Castle

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If Dr. Brainstorm appeared in the game, I wonder what his Strike Force would be like...

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Permadeath for all characters who attempt it and fail. And, of course, the good Doctor would turn out to be a robot duplicate anyway.

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So, was I reading it right that each AT will get one primary and secondary power from its corresponding AT? If so that's awesome!

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Every AT gains at least 1 powerset -- Masterminds only get a Secondary, no new Primary. Brutes get 2 new Primaries, and 1 secondary. Everyone else gets 1 Primary and 1 Secondary.

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Okay, so out of 8 pets, why are there only 2 different buffs?

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Originally, there were 2 pets: The Faeries. Then someone (may even have been me, I don't remember) brought up the fact that Faeries won't match everyones concepts and so, the Wisps were born. Then, someone suggested the Drones for Tech types and at the last minute the Oscillators were tossed in. All told, a more classic example of Feature Creep you will never find!

So, since there were only two pets originally, there were only 2 powers made. I didn't have time to make 6 more powers to match the new entities.

As for why they are so fragile, let's just say if they were at all "tough" I could exploit them horrendously. So, they are fragile. They CAN be kept alive if you are a ranged AT, but melee types will have a hard time of it.

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Sister Flame, Hero 2 and BabyMage, COH:The Next Generation?

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You left out Positot.

My favorite image from the event!

I played for ~3 hours Friday night, ~6 hours on Saturday and ~8 hours on Sunday. For about 2/3rds of that time, I was in a group of 4-8 players, the rest being spent duo or a very small amount of soloing time.

For all of that, I gained 2 levels on a Brute (23-25), 1 Level on a Controller (14-15) and 13 levels on a Defender (19-32.)

I did not do any task forces, and did almost none of my own missions, spending most of the time sidekicked to level 38-40ish mentors doing their missions (My SG was trying to get a bunch of characters to 39 for the Eden Trial.)

Overall, I had a lot of fun...can't wait to do it again!

I have to say I'm enjoying these stories, Jock. Yours, too, Kid_Disaster!

I particularly like the optimism and acceptance shown in them. As morality tales, they work quite nicely! Too often we get caught up in the gloom and doom of things. These stories get beyond that and show how cool it is to be a "child of Defender."

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I've been a fan of your work since I first saw that Champions adventure supplement you wrote, The Zodiac Conspiracy. The color inserts of all the characters was what really put that over the top.. and for what it's worth, I loved the characters and concepts [like villians who weren't actually EVIL, and could be interacted with in Roleplaying scenarios as well,they were more like rivals] that I still use most of those characters today.. and I still have the adventure, still with the color art insert.

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I *knew* there was a reason his name rang a bell! I loved that book. I used it as the basis of the last Champions campaign I ran (which was some years ago, sadly.)

Love the poster, too, btw. The White Hooded figure in the top middle looks an awful lot like a character I played back in Beta

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Yeah I missed the 'in real time', I think ym briain is addled today.

EG:
Sorry the win goes on. Did you not get the memo that suckage is no longer part of CoX ?

(aside from MOG) *ducks and runs*

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MoG continuing to suck is the only thing that grounds me in reality.

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You might want to avoid the Training Room in the near future, then.

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Imagine a team that can complete missions without suffering deaths on Invincible. I see them from level 22 onwards, so it shouldn't be too hard to conceptualize. Now present an argument for why that team should consider a FF defender equal in worth to ANY OTHER HERO THAT CAN BE BUILT.

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Poor argument. If they can already complete missions on Invincible without suffering any defeats, it doesn't matter WHAT they add; they will still do just fine.

Don't read into this that I think FF is fine as is; just that particular line of reasoning always bugs me.

Very nice post, Brad. Thanks a ton!

I've played a ton of MMOs. I've yet to play one I couldn't take some ideas from. I think you short change the concept of street sweeping in other games a bit -- if all you do is instance missions, an MMO can begin to feel awfully empty and lonely! I like seeing other player wander by doing whatever it is they are doing while I'm gathering the whatsits for my collection quest. I even like competing for resource nodes despite the fact that it often makes me want to slap my fellow players. I definitely get where you are coming from; but I do think there is room for this style of play.

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We have lots of room to grow, check out our Jobs listing

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Yeah, I heard about the powers designer opening. I don't meet two of the requirements:

At least 1 shipped AAA title
Refrain from calling other forum posters "blithering idiots."

Also, Mountain View is too long of a work commute from Honolulu. And I hear Castle has a clause in his contract that allows him to call any powers designer hired after him "Igor."

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Just to be clear, the phonetics on that would be something like "Eye-gore".

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I'm grumpy but loveable?

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They were only half right.

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Is Castle related to Jeff Grubb?

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Not that I am aware of.

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I suppose I can understand why he thinks that way. Which is why I've tried, and apparently failed, to bring his attention to what my analysis has shown.

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You've not 'failed' -- I just haven't had time to address Stalkers issues, even just the ones I *can* do something about.

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Goes against everything I've seen in the game. I've seen /Stone tankers out control me, and most every other tanker secondary can out-damage me. Based on my experiences in the game, I don't get how the above is true at all. The mathematical experiments we've run in versions of Tundara's thread don't back it up either.

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The problem with most mathematical experiments I see here in the forums is that they are measuring the extremities of performance. The datamining I do shows how players are actually performing in the "reality" of the game. The two are related, but there is often a vast gulf between what a set is capable of and what it is typically asked to do in gameplay.

Edit: Also, the quote you referred to is across all AT/Powerset combinations. */Ice outperforms many other AT/Powerset combinations.

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Castle did not "fix" fire tanks until he started to actually play a fire/fire tank.

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My Fire/Fire tank was made before I started working at Cryptic. I just have a serious case of Alt-itis. Also, when were were doing Arena testing in I3, my character of choice was an Invul/Ice Tanker and my only losses were in SG v SG events and my 1 on 1 against Pohsyb's Ill/Kin Controller.

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I am really sorry I couldn't get you all the changes the set needs.

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First, let me echo what your fellow players have said -- you have nothing to be sorry about.

Ice Melee does well at all power levels -- it's never the worst, and never the best. Datamining shows that the points it does worst is in the 38-45 range, which is where the Tier 9 power normally comes into it's own. Since Ice Melee players typically ignore their Tier 9, this can be seen as the cause.

So, why does Frozen Aura get ignored? There've been many threads on this here in the forums, the gist of which is that a PBAoE SLEEP doesn't add anything to a Tankers Repertoire. Since any Aura power interrupts Sleep effects, and Tankers essentially *must* run auras to fulfill their roll, it is counterproductive.

So, what's the solution? Currently, there isn't one. Tankers, as a whole, do better than average, and this includes Ice Melee. My focus is on those AT's who, as a group, underperform. I may be able to take some time to make some changes during the I11 beta, or afterwards, but it entirely depends on how things are going. No promises!

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I call upon the great and mighty Floyd to bring back the awesome to this thread.

Post something awesome, dude.

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Okay

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… I just can’t be led by a guy named Floyd.

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OMG I can.

<3 Dark Side of the Moon and Brain Damage... and On the Turning Away... and Shine On... and many, many more...

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I'm rather partial to "Learning to Fly" and "Welcome to the Machine" myself.

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So there's no chance of us facing the Sushi Monster???

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Never fought Lusca?

Also...Arcanaville for the win!

Uh oh!

By the way, that is *the* original whiteboard from pre-beta shown in that picture. I found it in a storage room when we moved buildings and keep it as is for posterity.

Stealth Edit:
The only hockey I play is on the PS2.

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To whom should I send it?

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Statesman c/o Cryptic Studios. He'll end up eating 'em anyway!

Kali...the middle quote in your Sig. Six String Samurai?

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Hm, doubtful that it could be so simple, but might Craig Zinkievich be the name behind _Castle_?

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Craig is far too cool to be me. He's one of our best Producers, though -- he's great at cracking the whip and getting people to get things done.