BBhumeBB

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  1. The new boards will:
    - enforce minimum standards of spelling, grammar, and civility in discourse.
    - the star system will be available but all star settings will be adjusted to reflect the actual value of a discussion.
    - trolls will be identified before hitting send. Not only will their posts be filtered out but they will be painted bright blue as they sit at their keyboards.
    - housing prices will adjust to reflect actual value, not artificial market fluctuations.

    It's really GOOD software.
  2. [ QUOTE ]
    [ QUOTE ]
    Think of it this way:

    They're making you look awesome!

    Hell, I've been at this for about a year, and I look like a grizzled veteran compared to these kids...

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Well, that is true. They do make me look like a god in comparison.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    I was playing some AE, and got invited to what I think was a "boss farm" - all bosses on that 4-6 block long, 1 block wide city map. Wide open spaces, no tactics, everyone autoSK to 50, enemies at 53, just zerg zerg zerg. Was playing a lvl 48 inv/mace tank who I've had for years, just never got to the grind to take him to 50.

    There was another tank onboard, and I was a touch flattered when he asked how I'd developed my guy, what build, etc. as "You seem pretty incvincible." Just at that moment someone aggroed a second group into the fight and we wiped, so I had perfect timing to respond "well, not THAT invincible."

    Now I am not a big build maven, or an optimal character designer, hardly ever used MIDS since shortly after I got into the game, so I am terrible at giving advice about builds, so I referred him to the forums and paragonwiki. And did, to be sure, suggest trying missions in regular play where you practice against opponents with different tactics, strengths, weaknesses, etc. (quoting my aikido sensei on why you should work with lots of different partners in the dojo, actually).

    It was a very friendly exchange.
  3. [ QUOTE ]
    I dare them to remove suppression in PvE. It was easier leveling that way than it is with AE today, and that was before XP smoothing.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    A common claim, but not my experience at the time. Now perhaps it was that I just don't have the twitch reflexes to make jousting work that way. I almost never avoided counterattacks using superspeed to control placement in a fight. PvP, where the opponents react at human speed, sure, I can see that (though I don't play PvP, so am only assuming). PvE, reacting at machine speed, not so much.
  4. Second the motion on paragonwiki. Was reviewing binds and macros for some characters and found several nice twists I hadn't known about.
  5. Bad players make bad players. High level characters who powerlevelled in various ways have been with us always.

    A competent player will be competent. An incompetent one...well, you get the idea.

    Let me ask you about the unskilled players you met. Were they out playing outside AE? They were asking questions at 40+ that you felt a player with a high level character should know the answer to. Would the same question at level 10, for example, be as irritating? If players zoomed to 10 in Sewers, found a way to PI, and PLd in PvE there, with the same questions, would it still be a problem?

    My point being, if the players are out and about in the workd outside AE, and now they are asking the questions they might have asked at a lower level before AE, isn't it still worthwhile that they ARE out in the larger game?

    A few weeks ago a mid-20s player was having trouble understanding the Ouroboros portal (trying to get from Atlas to IP for a respec).

    Several team members started unloading on him for being an "AE baby." Why, because he didn't go to Faultline and do the Doc Delilah missions when they thought he should have? Or that he didn't (at lvl 24 or so) have the zones on the Green line memorized, or know the quickest way from Atlas to IP?

    I had a number of 40+ heroes when Ourboros was introduced, outlevelling the lower level missions that gain admission to Ouroboros. Until someone showed me where the dingus on top of the archway is, had no idea I could easily get the Secret just by going through an open portal.

    Someone asks a question, why not answer it, or mention the forums, or paragonwiki?
  6. This is, of course, the wrong narrative. If they removed suppression, there would be no issue ;-)
  7. [ QUOTE ]


    For some reason, I thought one of the insect wings were small as well; guess not.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    I think you may be thinking of the fairy wings - smallish butterfly looking things. Bigger than cherub, smaller than angel/demon.
  8. I have a Tarzan type character raised by bears rather than apes. Claws/Regen scrapper. Mind you, that mixes in the role of the Bear totem as a healing force in several indigenous religions. hence the regen, but regen capability is also part of the usual lycanthropic mythos, so you could cover it too.

    Blueside, claws seems the most appropriate for bears (I designed Kay-Bar of the Bears when I decided I wanted to try claws and started thinking about a backstory to go with it). Redside, certainly, brute and so if brutes are getting claws in I16, that would be worth the wait.

    If regen isn't your thing (or you do a non-regen archetype) inv rather than WP seems to fit the werebear (or wereanything) image more closely, but that's just me.
  9. I certainly hope this never happens.
  10. No single tactic works all the time. This is a fairly bland one that will work in a lot of cases.

    Scrappers are also toe to toe boss killers (as are tanks in some builds).

    Defenders need to be more mobile than you give them credit for. Pets are also tank substitutes in some mixes (ditto for Masterminds redside).

    Blasters can work in close if they are good enough.

    No one size fits all.
  11. I prefer saying something even if it is just "Family demanding food, gotta go, thanks for team."

    But sometimes people just leave - c'est la jeu du role.
  12. [ QUOTE ]

    No questions that have more than one answer. Any veteran player would likely spend no more than 10-20 seconds answering the 3 questions. And new players would learn something about the game while they are playing.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    I cannot recall offhand or without glancing at maps which zones connect to Perez, and I have been playing since a month after release.

    And I don't worry about specific numbers like the base value for X in power Y. That is not about being a veteran, that is about being into number crunching.

    I don't bother with trivia (well, not game trivia - I can go on for weeks about old movies, etc.) and would, I fear, resent being required to memorize it for this game.

    Not to mention the speed with which answer sheets would go up.

    Not to mention the additional broadcast spam about "Hey who's the trainer in Skyway?" or "What is the base speed of Fly at level 12 in furlongs per fortnight?" we'd see.

    Not to mention the players I see who know this stuff and wouldn't know tactics (the discipline, not the power) if it bit them on their buffer.

    I really dislike this approach to the problem (using the term "problem" advisedly, as it doesn't bother me if people level exclusively to AE, or don't know stuff, etc. - are they pleasant to play with and do they give new stuff a try - otherwise I could care less).
  13. [ QUOTE ]
    So, my contact gives me the mission, "Disprove the Warrior's Invincibility" in Talos Island. I fly around a bit, and everywhere I see a Warrior, he's getting his heinie kicked by either the Freakshow or the Tsoo.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Yeah, on that one you'd think he'd just give you a camera.
  14. [ QUOTE ]
    Would love to be able to tone down the look of Hasten.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Probably triage. Where does the effort expended get to the maximum number of players.

    If they have cracked the method for customizing these things, I would hope we will see it extended to other powers in future efforts.
  15. BBhumeBB

    issue 16 info

    A lot of perennial suggestions get fulfilled. Happy making issue for many folks.
  16. [ QUOTE ]
    What they needed to and still do need to do is start thinking like gamers and not like developers.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    I dunno - in one sense, as soon as you let design capability into people's hands, you ARE thinking like a gamer. At least a paper and pencil game designer.

    Within a very short of time of D&D catching on, "Monty Haul" dungeons were figures of fun in the hobby. I know I saw ferociously "farmable," or if you like, high reward for no-to-low risk stuff being run for games I helped design in the p&p medium, at stores and even at cons.

    It may stand in higher relief in the more concentrated social terrain of these kinds of games, but making the tools available to tell stories, design dream (or nightmare) combinations of enemies, etc. seems like a very gamer kind of thing to do...and concentrating on the ways minmaxers, rules lawyers, and other kinds of munchkins could distort the toolbox would be more a developer kind of concern.

    Or do you mean the developers should have been thinking like gamers of the ilk of the old Monty Haul GMs to see the problems coming and try to head them off?
  17. Kai Tak was, if memory serves, considered the most dangerous major airport on the planet by commercial pilots for both take off and landing.

    A colleague made sure to send me an article to that effect many years ago right before I flew into HK to run training on a new product (interoffice hardcopy mail as this was before there was an internet).
  18. BBhumeBB

    Mistrust

    Ah - I am just behind the times, as usual.
  19. I dunno - I notice that there is a ginormous amount of AE farming in Cap Au Diable on redside. At least that is my perception on Virtue. I had, insofar as I thought about it, assumed that it was the proximity to the Black Market and University in that zone (which makes me wonder why Steel, rather than Atlas/Galaxy, isn't a hotter AE zone on blueside).

    Hadn't noticed that much AE in Mercy, but haven't started a new villain recently, so this may just be a case of "come into town more often so you can hear the news, Paul."
  20. I want a REAL control set for Naturals.

    Sex Appeal, Advertising, Subliminal Advertising, and Bribery!

    And more Sex Appeal!

    Afterthought: In the DC Heroes supplement for Watchmen, I was reminded by the reference to Watchmen, one of the few, actual powers from the stock list in the game that any of the non-Manhattan characters had was for Rohrschach, who had a lvl 4 or 5 Aura of Fear power (Would not expect anyone to violate legendary code of silance without being tortured first...hrm).
  21. Or they could just put an AE in the tutorial zones, and cut out the middleman ;-)

    (Goodness, some folks wax wroth that players can level a dozen heroes to 50 without ever leaving Atlas - we could see real strokes of apoplexy if people could do it without ever ENTERING the starter zone!)
  22. Buyable features for powers, or a related suggestion, enhancements slots tied to a costume slot, have popped up as suggestions from time to time. It would avoid the "+2 Def Force Armor of Mutation" issue, certainly.

    We CAN sort of sneak up on the idea to some extent with the fairly recent addition of multiple builds for the same character, though the - what is it? 15 min? - recharge takes some of the ginger out of it relative to what you are looking for.

    I dunno if Serge is up to the challenge - might take wossername from The Incredibles, and the heck of it is, SHE won't sell anyone capes!
  23. I built one TA/A defender, but have to admit, have never quite fallen in love with how he plays, st least solo (must brush him off and give him a second or third chance, come to think of it).

    Archery blaster (Arch/Dev) ploughs a nifty furrow through the bad guys now, in her early 30s. The snipe lures them onto the Trip Mines placed while cloaked, which blow them onto the carefully placed Caltrops, where they are easy meat for the Build Up/Rain of Arrows and follow up shots with the other attacks.
  24. Sorry - this does smack a bit of handholding or perhaps going overboard on trying to coax AE players out of Atlas. They see recipes as an option when cashing in tickets - they may figure out that there is a crafting system to turn them into stuff. If they just sell them and stick to IOs they can get for tickets, okey doke.