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Quote:We'll have to.We're going to have to respectfully disagree, because I always felt as if Lighthouse were community repping this community from his prior employment, he would just teleport us out into the middle of space to be rid of us.
At the time though we had some very "interesting people" . . . screw it we had some straight up idiotic trolls that were pulling some jerk moves. Understandably so as that was (if my memory is correct) during the Issue 13 era. (for anyone who doesn't know what was going on, just go take a look at the old issue 13 patch notes and you can figure it out) The forums were an TOUGH place at the time. (one of many times)
IMO we needed someone tough to get the job done.
Right now the forums seems to be a much more friendly place because the overall team (as Zombie explained) changed.
I would still say Lighthouse did a good job if I had been temp banned at the time. (not saying you're saying he didn't cause you got banned).
I can honestly see why some didn't like the guy, but I honestly think he did well . . . especially with some of the stuff going on on these forums at the time. -
Quote:THIS, so very much this.The Cryptic Devs, once Jack moved on, were very responsive and continued to be even when NCsoft purchased the IP and created Paragon Studios.
But then, the power shifted from the Design Devs (who, at Cryptic, called all the shots since NCsoft was more of a distributor and the Cryptic administration become focused elsewhere) to the Producers who were more accountable to NCsoft, the new sole owner.
While Design retained a lot of freedom in design, Production took over in calling the shots and the overall direction. And they were not communicative. After training the Design Devs to be responsive after all those years (), we lost access to the people making the broader decisions. And the Customer Rep staff at the time seemed incapable of bridging that gap (whether they weren't trying, or they were being rebuffed, I don't know). Then the lead Customer Rep decided to disengage from direct contact with players on the forums altogether and focus on... I don't know what -- the handful of expos and meet and greets?
Today, we have the lead Customer Rep who is extraordinarily engaged and the Producers have gotten over their fear of interacting with the players and are now comfortable with leveraging player feedback and testing. Which is a very good situation to be in. Heck, we are in contact directly now with GMs, QA, and NCSoft technicians. We have a very engaged Design Team, Production Staff, and Customer Reps making Paragon Studios the best gaming studio out there.
Despite all the "grief"I give them about unfinished stuff, I'll be the first to say they also say: "We have a very engaged Design Team, Production Staff, and Customer Reps making Paragon Studios the best gaming studio out there."
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Quote:Thanks for making my point again. I had forgotten that they JUST did what I said they could (in terms of zone content revamping) to Mercy.I suppose one can argue that with what they did to Atlas Park, the development team would be gunning to revamp all other major zones for a consistent feel. One must, however, also argue that in light of what they did to Mercy Island, that is not always necessarily the case. If anything, though, I would agree that Paragon City needs to be prettier and the Rogue Isles need to be LESS PRETTY. There's no excuse why Cap Au Diable would lag for me after six years when I'm running a GeForce GTX580 card on an I7 processor with 8GB of ram when it is a zone that's still six years old and untouched. And I'm not even running ambient occlusion, bloom or blurry eyes.
If the argument were that any zone the development team ever touch will have to be remade to be current and not blocky, then we have to figure out what Mercy Island means for that notion. -
Quote:Agreed partially. However the most I've ever gotten in terms of shards are 3/hour, even with the increased drops. In terms of progression beyond Alpha I consider shards a non-starter.Thing is, Aura_Familia pointed out being able to complete the RSF and LGTF with less then 8 people. Which last i checked, would rely on IOs and incarnate powers. I'd love to see a team of 6 people do a RSF on SOs, but its just not going to happen without cherry picking the team to specific means like having those 6 people as 1 stone brute/tanker and 5 corruptors/defenders.
The apex/tin mage also need 8 to start, but can be completed with less. My examples are the extremes, where people 2 man'ed apex (which was before the judgement/destiny/lore slots being unlocked mind you) to just show you that it is possible. Which the fact they have allowed 8 man teams (Apex, Tin mage, Lambda) to progress though the incarnate system at a decent pace, due to converting shards for free, providing threads as a reward, and allowing you to even run itrials (lambda) with a minimal 8 man team.
Small group incarnate content? Isn't that considered any team size of an alpha unlocked level 50 character? You can get shards from any level range now, so once you unlock the alpha slot, you start earning shards off kills, and you can use shards to progress through the incarnate system. Granted, it is much slower then running trials, but as I've already mentioned, there are team content that can be run with smaller team sizes.
But yea, teams aren't hard to form, either for the normal TFs, Apex/Tin Mage, or even the trials. A solo option would be nice, as long as its not any faster then the current options are have (being trials) With the fact we get threads from apex/tin mage, shard drops have increased, and they are going to give more threads with the Sig story arcs that alone cuts the non trial option down massively.
A small teams or solo option is still coming thankfully.
EDIT: And I missed the first half of your post. A team of SOs with 6 did in fact regularly complete the RSF.
They HAD TO. Why?
Unless I mis-remembering the RSF came out BEFORE IOs. Issue 7 vs Issue 9. Purples came out later. And I distinctly remember VARIOUS team make ups of less than 8 (cause of folks often not making it to end of it with all 8 intact) being able to do it.
EDIT: Actually there is no miss-remembering about it. I'm correct:
http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Issue_7#...ure_of_Freedom -
Quote:Now why on earth can't we get something like that?That's where I drew the inspiration for my original doctored screen shots that I showed David. If you look closer, you'll notice that the female dummies are actually using the MALE tights texture. You'll also notice that it looks almost purpose-designed to fit the female body frame. That was the cornerstone of my argument back then - if something as simple as swapping the female texture for the male one could produce what is ostensibly a viable character model, just imagine what an actual artist could do.
Fun fact - look at the female Paragon Protectors sometime. They have the same abs and use the same male textures -
Quote:My point was that you don't always need to run with an 8 man team. For SOME content you are required to have it, however you don't need it for all content.But you do need 8 to start. You don't need 8 to finish an Apex, or Tin mage (those have neen duo'ed) and give threads/shards/astrals. Heck, you don't even need 8 to finish Lambdas, as those have also been duo'ed.
So what exactly is your point about a non small group friendly option for incarnates? As thats already been set up?
Also my other point was that it doesn't take that long to form a team.
And I wouldn't base what's possible with a small handful of builds on the average of what's possible with lambdas.
and there ISN'T any small group Incarnate content yet. my comments weren't about what we already have. -
Quote:Yes but if they are going in and revamping arcs, (or in some instances adding them for the first time to zones like Dark Astoria) one would hope the tiles sets would part of those arc revamps/additions. Or at least using little used maps to add some variety.Maybe YOU don't, but I spend a lot of time in zones. Missions, and the too few map tilesets, are too repetitious (nature of MMOs, sadly), so I do spend some time saving citizens out on the streets. Depending on where, the scenery at least is more varied or at least I can vary it as I see fit. I'd like to see some new store fronts, and I would like to see some more interiors (could have a chance of a robbery taking place INSIDE). But, a guess based on general player chatter, I'm one of the very few that immerses myself into the game world.
I'm assuming it's easier to revamp those than it is to edit whole city blocks or buildings. But I could be wrong. -
Quote:I think they mean the time it took to build up Faultline (zone changes, new arcs, adding new mobs, etc) was equal to the time it took to build the new arcs (new maps, new arcs, shifting mobs around, etc).I'm with Sam. If the changes to RWZ required as much work as the changes to Faultline then something is dreadfully wrong with the way things are being done.
And even if that is the case there is nothing wrong with alternating it between issues. One issue you focus on revamping an existing zone (revamping DOES NOT have to mean bulldoze, simply add new arcs or update the arcs like they did in PI), and the next you can add a new zone/completely change/Galaxy City/Atlas Park a zone. -
And not every zone needs an entire revamp to make it new.
With Dark Astoria they can make arcs that show how the zone use to be as a history lesson, or they can write new stories involving trying to help those who survived and are trying to escape the zone. It's not rocket science.
Same with the shard. They don't need to bulldoze it to simply add arcs.
When I (speaking for myself only) say revamp, I mean revamping the zone so that there is actually a reason to go there.
The choice to revamp Atlas was understandable so that it matches the upped graphical look of GR. However, had they simply added the new story arcs to the existing atlas and OROBROUS'd the old arcs I would have been happy.
A revamp doesn't necessarily mean the zone itself needs to change. I'd argue that the ACTUAL ARCs you put in a zone matter more seeing as how we spend literally NO TIME actually IN THE ZONES themselves. -
Also, I thought Arcanaville was a female?
Just curious as I saw someone mention he when referencing her in this thread. -
Quote:*insert EPIC facepalm picture here*
That link pretty much shows what Sam is talking about, about how folks say COV lacks content.
That's a s*&^ load of content to unlock which players may never know about.
Oh and for even more LULZ look at how many there are for Blueside versus Red. LOL! FAIL!
I agree with Sam, less of the unlockable content silliness plz, not more. KTHNXBAI! -
Quote:Agreed.No, I'm frustrated with the trial in general. The badges add to that frustration though.
There have been times where I couldn't get the 12 players needed to START the trial, let alone 24 to fill the league. Sometimes I think the developers share the little world of Virtue & Freedom and expect other servers to be able to gather enough players to do these trials.
That is not, and should never be, the answer. If that is the developer's answer as well, I want them to move the 20 slots I've applied to Triumph as well.
I'd argue telling folks to change servers when they can't get enough people for an unpopular activity is probably the dumbest pieces of advice I've seen on these forums in 6+ years and that's saying something.
Logically you change the activity that's so unpopular if you want more people.
Telling folks to change servers misses the obvious so much it's not even funny.
EDIT: I've also for some strange reason seen many players get this idea that every server has the pop of Virtue and Freedom also. I can't fathom where this idea comes from that EVERY server has (or should even have) 16-24 players just standing around twiddling their thumbs ready to do content at your whim. I'll avoid posting what I really think about this mentality. Hint: I don't think highly of it. -
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As an aside one of my MAJOR pet pevees with teaming is this idea that you need to wait for a full 8 man team. I'd rather us go with 3-4 and find more as we go then have everyone waiting around twiddling their thumbs and wasting their fun time.
When the VIP arcs come about I'll be run my teams the same way. -
Quote:If you want to get 8 man teams sure. I can form a 4-5 man in two to five minutes for any activity in game.Depends on what you're doing. It usually takes 10-15 mins to get a TF going (longer if it's one of the obscure ones) and I've spent hours forming teams occasionally.
You don't need 8 players for tfs.
I've beaten some of the harder ones with 4-6. -
Quote:You can't if the trail is at MAX number of folks, which by the way is how folks lockout people.Yeah, you can just jump into the trials. That's my point.
They're just so difficult that most people won't let you do that(thanks to a few fairly annoying issues with the queue)
You can also now lock the trials so no one else can join.
Neither of those instances apply to PUBLIC QUESTS like the mothership raid.
Again, they are NOT public quests.
And to my main point massively multiplayer does not have to mean raids. -
Quote:Trials are not public quests. It's public when just about anyone can hop on. Until recently that wasn't the case. And it STILL isn't the case if you don't use the LFG/TUT system. I can't just walk into the public areas that Keyes and BAF actually exists in, in Praetoria and be offered the option to join a trial or have the league interface appear in my window.I was talking about the PQ originator, not COH.
And as mentioned, Trials are in practice Public Quests, just difficult ones. And that difficulty means they tend to be pre-formed.
Also when I think of public I think of the mothership raid, not something that requires an instance.
The raids are NOT public quests.
Technically speaking the ORIGINAL HAMIDON could be considered a public quest. -
Quote:True, but it usually takes me two to five minutes to form a team.Again. Failure has no consequence in this game except lost time. Hence time is the only metric that matters. If it goes faster it's easier. And soloing is generally faster than teaming once you count the overhead require to actually form a team.
err, that's not a lot of time. -
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Quote:Exalted is an interesting choice. Kinda a message to the VIPs about how important subscribers still are in the new Freedom game?So glad
And I didn't mean to sound that way, as I know this. Honestly, it was more an effort to get a reply in before 10 posts were written and my response became irrelevant, haha. I'm just glad to read that a 1-8 player option is in the pipeline.
So... VIP server to be called Exalted eh? I can dig it, though I still think "Freem" would have been fun. -
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Quote:The rewards for PQs don't have to be crap. Again: Mothership Raid, which is done by numerous people.I'd note that 90% of the cases people would preform PQ's too. (although well, 90% cases they wouldn't do them because the rewards were crap...) and if that's the criteria, COH already has PQ's (although people don't use them as such)
The pratorian ones gave crap rewards by choice. (though I personally don't find something meant for a lvl 1-20 area to be crap rewards for where it's located. /shrug).
Edit: But my main point was that endgame does not have to mean raid. and multiple player does not have to mean raid.