BouncingBeatnik

We've reached a point that always comes in comics- our beloved city is under attack,
doom seems unavoidable, the caped crusaders have made a valiant stand, and yet the
outcome still looks bleak.

In comics, by the end of the next issue, something dramatic will have happened. Some miracle, some last minute intervention, a change of heart by a villainous opponent, a startling discovery- one or all of these will have changed everything, and what is good and right and true will have once again triumphed.

We, unfortunately, live in a somewhat different reality, and sometimes, here, the end is not the miracle we've been holding out for.

I've played CoH for 8 1/2 years, most of that time here on Virtue. The game has been there when I desperately needed it, and has very rarely let me down. When work has been rough, CoH let me rekindle my joy. When my father passed away, and my family had said to and done for each other all that was to be said and done on that painful night, it was in Paragon City that I was finally able to vent some of my grief and loss and anger.

More importantly, it was the community of Virtue that was there for me, that night and all the other nights that I needed it. You folks have listened to me as I raged, held me up when I felt I couldn't stand alone, sparked my imagination, moved me to tears, put up with my awful puns, made me know that I was a part of a family here. You are, each and every one of you, heroes.

And that is why I'm asking for one last act of heroism.

If the miracle fails, if the unavoidable cannot, in fact, be avoided, if Paragon City and the Rogue Islands and Portal Corp and Pandora's Box and El Super Mexicano and all of those wonderful landmarks of our imagination should finally fade into the night, carry a part of our beloved city with you in your heart. Carry a little bit of Virtue with you as well. And show that they're there by continuing to be heroes in this world.

Help folks in need. Show kindness to strangers. Make sure your friends and family know you care for them. If, as I hope we will, we continue to come across one another in communities far beyond Virtue, keep on loving and supporting one another as you have for the last 8 1/2 years.

As for me, I'll be trying to do that also. And as well, whatever game I'll be playing, no matter the genre, I'm going to be doing my darndest to find and continue to wear a cape.

Thanks for the honor of your friendship,

The Beatnik

...that an odd new comic appeared on the stands. Sandwiched between "Kid Colt, Outlaw," "Linda Carter, Student Nurse," and the monster books "Tales To Astonish," and "Tales of Suspense" (headlining, respectively, 'The Creature From Krogarr' and 'The Creature From the Black Bog') was a tale of four adventurers who gained strange abilities after their failed attempt to "beat the Commies into space!".
In a few years the cowboy and the nurse would be gone. The tales of Creatures From (fill in the blank) would be replaced by tales of a man in an iron suit, and an incredibly angry hulk. And the four adventurers would revolutionize the way comic book stories were told.

Happy 50th Birthday, Fantastic Four!

I'd echo the approval of Curb Your Enthusiasm, with the caveat that you really should watch a few episodes of Seinfeld first; some familiarity with Seinfeld serves as useful context for a good part of CYE.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 isn't really a sitcom, but it never fails to make me laugh.

For that matter, SCTV hasn't always aged well, but those parts that still do work are great.

I see that another poster has suggested Cheers, since you've watched through Frazier. I'd take it a step further and suggest looking into Wings, which featured a couple of crossovers with Cheers and Frazier.

For an couple of offbeat choices, if you can find them, both Buffalo Bill and Slap Maxwell are worth investigating. Both feature Dabney Coleman at his unpleasant best, and have some very sharp writing.

Both the 70's era Bob Newhart Show and the 80's era Newhart are entertaining; if nothing else watch a couple of episodes of each show, then watch the last episode of "Newhart" for a fun surprise.

Nope, same problem here.

One!.....
Two....

*darts to the mat, ready to begin a count*

Judging from the picture, it's now about Batman's subtle flirtation with the furry lifestyle.

*attempts to intercept the chefbot to prevent interference, again turning his back on the proceedings in the ring*

*slowly climbs to his feet and gropes his way to the ring*

*staggers into the ropes, does a belly flop onto the arena floor*
*breaks his glasses*

*Quickly pulls on his black and white Ref's shirt and prepares to officiate. Is immediately distracted by a shiny object, and turns his back on the combatants to investigate*

If the idea of attempting to place a spider seems awkward to folks, you can get the same rp-friendly effect by breaking your action down into parts, allowing the other player to respond/react in character or otherwise as needed.

In other words,

"Captain Prankster produces a spider, making sure to keep it out of Little Miss Muffet's view. An evil grin plays across his face..."

(At which point LMM can choose to respond in character- /em gets goosebumps and shudders for no obvious reason- or instead contact CP's player through /tell- "Hey, LMM is seriously creeped by spiders. Are you sure you want to do this?")

This approach can both avoid awkward situations by allowing for prior communication, and enhance the effect of the IC actions by building anticipation for the next step.



At least, that approach makes sense to me. Not that I know from rp, though- most of my alts are built for comedy or light, reactive rp at best.




The Beatnik,
not completely at home in this new format just yet.

Hmm. Some hiccups, but that's to be expected. Is changing the background color now an option in account management?

[ QUOTE ]

On a seperate note, what about putting something up on the billboards? It's free to COH, as long as they aren't already posting something from a paid sponsor.

Of course, that takes away from the location idea. Personally, I'd prefer a connection to the location, but at least I'm trying to be productive.

[/ QUOTE ]

Having suggested this earlier, I'll repeat my support for it.
I will grant you that it doesn't tie to the location, but to balance that, it allows more customization (text AND graphics), better fulfills the goal of spreading awareness of the event, allows for widespread recognition of the event throughout the gameworld, and sets a useful precedent that can be easily adjusted to fit future events or accomplishments needing recognition.
As a bonus, folks utterly opposed to any sort of alteration to the look of the game can simply turn off in-game ads, and never have to see it.
This seems to me the most adaptable compromise available, and I endorse it.

The Beatnik,
who'll also end further comments at this point, because repeating myself would just bore you folks to tears. Besides, at my age one has to avoid anything that even vaguely resembles a "senior moment".

I wonder if the crux of the issue here might not be the difference between forms of recognition that are earned, and those that are simply granted?

The most frequently mentioned examples of changes to in-game canon and/or design are Coyote and the Go. Hunt. Kill Skuls. graffiti. Neither of those were earned recognition; they were simply at one point or another considered appropriate by the dev community and added to the game.

The bulk of the argument in favor of the TT plaque seems to me to be based upon having earned it. Length of service, benefit to the community, number of people affected, even statements of support from numbers of players are all given as reasons for that recognition.

Underlying the arguments against a plaque, it seems to me, is a feeling that granting recognition in that, specific form- a permanent change to the game architecture across all servers (no matter the size or obscurity of location)- would set a new factor into play. If such a change to the game at large can be earned, then it becomes possible for other similar changes to be earned as well. While it may seem now that 5 years longevity is a unique achievement, should the game last 5 more years, there will be quite a few more who have achieved that. I shudder to anticipate the current argument being rehashed each and every time a given event hits a chronological landmark.
For that matter, what happens on Tanker Tuesday's 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th anniversaries? Given that some arguments made in this thread have stated that the badge was needed because other forms of recognition had been given in previous years, and thus were now not sufficient, will we find folks asking for a building named in their honor on the 10th anniversary?

All hyperbole aside, I think we are united in honoring the Tanker Tuesday event; I've not seen any of those opposing the badge show any disrespect for the accomplishment, and in fact have seen much praise. Our point of contention lies in just how to appropriately express that honor.

And now, having muddled the issue further, I salute you all and head off to hopefully not be late to work.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]



[color= yellow]Devs, the masses have requested for a plaque to be placed in- game and in-zone to honor those that have created one of the most incredible and dynamic community-created events ever. I submit to you, the designers, developers, administrators, and the the makers of City of Heroes/Villains to honor this incredible event that is "Tanker Tuesday". [/color]



[/ QUOTE ]

As one of the "masses", I do not support the idea of a plaque. There have been plenty of alternate suggestions made, including one of my own, all or any of which would to me seem preferable.

Major_Deej, I respect your enthusiasm and passion, and my hat is off to Tanker Tuesday as an excellent example of what the community can and does achieve, but I do have to, with no offense intended, protest your claim to speak for me.

Thanks,

The Beatnik

Here's a thought, offered in hopes that it will both recognize the enviable accomplishment of the Tanker Tuesday members and organizers and set a precedent for those cases where similar accomplishments merit similar recognition:

What if the devs were to allocate a certain portion of the billboards currently used for in-game advertisement to recognize and congratulate the Tanker Tuesday community? Leave them up for a designated period of time- maybe 30 days or so- to give everyone who has that option turned on a chance to see. The billboard could be designed by Tanker Tuesday participants, and could also be featured in the City Scoop.

The benefit of this would be that the achievement would get its due recognition, as well as a chance to attract more participants, yet would do so in a way that would allow for further recognition down the road- say a 10th anniversary, for example.

Anyway, just my feeble attempt at a positive contribution.

I remember when sprinting made your character pant and wheeze like an obscene phone call.

I remember using Hover to fly up to the blimp in Atlas, and being disappointed when I couldn't land on it.

I remember when the clone characters would come in waves- I might see 10 Ticks one day, then 8 Santas the next, etc.

I remember when folks were paranoid about TP griefing, while others denied that such a practice was possible.

I remember not being used to flight, and getting my head entangled in a fire escape.

[ QUOTE ]


Secondly: lay off the endurance penalties. As it is, with stamina 5-slotted, I already spend a significant amount of time sitting around, staring at walls, waiting for my endurance to come back. I've been down this road before (with the same character -- SB's been around for a while), and before the endurance adjustment on attacks, I had stopped playing Susie-Bot altogether. I just got tired of spending all my time watching a little blue bar creep back up.


[/ QUOTE ]

This made my smile, because I keep a book alongside my desk to read while I wait for my END to recharge.

The Beatnik,
who can get pretty far ahead on his reading on the days he gets into a lot of combat. ;-)

Having said my piece in an earlier post, I am apologetically dropping back in to note a development in this discussion that troubles me a little.

Rage, as far as I can tell, was not a major concern on the boards before the recent changes*. Now that Rage has been altered so drasticly, I see many folks posting on this thread who, in what I would imagine to be an attempt to be fair and reasonable, are saying that, perhaps, Rage WAS overpowered, and are suggesting as a compromise that less drastic changes be made to the power. (Please forgive me if I am misreading the intentions of those folks).
To me, this sets a dangerous precedent. If the devs wish to make an unpopular adjustment to a power, they can try out a more drastic version of the change on the Test server, and
soon folks will be willing to accept the lesser change as a "compromise", when in fact, no change is necessarily warranted.
Now, again, I may well be misunderstanding folks' intent. If, however, I did read things right, then I have to be concerned that the natural instinct to bargain and negotiate when faced with the possibility of a change might undercut necessary opposition to those changes.
Then again, maybe I just worry too much.

The Bouncing Beatnik,
who probably really should have spent this morning playing CoH instead of making yet another post.


*I did a quick bit of research, searching the boards for posts with the words "rage" and "overpowered" in combination. I found 108 posts in the time period from 1 year ago until 1 week ago (I cut the search off just before the changes, so that my sample would be uninfluenced by the proposed alterations to the power.)

I read each of the posts found, with the following results:

100 posts could be classified as "neutral"- either Rage was only present as a quotation from an earlier message, or was present as part of another word ("encourage"," outrage"), or the writer had no issues with the status quo of the power.

5 posts mentioned wanting improvements to Rage, removing or lessening the penalty, etc.

3 posts felt Rage was overpowered, although two of the three were from a poster who subsequently changed his mind and posted in the "prefers status quo" group.

To me, this does not look like Rage as an overpowered ability was very much of a concern at all on these boards.

The crucial issue for me is the "feel" of the power. The common complaint that I've heard/seen about the Superstrength power set has been the lack of truly feeling "super". Damage was low, endurance usage was high, and, at least in my experience as an Inv/SS Tank, many battles wound up being a slow chipping away at the opponent's health, all the way nervously eying the Endurance bar, and hoping that the foe didn't have some form of regeneration or dull pain. With luck, and by restraining myself from simply mashing the more powerful and endurance-costly power buttons, I might eventually win. This experience felt very much other than "super"; while I might have wanted to be the Man of Steel, I was finding myself instead feeling as if I had the combat prowess of Jimmy Olsen.
The recent changes to the Invulnerability powers aggravated matters for me, but I did my best to cope. I reached 32nd level after the changes, and so never experienced perma-unstoppable. I did have Rage, though, and while it added a measure of risk, I felt it was worth it. With Rage, I began to feel that "super" feeling. I could go directly after that yellow (and sometimes even orange!) Lieutenant in a group of mobs, and with judicious use of inspirations, I could take him down before the Rage ended, all the while shrugging off the melee attacks of his minions. Sure, I now took ranged damage, but I could handle that. I accepted the period of stun at the end of Rage as a Tank's due, soaked up the damage from the remaining minions while staggering around drunkenly, and then gathered my senses and took them down. Gameplay was fun- my enjoyment skyrocketed after hitting 28 and taking Rage.
I've been playing alts on the live servers the last few days, experiencing the Winter event through the eyes of my lower level characters. I learned about the changes to Rage today on the boards here. I logged back onto Test and checked them out, and I'm saddened and disappointed to say that that "super" feeling is gone. Instead, I'm back to eying the clock, praying that the opponent doesn't have abilities that might stretch the fight past 75-90 seconds, and preparing to flee should I get too near the time limit. I haven't grouped with the changes in place yet, but I would guess that that need to flee if the fight drags dangerously near to Rage's time limit is likely to make Tanks less useful to the group than before, and would seem to bind them more strongly into a purely defensive, meat-shield role.

I would strongly urge that you and the development crew take a close look at what the changes have done in terms of gameplay and "feel." I think on the whole they have harmed CoH more than they have helped them.

Thanks,
The Bouncing Beatnik,
who really used to enjoy playing American Icon on Test.

I'd like to see the classic wrestling "begging off"- on knees, scuttling backwards away from the opponent, eyes wide, hands up in front in supplication, head shaking "no"- this should precede a dirty trick- a low blow, an ambush, etc.

I'd also like an escape animation to cut in just as the teleport cuts in upon defeat- the villain reaches out, pulls a hidden lever, and drops through the floor and out of view.