in AE later.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
This gets into the "you can't tickle yourself" problem, however. Yes, I can make enemies of my own, but by the time I get to fighting them, they really aren't new stuff any more. They're stuff I made. I suppose I could make them, shelf them and then fight them a year down the line when I've forgotten, but I've never been able to plan that far ahead.
-
Quote:I was probably more out of the loop with Air Superiority at that time since I was newer than many gave credit. And I do prefer situations that reward smart play which was my intention with the build comment but came out wrong. Basically, rather than just blindly "build for softcap, lol" there should be options that cater to other aspects of your powers and AT.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
And while you say "build variety," what you describe is pretty much taking the one or two specific Pool powers that everyone has insisted I take since Day 1. Really, ask most people and the answer will usually be the same - Air Superiority, Tough and Weave for melee characters. That's really not where I want to go. In fact, I'm not a big fan of "build" being the answer to every problem, because then I'm not actually playing a game, I'm enacting a script. I played the game in Mids' Hero and Villain Designer, on the Market and on the AT forums. All that's left to do in the game is play the tape.
I'd have liked to see the Supper Stunner self resurrection delayed a couple of second to give me time to back away, honestly. This is the sort of place where knowing what to do would be a greater advantage than "build." It's a lot like fighting the Nemesis Army. If you kill stuff willy-nilly, you end up with enemies with stacked Vengeance and a big problem. If you save the lieutenants for last, you succeed. This kind of situational awareness which nevertheless doesn't break the flow of combat and enforce waiting time is what I find the most entertaining. It's decisions made on the spot in reaction to events as they happen, not choices made long before the mission even started. -
Quote:Thing is, I don't see it as anywhere near as binary as dropping in Void Hunters, just acknowledging strengths and weaknesses. It not doing so, some ATs/powersets will always have an edge in every scenario since the game is only catering to their strengths. I think it would also encourage a bit more build variance. While part of it might have been due to pre I18 flaws, my Fire/Fire scrapper's playability went up exponentially simply by adding Air Superiority. As much as "just high damage" is lauded, survivability went up due to control. And maybe it's just my own playstyle preferences since I highly value control.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
I disagree. What you're describing is essentially Void Hunters for generic ATs, and there are few things in this game I hate more than Void Hunters. Balancing an AT by giving it situations that suck *** just isn't a good way of balancing, as far as I'm concerned. Sure, I get that some situations are harder than other for some characters, but there's "harder" and then there's "Blaster vs. Hercules Class Titan." There's no need to punish people for having picked a specific AT, that's my point. And that's exactly where Blasters are - their AT is defined by the things it CAN'T handle much more so than the things it can, largely because most ATs can handle most everything.
C'mon, most melee players seem to complain when anything so much as gently strokes the endurance bar. The rez is the move mainly complained about and while the radius is fairly decent sized, it's primarily a melee problem. Arguably, it's a situation where the much maligned KB would be great.Quote:Also... Super Stunners are supposed to be hard for melee? They drain endurance, I get that, but melee characters have more than enough margin for error to absorb that and kill these guys twice without being in that much trouble. At least, that's been my impression.
Considering Traps and phasing synergize quite well, it's possible pulling and Devices might not have been so much of an issue if a similar thought process was employed. Thinking about some things concerning that...Quote:This is probably going to make me sound incredibly arrogant to say it, but what was different was my Brute. One of the reasons I suggested we run the Sewers was I'd done this by myself on that Brute the level before and it seemed like a fun idea. I'm not saying your Blaster didn't pull his weight. Hell, you made the whole thing far, FAR easier than it had been by myself, but your Blaster wasn't really facing the brunt of the controls of those control-based enemies. That's really the sticking point - if you have someone to tank for you, then Blasters work well enough. I just don't think they're superior by enough to merit them being as defenceless as they are when alone.
Also, while Electric Blasters get panned, they still deliver serious damage, and do so without needing any setup time. I don't believe we pulled anything in that sewers run, and I don't think we spent a lot of time standing around and "preparing." If you'd brought a Devices Blaster, instead, I'm honestly not sure if I'd have had the patience to corner-pull ever spawn we came across into mines and... To be honest, I'm not sure you'd have had the patience to do it, either.
Control heavy enemies does give me an interesting thought concerning Defiance. It's been suggested that part of the damage buff from Defiance be rolled into the base damage for most attacks. Why not give Defiance some stacking status resistance buffs? While resistance means you will be stopped initially, with high enough numbers it would give you the ability to keep in motion. In theory, it already fits the theme since the two primary/first secondary attacks are available while controlled. A little more could be added to the resistance based epic shields for layering and specific powers like snipes and nukes could get it in greater bursts. While it doesn't solve every problem, it would help mitigate being totally screwed with just a few control heavy enemies in a spawn when you just need a small edge to take them out and/or retreat and recover. -
Quote:Not saying Blasters don't need looking over but I still wonder how much of this is "better at situation A, situation B never happens". An interesting comment was made a while back that difficulty in this game is measured by what gives melee trouble, even if other ATs have ways to marginalize the situation. Perfect example is Super Stunners. Particularly nasty in melee but if you stack controls they're a bunch of harmless kittens. Many complain about Croatoa witches or Longbow Eagles' runaway but that's a similar matter. While the specifics might need to be tweaked, I think these are needed. I mean, let's look at Brutes. As someone who's not a fan of them, I think it's actually great that Fury drains slower. However, some of the specifics in building Fury almost seem designed in a vacuum since there's simply not enough situations that slow down it's gain. Essentially, it was a change that was very good for the AT itself but questionable in the AT's strength compared to other ATs and the overall structure of the game.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
I'm talking base slotting here, but the point remains that a Scrapper can survive and thrive in environments of far higher danger and far faster combat than a Blaster with similar slotting. I'm not sure where the end point should be drawn, but when ALL of my Scrappers outperform ALL of my blasters by leaps and bounds, that's where I simply choose to cut my losses and abandon the AT, which is what I did.
My brain is also wondering if there's something small we're all missing that affects the situations we're seeing and could use key tweaks. I'm reminded of the time that the two of us opted not to turn in the Abandoned Sewer Trial, stayed exempted and duoed our way from the trial door to the Boomtown exit. I didn't die and pulled my weight yet elec/ Blasters are notoriously trash talked for being bad (requesting build and playstyle advice was usually replied with "reroll"). What made that situation, hazard zone spawns with control based enemies and a hospital very far away, different than most? -
Quote:...why?Originally Posted by MrCaptainMan
They should make it buyable.
-
Quote:I think it's less of not putting on a trailer directly and more of not minding if a reviewer brought it up in a review. Pretty much the difference between "hey, that game has a robust crafting system despite some quirks" and "whoa, mining for crafting materials takes HOURS dude".Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Not sure that's 100% true. Scanner missions were considered a godsend to casual players and content farmers alike in that they were ways to informally team with people, level out of content gaps, or just do a few quick and dirty missions when time was limited. They are by design very simple (simplistic really) and not the sort of content I would hold up as representing our game well, but its a necessary evil of sorts that the players generally appreciate.
-
Quote:I think ambushes could stand to be handled better. Less dropping them on people's heads and more having them spawn around the corner and run to you so the player can capitalize on natural choke points. Also, most have speech when the spawn so perhaps an audio cue as well. I also feel there are some missions where you can get a vibe of when something is about to happen and prepare accordingly.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
That's a big part of the problem, yes. Even if we assumed that "situational" powers were amazingtastic at what they did, if their situations don't come up even remotely often, they still end up feeling like dead weight. If this game gave us a way to predict ambushes with enough time to set up a trap, THEN situational traps might be much more widely used. Hell, with as ambush-heavy as the game is these days, just spacing the ambushes out a bit so they don't stack with each other like they do in Praetoria could help make "traps" as a concept much more appealing. Really, at almost no point in the game can you tell that THIS is a good situation to lay traps and THIS is a good place to lay them until it's far, far too late to actually lay said traps.
I'm really not sure what the solution to this problem would be, such that it wouldn't be annoying for non-situational power use, but this is a big issue. You're never specifically given an opportunity to use these traps in response to your situation. You can only ever use them when the game is essentially paused and you have yet to start a fight. And, frankly, "pre-fight preparation" just isn't fun for me. I'm much rather be expected to think on my feet and react to circumstances, if given the chance. Traps can be made to do this even without "dumbing down" the powers if people are simply allowed to see ambushes coming with enough forewarning that they can lay at least SOME measure of a trap. -
Personally, I'd hate to remove any more zones from the game other than a few I'd merge on reflex such as making Terra Volta a part of Independence Port, making Tunnels of the Trolls a part of the Hollows, and maybe figuring out a clever way to merge the Sewer Network and the Abandoned Sewer Network that won't massacre lowbies. I think it's far less of an issue of having too many zones and rather not actually doing anything with them. While the blueside zones do have some overlap, there are some things like Perez or Eden that are sorely in need of dedicated contacts/story arcs. It could help with character theme if there was a track for each origin.
-
I do think we need to do more balancing based on scenarios rather than powers in a vacuum. It arguably explains why things like Brutes thrive so well. There should also be more mission variety. While not every mission should be 30 Fir Bolg or Protect the Henge, there are powersets and playstyles that thrive from them. I think this half of Devices' problem right here without even getting into the actual stats. In the concept of balance through annoyance, there probably is a worthy question of "what do you find annoying?" Not saying that some powers couldn't stand a second pass but it's something worth thinking about. While I may not take every power in a set, I hate the sentiment that a powerset should have a "bad" power so it can be skipped. Especially since most of those seem like the cool (if sometimes flawed) ones.
With the mention of Trip Mine, I personally don't have problems with it. Don't get me wrong, I'd love for it to be slottable for interrupt but there's a number of ways to set them up. Plus, I've learned little engine quirks here and there.
Having MM Traps but no Devices means I've never used Time Bomb but I do have thoughts on how to improve it. Reduce the animation time to 1 second, give the player the ability to detonate early but have damage and accuracy/to hit scale up the longer it's out for up to 10 seconds. This allows it to be used as either a quick burst or a strong followup to a pull or prolonged battle. Should also give it a slightly different role from Trip Mine due to this.
On snipes, they need much more damage than they do. However, I wonder if they need other benefits as well such as not notifying the rest of the group if it kills the target and any debuffs being non-random and rather strong in case you didn't kill the enemy. Also, who do we need to plead with to get Stalker snipe animation times replaced with the Blaster/Corruptor/Defender snipes? -
Quote:Originally Posted by Tunnel Rat
Also, a special request from the Honey Badger (I know he wants a "cooler" redname but he is SO stuck with that.) We have some time coming up that will be specifically scheduled for auras. If you haven't gotten your aura or path aura suggestions in yet, please post them! We love hearing your ideas!
- The floating dollar bills from the Safeguard villains escaping the bank.
- Clocks. It made sense for Time Manipulation to be more generic but an actual aura of spinning clock hands would be cool.
- A static Chest only and Chest and Eyes option the Runes aura.
- Floating chest holograms of the current default chest symbols. Be especially nice if there were Back, Face, and Forehead options for this.
- In a similar vein as the above, some sort of large holographic shield or mirror. (mirror as in shape, I know it can't be reflective)
- Something similar to Victorian Decor but instead of fancy swirls, have a ghostly skeleton
Plus, a general request for more two color auras or two color options for existing auras. I think A.C.C.U.H.U.D. might be the only one so far actually. Likewise, a few more single eye auras.
Would it be possible to design a bright variant of Darkness as essentially "Souls" or "Ectoplasm"? These seem like they would fit the theme but be brighter variants, well, pending on where you consider darkness coming from. Plus, Ghost Widow already has a soul variant.Quote:Originally Posted by Tunnel Rat
Good question, Sam. Let's talk shop!
The fine details of what the power is actually doing, I'll usually leave up to the player. Are Darkness' effects shadows or illusions? Is that actually a chattering skull erupting from your face, or is it just a product of your target's hallucinations? Are you causing permanent damage with your Sonic attacks, or temporarily deafening your target? That's up to you, and really, answering those questions doesn't change the look of a power much, from an artist's perspective.
When we design powerset effects, we keep two goals in mind. The visuals should be easily associated with the powerset's theme, while being consistent with the amount of detail and stylization in the game. (I think CoH shoots for a simplified, but still dynamically exaggerated version of realism, and I try to reflect this in the effects I make.) We also treat each powerset as its own specialized case, and make sure the visuals are appropriate for its mechanics. To put it simply, attacks should look damaging and painful. Buffs should look protective and rejuvenating. Mez attacks should look like they're inhibiting the target. When it comes to the players' acceptance of the effects, I find that believability - that is, whether the power represents the theme and the mechanics of the power well - is more important than the actual type of fire being used. You mentioned you would have expected a different kind of explosion for Pyronic than the one the FX team ultimately delivered. But you still seem to like the power. Really, any number of huge, fiery explosions would have worked just as well. But the type of explosion isn't as important as selling the feeling of a huge, deadly fire-based attack. And obviously this doesn't apply just to fire, but to all of our power themes.
The process gets a little trickier with abstract concepts, like Empathy and Darkness. I'd also lump in real-world concepts that don't have an easily recognizable visual, like Radiation and Gravity, into this category. These are the more difficult sets where expectations will be all over the place. And it's not just a division between the expectations of players and developers. There will be tons of variation in the answers of any two players, and any two developers, when they are asked, "What does the physical manifestation of Gravity look like?" You may find some common themes - and these are important to pay attention to - but you'll likely not reach a consensus on details. This is where the artist has to sit down and invent a visual language that represents that abstract concept.
I didn't work on most of the powersets you mentioned, but I feel the approach to Sonic and Radiation is a common solution for these abstract themes. Sonic's expanding rings and Radiation's green light and orbiting electrons aren't inventions of CoH artists; they are common, and therefore easily recognizable, representations of those themes, borrowed from movies, games and comics. Similarly, this is why Psychic powers are pink and Empathy powers are green (though I think their shapes and animation sell the effects just as well as their color). The current FX team borrows just as aggressively. I borrowed Time Manipulation's characteristic swirl from old sci-fi shows. Honey Badger borrowed Beam Rifle's effects from, what's it called... that movie about ghosts?
We add a lot of our own ideas on top of these borrowed ideas, but the reason we stick to these conventions at all is because it's crucial for our effects to read clearly.
This is why adding a bright palette to Darkness, for example, gives me pause. It violates one of our two main goals in designing a powerset - making sure the effects clearly represent the theme. Players are free to pretend their fire is pollen. But ultimately, I have to focus on making fire look like fire, not pollen. Likewise, players are free to pretend that their Darkness powers are souls, or demons, or chest hair. But because Darkness, by its most basic definition, suggests dark colors, I feel obligated to offer you options that are in the spirit of that theme. -
Very fair review overall. One question I have is how much did you get to explore City of Villains/the Rogue Islands?
-
With the change over to Freedom, how is time from physical boxes handled? Got a gift card and trying to decide between buying the CoV Collector's Edition or the basic NCsoft game time card. I heard the way boxes were handled changed and I'm trying to make sure I don't mess up.
-
Quote:Yes and no. There's some pretty powerful stuff that can be made with customs but we're limited to what powersets we can have and we lack any form of traps, direct spawn control, or specialized triggers so by default incarnate content and maybe some specific TFs/SFs will always be harder as far as tactics versus raw numbers.Originally Posted by Darth_Khasei
Actually AE is an area in the game where you can actually get the highest level of challenge in the game fighting level 54 extremes.
-
Small Kheldian notes that should be addressed but may or may not affect their numbering:
- The pets persist for a little while and actually stay active if you switch forms. So Black Dwarf potentially has its own firing squad and Bright Nova potentially has a protective minefield.
- Light Form offers a small amount of status protection. With high recharge it can be made permanent for Peacebringers.
-
Taking into account the whole "why wasn't found in Beta" thing that sometimes pops up, I apologize if something random happens with Destiny: Incandescence on Live. I notice it's not getting much attention which is probably due to people foaming at the mouth due to the mere mention of knockback.
-
Quote:The only reason why I made the comment about systematic 1 starring is because it's happened. I'm one of the people who's openly commented I want people to rate my arcs how they truly feel and is happy to be 4 starred because while not the best, the player enjoyed themselves. I've even thanked people for low star ratings that gave insightful feedback since it helps me improve. But when every single one of your arcs gets 1 starred collectively and this happens to several other authors at the same time, what are you supposed to think?Originally Posted by Nihilii
Much like any conspiracy theory, the myth of the 1-star spam only has one use, and it is to show the person who believes in it can't be reasoned with, as he's unwilling to accept other players might genuinely dislike his arc and will go to any length denying the idea that his work might not be solid gold and universally acclaimed.
It's also where the first impression and personal experience thing comes in. Someone new who's been conditioned to not even know story arcs exist in AE obviously skews the "no one plays AE" argument. Plus, there's an awful lot of bad farms out there from an aesthetic standpoint. Eyesore costumes, a few where the theme of the "story" was rather misogynistic, etc. Plus, the concept of actively promoting plagiarism is...bothersome. -
Quote:I dunno, I heard emoticons do a better job...Originally Posted by _Flux_
If troll, you need to work on your game. Be more inflammatory, use more rhetoric!
-
I'm going to speak my mind on this general topic and am anticipating the likely 1 stars incoming due to it.
Quote:I'd argue that there's a massive difference between you as an active member of the marketing community who has access to billions yet actively keeps salvage supplied versus multiple people hitting 50 in a few hours and then competing for the same supply. I see two rather specific problems on both sides of the fence between farmers and writers.Originally Posted by MrHassenpheffer
Hello my name is Mister Hassenpheffer and I am a Farmer.
I Prefer to run regular content and I tend to farm outside of AE. AE is wonderful, the tickets help fill my salvage racks with the buff/crafting salvage I need for crafting anything my alts desire. Salvage is the only reason I AE farm. I always felt the ambush farms were not conducive to training people on how to play their characters. There's also the matter of stability. Iv'e had my fair share of runs on these ambushes and have noticed more memory leaks, freezing, crashing to desktop and even BSOD from the sheer overload that these ambushes create, not to mention what hell it puts an older video card through to have to suddenly render hundreds of detailed costumes. I knew the ambushes would go the way of the -bAEby farms- good. It keeps the cats out of my sandbox. there's alot of farmer hate goin on and I just felt the haters should know without farmers, this game would be devoured by rmt's. Ya know, the ones you see in local chat in WW now? Yeah, those guys. thems are bad. thems are the ones you need to hate on. not the player made farmers. thems your brothers and sisters there. they are the good guys. well, at least the ones that take salvage and put in on the market for 1 inf <like me>
The first is something interesting I've noticed from reading several conversations back and forth: "My anecdotal evidence is better than your anecdotal evidence!"
Farmers will comment about the number of people they see farming, the number of players who want to hit 50, and the number of people who simply don't read as a pasttime. Story writers point out people who have been turned away by the inability to find a story, varying reactions to different storylines, and people who want an alternate leveling path.
As far as my own anecdotal evidence... people will occasionally make jokes at my expense on my home server about AE. However, it's oddly flattering to be known as the go to guy for it and I get directly referenced if someone has a question about it. Responses are intriguingly varied. Some are shocked/awed/impressed by what can be done with the system, especially since some are more used to seeing just the farming side. Some are interested but confused and/or overwhelmed by some of the complexities and the arguably backwards decisions (the front page of a search engine forces you to expand the search bar...wha..?). And some start enthusiastic but burn out over time due to the difficulty of promotion. Others are frustrated with us on the forums on both sides of the argument and I can't get them to post to promote their arcs or ask questions.
Are my experiences "right" or "wrong"? I notice that general farms have more publicity since people will group more for them plus CoH as a whole makes grouping difficult for those who like stories so it turns into a solo affair. That leads into the other thing I've noticed: You never get a second chance to make a first impression...and the first impression was bad
The writer who is constantly insulted on the forums. The farmer who is constantly insulted on the forums. The player who plays an arc they feel is amateurish. The player who makes a comment on the forums and immediately has all of their arcs 1 starred multiple times. The player who hears nothing but farm spam in Atlas. The player who finds a fun sounding arc that's been corrupted or unplayable. All of it winds up causing people to be frustrated with the system right from the start, both mechanically and with the people involved. Some of this can be blamed on how we view things and some of it is simply a compound of a various number of problems the system has. One of my concerns is not knowing how to fix things, especially since a lot of it is due to perceptions which can be hard to change once set. -
Quote:You and your dirty logic offends me.Originally Posted by Grey Pilgrim
AE continues to receive adjustments to its rewards, rather than tools to make it better to tell stories... or to fix its bugs.
-
I'd suggest reposting this in the All About Art thread.
-
As usual, I propose that comments and concerns be voiced in the beta threads.