BasilAcid

Been hesitant to mention this here due to some people's extreme dislike of Champions Online, but I thought it was worth a shot. I've been keeping a blog about my time in CO as a long term COH player that has found himself suddenly without a game to call home. Champions is the first visit, and I plan on investigating other titles like The Secret World down the road.

For those who are also searching and on the fence about Cryptic's 2nd super hero game, this might sway you one way or the other.

http://paragonrefugee.blogspot.com/

I contacted Chin Soon Sun, of Techmo Koei fame. I don't know about the rest of you, but a good chunk of my SG played several of the KOEI titles... Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors, etc. For those that have never visited "Koei Warriors", a fan site, their community could be compared to ours. Many fans dedicated to a small, niche genre that garners enough sales to be profitable, but never make headlines like other mega-franchises.

Also, Chin is a cool guy. He's a little crazier than Andy, but since they're both community managers to what are very, very loyal customer bases... seemed like a good fit.

If you're reading this, Chin, I appreciate you checking out our cause.

[QUOTE=Leo_G;4376983
-They could get rid of the Rogue Isles...Oh I'd HHAAAAAAATEEEE that...but if red-side (and gold-side) is viewed as dead weight because few players play it?...
[/QUOTE]

Speaking as a player who once frequented the Distinguished Competition for a couple months after release, their "red side" is exactly how many players want our redside. Beating up cops and setting them on fire, stealing souls, etc. It's evil done amazingly well. In other words, I don't think you'd have to worry about redside getting cut

And to weigh in on the topic at hand, I'm all for anyone that can save the property. Valve, SoE, Funcom, EA... this is a title in need of a champion. I'd love if they could take back in the entire dev team as well, but if not... at least the dev's legacy lives on, instead of sitting on a bunch of hard drives in some NCSoft warehouse... right next to the legacies of Exteel, Dungeon Runners, Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa.

After coming out of the state of shock I was in on Friday, I've finally put my boots and joined the fight.

Here's to Mr. Newell and Valve.

I wonder what the other super secret project was? Still in shock, but this just dawned on me that it's basically two games worth of development teams getting laid off.

Oh, I definitely don't assume we're now getting the Black Knight set. But the statement, phrased the way it was, combined with Zwi's reaction, make it look like it might be that much better of a possibility. (and, so much for this coffee talk being a waste of time and no new info, etc :P )

I'm all for NPC groups' pieces being converted for player use, and the Black Knight armor would help us work around the extremely dated "medieval" pieces we currently have. I think those launched with the game, right?

Seems everyone's sailed past the Black Knight stuff I mentioned a couple posts up. While you're here, care to confirm/deny that set is in the works, Freitag?

I must have heard it wrong, because I can't be the only only one that picked up on this.

42:00 minute mark, give or take some. They're talking about asymmetrical shoulder pieces. The guest mentions that the "Black Knight has some" and then Zwi stumbles on words for 8 seconds.

I imagine most of us knew it was probably coming, but I don't think it's been announced. So, this is news, right?

And here come the sweeping generalizations of both anime and Western comics. Oh, I love these threads. /sarcasm

Right. I keep seeing Bleach, Dragon Ball Z and One Piece referenced here. That's all one very specific subset of the anime universe. For every Bleach style show, you also have your Cowboy Bebop. For every harem rom-com, you have your Berserk. For every magical girl show, you have your Dead Man Wonderland.

If you're going to reference City of Heroes to anime and manga, you should start with something that is closer to City. Take Tiger and Bunny, or Book of Bantorra (or any other anime show that has your X-men variety style of powers, like Darker than Black or Full Metal Alchemist.)

This at least gives you something closer to build upon and compare. Only referencing shounen style shows is like only looking at the Marvel side of western comics and completely ignoring DC, Image or others.

I feel the exact opposite. I love the new look of the Skulls, especially the new masks. And the inclusion of females as well as expanding their weapons and powers. But hey, doesn't matter. You're already beating the war drum here, trying to stir something up.

After a third reset, I contacted support. They were able to auto-complete it for me and mentioned "the missions is in need of review." So, it might be bugged incase anyone else is running or planning to run the Power storyline.

Running the Praetorian Power storyline, for Warrant. On the mission "Save Syfotine Industries", I have cleared the entire map twice and can't see any glowies or unconscious police officers that I can speak to. (Went with the "Send in the PPD" option instead of teaming with Warrant.)

I've burnt my Auto-Complete on Marauder's Save the PPD in the Tunnels mish already, so it looks like I might be waiting for another day or so. But I was curious if anyone else had ran into this bug, or if I was simply overlooking something.

Thanks, GG. I couldn't make out the Claws part after several replays and as such, left it out.

I did this for my super group's forums so I thought I might as well re-post it here. I'm no VK, but it might save some people an hour.

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Player Summit tickets go on sale tomorrow.

They're going to do a costume design workshop again, much like what was done for the Retro Sci-Fi pack (that is currently in the works.)

They're also doing a "design a powerset" workshop. Which, this sounds amazingly bad ***. Paragon Market panel, which last time was used to announce Super Packs. And a new panel format: "Make your case: Zone Revamp." You get two minutes to tell the devs why your idea should be looked at. So, if you're attending, prepare something in advance. Lastly, an endgame panel.

Special Guest: Clockwork 01

He's the producer for micro transactions, or the Paragon Market. They talk about his past with Infinity Ward and then mention Dink, a character artist on 01's team, that is working on Retro Sci-Fi and also did the Imperial Dynasty pack. They talk about how it's nice that they can put packs on beta well in advance before their release and modify the pack thanks to feedback, like they've done with the Imperial Dynasty pack. (Track Dink's posts for more info.) Also, Imperial Dynasty release is Imminently or Very Soon. (Tuesday? Maybe the first Tuesday in March, as we had the Club D pack already this month.) 01 is part of Zwi-Protean's DnD group. He builds amazing characters. The Gunslinger - Magic - Steampunk pack ports for females are in I22 (I think. Was distracted at this part.)

Retro Sci Fi: Female pieces are done. Glow/non-glow, ring/non-ring, etc. Male pieces are still being worked on. Bubble Helmet for males is a Detail 2 option. They show concept art of the Retro Sci Fi pack, helmets first. They're doing four versions of Option B (base with detail, plain base. Both bases sans bubble.) Also, since it's a Detail 2 option: No beards with your space helmet. Pistols: Option B won, but a ton of voting for Option C as well. They're doing both, with C's version having B's backend as an option. So four versions here as well: B with and without fin, C with and without fin. Zwi mentions something that sounds like the rings on B might be an option as well. Rifles are up next. A won, but people also loved parts of C. So A is being built, with C's nos tank and I believe it's stock as options for A. Backpacks: B won. With and without rings will be the versions. But since B is just two C's with stuff, we're also getting C. Backpacks will also be getting a run through the visual fx department, so it will have a thrust glow during flight mode. Think Rocket Boots. A did get a lot of votes, so they'll keep it in mind. Space Suit: B won. Glow/non glow. Chest Detail from Option A will also be built. "A little something-something" from C as well. Female pieces might be previewed soon. Rings will also have glowmaps (possibly optional?) that can be tinted. Lastly, the Brain Slug hasn't been scheduled as part of the pack, but they are trying.

Zwi smacks Clockwork 01 with his phone.

Hats are just hair. (Random) New powersets of course are coming up, such as Beast Mastery (on beta now) but they'll save that talk for Synapse. Reminder of the Build a Powerset workshop. Something about "news for the store" that they can't talk about just yet.

Q and A time with Clockwork 01:

Q: Circle of Thorns backpack part (Death Mages back piece) and why it isn't available for us.
A: CoT pack was developed by the Live team(pre-Freedom), not Clockwork 01's team. He hasn't had a chance to look at it yet. He can look at it and see if it's feasible.

Q: What powersets get the retro sci-fi rifle?
A: Pulse Rifle, Beam Rifle, Assault Rifle, Arachnos. They are looking at some of the other recent rifles they've done and propagating them to other powersets as well. Not a promise.

Q: Can we have very small costume bits? (Watches, etc.)
A: Dink and him have been looking into it. Debating on how to do it: Like earrings: Detail 1 or 2, or just a bunch of ears with earrings in it? If they do it, it would be part of another pack.

Q: Question about using more realistic textures in new packs, like a new Street Clothes pack. (Aka: The Club D jean's amazing texture work.)
A: That's the goal.

Q: More glowing eyes, like Organic Armor or Biolume faces. Can we get more?
A: Probably. Just need ideas for a costume pack.

Q: When can we expect another set of Super Packs?
A: Can't answer that. Maybe soon, maybe at the Player Summit?

Q: Goldbrickers backpack being sold as a permanent travel power like the Rocket Board?
A: 01 and Black Scorpion recently looked into Goldbrickers costume stuff a couple months ago. The assets are very low res, very old. They'd rather take the geo for the backpack or costume pieces and make entirely new pieces. (IE: They weren't made for players, it's essentially already like making a new costume anyways.)

Q: Beast Mastery. Can the Dire Wolf be anything other than a Dire Wolf?
A: No, not at this point. It's already done for the set. It was considered as an option earlier, but the time to make a new rig would make it impossible. The Wolf and the Cat were very time consuming to create, as they also had to be made like they were players (Oh really?). So, back movements, strafing, strafing, etc... animations. So if they did the bear rig, as suggested, you have to create all the four leg animations as well as having it do two legged animations. (As Bears stand up to fight, etc.) So no, too late for a Bear.

Q: Zero G backpack as a costume part?
A: All things are possible.

Q: Quivers, blades, etc as back parts?
A: The problem comes as people expect it to be a dynamic costume part. (I assume taking arrows out of the quiver/drawing the blade from the sheath) They also expect it to be extremely customizable, so that your idle animation is the weapon selected (such as Impervium katana) being sheathed as opposed to it always being the legacy katana in the sheath, no matter what weapon you've chosen. If they're ever able to do these, they want to do it *right* (unlike Champions Online), such as it being dynamic and having the extreme customization. It's not on the schedule now.

Q: Ouroboros mini-pack? Zwi mentions it's interesting the requests for mini-packs as opposed to a head to toe costume pack.
A: Something they're intending to try out later this year (minipacks in general, I think)

Q: Possible to do faction packs per month, like the CoT, Roman and Vanguard packs?
A: Not on a monthly basis, but 01 does like the idea. They have definitely heard the requests.

Q: Golden/Silver Age costume bits?
A: Like the idea of it. Looking at finding it time in the schedule.

Some discussion on ATIO's and the effects on the market. Zombie Man predicts Enhancement Converters will have a huge impact on the player economy.

Q: Ripped Costume pieces, like Superman or the like.
A: An interesting technical limitation. In a ripped costume piece, the part showing skin takes up one of your color options.

Q: What happens if you catalyze a boosted enhancement?
A: You can't.

I had to read "Yukon Grey" out loud several times before it finally clicked. Well played, sir. *adjusts monocle* Well played.

Hey, scratching my head and wondering what is going on here. I have a mission where the player is put in the midst of a battlefield between two custom factions. I select the Battle Advanced Option and when I go to select my Custom Group... neither are there. Both of these are available should I set them as the main enemy group for a mission, and I can see both in the Group/Character editor. But they're not showing up for the one objective I need them in.

What?

If it matters, Group A shares custom characters with another group, a Group C if you will. As things change between Missions 1 and 2, I wanted some minions to be in mission 1 and not in mission 2, so hence Group A having more characters, sharing some characters with C, but not having certain characters from Group C.

Group B would be an ally to the player, and doesn't share characters with any group. It's composed of two minion class foes, a LT that is an edited standard character, and an EB that also acts as an ally the player rescues earlier on (and triggers the battles.)

Anyone have a clue what would cause *both* of these groups to not appear in the drop down menu, as I can't see a single common error other than "I made them."

EDIT: A global friend logged on and solved this for me. In case anyone else runs into this, apparently opening the group in the Group Editor and re-saving will fix this. Something about it not linking properly the first time. Anyways, this headache was resolved. Hope this post helps someone else!

Reminds me of Vincent Ross's arc. Spoilers ahead:

"Merulina's Life and Destruction
You destroy the stem within the Leviathan and are imbued with the knowledge of Merulina's life and death, though the entire scope of what happened is not apparent. You see the goddess crash into Earth and form the society of Coralax, one that seems to be peaceful. Merulina herself seems to have a peaceful air to her, though you can sense immense power from her, the same power that seems to give life to the Coralax. Your last images of Merulina are of her emerging from the sea to watch an object stream across the sky, crash landing on the mainland. She looks back to the ocean, where her Coralax society resides, and walks off to the mainland.

You see her on the mainland, facing off against a figure clad in shadow. The two fight in an immense battle, seeming to be equally matched. The fight goes on for nearly an hour before the figure in shadow overcomes Merulina. You see, through Merulina's eyes, the figure of shadow looming over her. Your image becomes blurry before finally fading to black, this being the final image that Merulina saw in her life. "

Vaguely similar, at least.

Awesome work on both sets, guys. Day One (or pre-order!) purchase on both for me. Really loving the look of the Imperial Dynasty gauntlets, should make for a great Street Justice character when used by themselves.

Their desire to do a golden/silver age pack should satisfy your need for "super hero" themed pieces soon, guys. We all have to wait our turn to blow paragon points on aesthetic additions.

I had completely forgot about that animation. Much like the others, I'd love to see it return in some way, shape or form. (Smell my foot silly or not, it adds *flair.*)

This is the only twitter stuff I think I've found of the Incarnate panel. It's where the Dark Astoria street sweeping rewards came from, and apparently they are working on making the LFG tool work from inside missions.

http://twitter.com/#!/figurehead_coh

Or I could be wrong and this is information from one of the other panels.