Aisynia

Originally Posted by The_Spad_EU

CityOfHeroes.exe -project euCoH -launcher -auth 64.25.36.4

Edit: Obviously replace euCOH with COH if you haven't got the EU flavour installed.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

We seem to be having this argument a lot recently, but it seems to me that the core question at the bottom of it gets overlooked in favour of arguing whatever the most current example is. I thought it was prudent that we should address this question on its own, outside of any specific context.

So how do YOU feel? Should villains be disgusting or should they be glamorous? Here's what I mean:

"Disgusting" villains are pretty much what Golden Girl would tell you all villains are. It's villains written in such a way that we end up hating our own characters. Everything is depraved, everything is uncomfortable, everything is sad and depressing, the world is bleak, crime doesn't pay but instead only gives a hollow sense of victory that helps us sleep at night and forget about the pain and darkness inside our hearts. It's the writing approach towards villainy that makes us feel bad for playing them. For years people have been asking for villains to be "more villainous" and inferred that this meant that villains should be nastier and more revolting.

The upside to this approach to villainy is that it's fairly realistic. Villains are not good people pretty much by definition, and we want to live in a world where good always triumphs and evil always loses, and even when it wins, it's only a Pyrrhic victory. The downside to this is that it makes the whole game very unpleasant to play for long periods of time, and actually even depressing at times.

By contrast, "glamorous" villains are generally a good thing. These are villains who, while unpleasant, are much more famous for being cool. These are the villains who don't focus on ruining lives and instead focus on doing amazing things, on overcoming great odds, on breaking new ground and generally on being cool. They have cool lairs, they have sexy minions, they have stylish outfits and they have this unerring knack for accomplishing what everyone would consider impossible. These are the kind of villains that, while most wouldn't admit it, people kind of sort of want to be.

The upside to this approach is that it makes the game much easier to play and much more pleasant besides. After all, we want to play games to have fun and not torture ourselves, right? The downside to it, though, is that I suspect not everyone would see robbing banks, building death rays and having volcano island lairs is villainous enough if you're not feeling the visceral revulsion at your villain.

Now, for the sake of honesty, I will admit that I'm not exactly objective on the topic. Personally, I prefer glamorous villains every time, simply because disgusting villains are difficult for me to play for any stretch of time. But this isn't about me. I want to hear what you guys think.

*edit*
Let me rephrase the question:

What kind of villains do you prefer to play as, what kind of villains do you prefer to watch movies and read comics about and why?

Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha

To be fair, thats ONLY the Tier 9 in those shots. The standard attacks look a lot more laser-like, especially when coloured the same colour, rather than lighter/darker two-tone.

Put it this way, I don't notice it when actually playing from a normal view

Originally Posted by SlickRiptide

It will be interesting to see how the balance of power shifts. Just as Atlas Park is the home of the Hellions and King's Row is the home of the Skulls, Galaxy City is the "home" of the Vahzilok - a newbie science character spent a fair amount of time working the Galaxy City beat.

What will I miss about it? Everything, really. Several years ago, a forum poster started a thread questioning why Galaxy City even existed - from the standpoint of a new player experience, this poster felt that it was redundant with Atlas Park and it split the player base needlessly instead of funneling new players together as it "should" be.

My response at the time was a sort of mini-essay that analyzed Atlas Park and Galaxy City as the thematic "poles" of the city. Yin-yang, male-female, active-passive. Whether it's the back-story, the atmosphere, or something else, there are many people who have an attachment to Galaxy City whereas I have hardly ever heard of anyone forming an emotional attachment to Atlas Park.

Unfortunately, Atlas is iconic of the game and, as Joss Whedon likes to prove again and again, you get a lot more dramatic mileage out of killing something that the audience cares about.

People, devs included, who say "Well, just take a story mission in Ouroboros and you can visit the old zone whenever you want" are people who really just don't "get" it. The loss is not about badges. Galaxy City is as much about Galaxy Girl and her part in the story of Paragon City as it is about an alternative to spam in Atlas Park. It's about being connected to a living, breathing part of the history of the game world and about feeling like some part of the city is actually "home". For whatever reason, this is something that they never succeeded at doing with Atlas Park; at least not for me.

Atlas Park is "downtown" where Galaxy City is "old town". In an ideal world, we'd have both. However - The devs today seem to agree with the poster I mentioned, that the new player experience should be streamlined and funnel everyone into a single space. It's too bad. I'll miss the place.

Originally Posted by bAss_ackwards

I was expecting that too. I'm not too keen on this look but at the same time it won't prevent me from making a Beam Rifle character.

Originally Posted by bAss_ackwards

It looks like a beam that you'd use to bust some ghosts.

Originally Posted by DarkGob

Not sure if you mean you're not in the Beta at all or if you just haven't set it up, but all paying players are in Beta.

Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill

I couldn't *find* video of the old Sonic graphics, unfortunately, when I started this. It's basically barely visible greyish rings - the problem (from memory) with this was the flicker of it being *barely* visible... enough to stimulate, though.

Some people were affected only by rings on their character, others were affected by the power being pretty much anywhere - some of it is left over in the Nullifier's sonic grenades, but you can move around and away from that.

... and there's apparently no issue 5 trailer.

Originally Posted by NekoNeko

The Responsibility path is a little bit less so, so it's more similar to the Warden path, where you're trying to save more people and even though it's not quite as questionable in parts as the Power path, it's all pretty iffy on the morality scale.

Originally Posted by Dark_Respite

Maelstrom's eyes look like he's had enough caffeine that he could get bit by a rattlesnake and not notice for three days.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite