Castle

Noted.

I still don't believe anything like this is necessary.

1. What is your favorite word?
Fun

2. What is your least favorite word?
No

3. What turns you on?
Music, I think I mentioned that before.

4. What turns you off?
"Smack Talk"

5. What sound or noise do you love?
A good low Bass line

6. What sound or noise do you hate?
High Pitched fans

7. What is your favorite curse word?
#$%^ -- It's so versatile. As Carlin said, it can be used for every part of a sentence! "#$%^ the #$%^ing #$%^ers!"

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Voice Over Actor -- I think I could do cartoons moderately well.

9. What profession would you not like to participate in?
Strawberry Picker -- that's back-breaking, thankless work.

10. If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
(I *hate* this question!) "Bet you're surprised you're here and not the other place, eh? We get that a lot."

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And now...back to trying to figure out how to get Formula X to incorporate Variable Y without breaking in hideous, horrible, awful ways.

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Please tell me you're doing something about bringing animation times into the damage formula. Please. Pretty please...

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Before any rumors start swirling -- It's an analysis formula, not anything directly impacting gameplay. Sorry!

You want to know what I hate? I'll tell you!

<ul type="square">[*] Being stuck in traffic[*] Meetings that are non-productive[*] People who feel entitled to abuse others, simply because they can.[*] Sudden loud noises[*] Temperatures below 50f and above 80f -- drop both by about 15f if I'm trying to sleep![*] Insomnia[*] Bad ideas -- especially when they are mine![*] Bitter food[*] Embarrassing Situations in Sitcoms -- I literally have to change the channel or leave the room to avoid seeing the characters humiliated at times.[/list]
Now to be balanced, I should also include things that I love. Just for balance, you see.

<ul type="square">[*] Puppies and Kittens -- that belong to other people and I can play with them for very short periods every now and again.[*] Good books, movies and shows[*] Good music -- separate from the above, since NOTHING gets me going faster or better than a good song.[*] Games -- Computer, Console, Pen and Paper, solo or multiplayer. [*] When a plan comes together[*] Finding an answer to something that, previously, didn't have one.[*] Puns[/list]
And now...back to trying to figure out how to get Formula X to incorporate Variable Y without breaking in hideous, horrible, awful ways.

EDIT: Changed "about" to "above."

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So... since you seem to be allowed to share some, would it be too much to ask for a power list?

(I am shamelessly addicted to new shinies)

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Too much to ask? Not at all. I'd love to tell you...except, you know, marketing timelines and all of that pretty much say I can't.

Yet.

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Now THAT's a set of steps.

I'll run through them later and hopefully some others will, too in case Castle's proposed fix doesn't catch this. (Did you really need to buy 2 different things--did you try it with 1?)

Though at this point I'm just sort of hoping they let us custom color our chat bug in I16...

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Just to be clear: this isn't my fix, my bug or even anything I actually have a hand in. The programmer involved simply asked me to relay thanks to those who sent in repro steps after my first comment and to let you know that it was hopefully fixed.

As for further iterations of the bug: Yep, certainly possible. We'll deal with 'em sooner or later.

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but other than that they were able to directly port everything over or at least pull powers and visuals from existing powersets.

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Then I really don't get earth assault for doms. I know we have the melee attacks from stone melee... but where are the stone blasts coming from?

Or are they using the same animations as other blasts with new particles, which you don't consider different animations?

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Earth Assault is a special case.

When Sunstorm first started, we gave him some training (read: shackled him to the desk and forced him to look at spreadsheets) and gave him a bunch of bugs to fix to learn the systems.

Fixing Bugs doesn't teach everything, though, so he put together Earth Assault as a set to experiment with and learn the ropes. Eventually, he got it into shape and it turned out to be quite a fun set. We wrote it up as a full proposal for the next round of proliferation, since all the work had already been done...and, here we are.

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Just saying. We were told more info for I16 in July, now it's July.

MORE I16 INFO NAO!

Er umm... More Issue 16 info please?

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*Stares at the design docs on his desk*
*Laughs evilly*

Soon(tm)!

*Leaves without answering the original question*

Edit: To Obsidius, Does that make you Sgt. "Big Toe" Hulka?

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See, that didn't take too long, now did it?

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Tell?

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If you click on a non-editable segment of the UI, any keyboard entries you made at that point would be stored in the buffer. Then, when you attempted to chat, that buffer would be placed in front of whatever test you were attempting to enter as soon as you hit enter to send the message.

The key bit that allowed us to fix it was the "non-editable" part of the statement.

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Maybe next time.

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Semi-related: Castle, can you at least confirm or deny that the list shown on the site (Rad Blast for Blasters, etc) is comprehensive? Is it just a 'these are some of' list, or is that all the ones being ported? Just to direct the speculation from here, so we don't get several months of "But there could be more!" if there isn't going to be.

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If it is the same list I saw last week, and I am 99% certain it is, then it contains everything being proliferated in I16.

FYI, thanks to feedback from you guys (and one player who included the KEY piece of information, in particular) this particular bug looks like it has been squashed.

Of course, I say "looks like" because:
1) It hasn't passed QA yet -- it hasn't even been submitted!
2) There may be other things causing the same symptom.
3) We could simply be wrong and the fix doesn't do what we thought.

Anyway, fingers are crossed! Here's hoping this is the last of the wwwwssssdddddd1231231234123chat bug.

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I'm always happy to see power sets proliferated, so please don't take this post as a sour grapes post. With that said, is anyone a little disappointed that the most wanted sets weren't proliferated.

Here's what would've made me jump for joy:

Blasters -Dark Blast (though I admit, Rad Blast is a fine choice)

Brutes - Regeneration

Controller - Dark Miasma

Corruptor - Poison (though Trick Arrow was a fine choice too)

Defender - Poison

Dominator - Illusion

MM - Kinetics

Scrapper - Super strength or energy melee or fire epic powers

Stalker - Shields or fire melee

Tanker - Spines or energy aura

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Maybe next time.

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EDIT: BTW, this was Posi's idea, not mine -- I was just in the meeting it came up in. So, HE'S the bestest dev evah!

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I've been informed that my memory is awful and that it was Pohsyb's idea...So, um, yeah. He's the bestest dev evah!

My apologies for the mistake! (Is that enough? Back into your box now! Go!)

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What kind of Gift basket do you want?

I swear to all that is awesome this is the best thing ever. Its like tied with S*X

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Gift Baskets are nice, but I'm fat enough already, thank you. No need to send anything, really!

EDIT: BTW, this was Posi's idea, not mine -- I was just in the meeting it came up in. So, HE'S the bestest dev evah!

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That is an awesome option. No more fill requests. I probably can get even level AVs without going Invincible from what it sounds like. That feature may be my favorite.

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If they let us solo TFs/Trials the smileys will go into overload!



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Let's not get crazy now!

Seriously, though, to the best of my knowledge we won't be changing minimum sizes of TF's/SF's. The minimum sizes stand as "warning labels" to newer players that these missions are more difficult/time consuming/whatever than other missions. It's a small, but important function.

EDIT: By the way, in the meeting where this feature was proposed I specifically mentioned that "Perfect Pain is going to love this change." Glad to see, at least on first glance, I was right!

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I've suggested this a few times already but I don't even know if this game even allow a real Jump and Kick to happen.

What I mean is making Eagle Claw a 20'-30' range attack but instead of shooting something out of your legs (like Focus), you actually Fly, Kick and LAND near the target.

The only thing that is close to this idea is Lightning Rod type of power but you actually have to select an area first.


I think it will be a fantastic buffing idea for Martial Arts as it lacks any real advantage over Dark Melee and Energy Melee as ST Damage Set, and it fits the theme very well too.

What do you guys think?

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Something like this is what Shield Charge was meant to be. Alas, despite a LOT of work from Sunstorm, BABs and myself, there ended up not being a way to get this functionality to work.

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So what is the first thing you are doing with this?

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IT'S ALIVE!

(weird science)
Plastic tubes and pots and pans
Bits and pieces and
Magic from the hand
Were makin

(weird science)
Things Ive never seen before
Behind bolted doors
Talent and imagination

(weird science)
Not what teacher said to do
Makin dreams come true
Living tissue, warm flesh

(weird science)
Plastic tubes and pots and pans
Bits and pieces (and)
Bits and pieces (and)

Chorus
(bits of) my creation--is it real?
Its my creation--i do not know
No hesitation--no heart of gold
Just flesh and blood--i do not know

From my heart and from my hand
Why dont people understand
My intentions . . . . oooh, weird . . . .
Weird science!!

(weird science)
Magic and technology
Voodoo dolls and chants
Electricity
Were makin

(weird science)
Fantasy and microchips
Shooting from the hip
Something different
Were makin

(weird science)
Pictures from a magazine
Diagrams and charts
Mending broken hearts (and makin)

(weird science)
Something like a recipe
Bits and pieces . . . .
Bits and pieces . . . .

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I'm trying to get it to go off, but so far all my chat entries have been clear of wwwwaaaaasssstrash.

110020000110001000000Can anyone verify that this bug is gone?

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I hate this bug. It's a minor issue ultimately since it isn't crashing servers or corrupting data, but it is highly visible, distracting and annoying.

What's broken and why is it taking so long to fix? The key problem here is way back when, someone decided it would be a good idea to have three separate keyboard input interpreters and any changes done have to play "house of cards" game with the three. The current set of bugs began appearing a while back when we started making changes to implement the mission editor, which morphed into the Mission Architect.

I've no doubt that it will be fixed at some point; I just wanted to basically point out that, yes, we're aware of it and yes, we are trying to fix it. It's just an enormously more complicated task that it "should" be.

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3) It made me giggle like a schoolgirl for a solid couple of hours.

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You folks have no idea how scared the rest of us were. We thought he'd snapped! I mean, BABs has WEAPONS at his desk, you know.

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Just saying. We were told more info for I16 in July, now it's July.

MORE I16 INFO NAO!

Er umm... More Issue 16 info please?

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*Stares at the design docs on his desk*
*Laughs evilly*

Soon(tm)!

*Leaves without answering the original question*

Edit: To Obsidius, Does that make you Sgt. "Big Toe" Hulka?

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Now, going in the opposite direction: Castle didn't work on the game until I6 (if I remember correctly) and BABs didn't come on board until I7.

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I started in November 2004, between I2 and I3. Before geko, there was another person working on Powers, who actually set up many of the tools we use. Al 'geko' Rivera came on a few months before closed beta began, and it was his job to put together the powersets in time for Beta. If I recall correctly there was an animator and a particle FX artist who worked with him to get all of that done in time.

I honestly have no idea how they got the powersets done as quickly as they did as well as they did.

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MMOs are about balance and even if you take farming out of the equation, AE is not balanced.

-Regular missions have contacts you have to earn/find, then continually travel to until you get their cell. AE puts the contact right next to you.

-Regular missions have doors that can be on the other end of the zone or even in another zone entirely. AE always has the door right next to you.

-If you want to go to the hospital in a regular mission it could put you hundreds of yards away from the mission door, the AE hospital always puts you right next to the mission door.

-Random missions give you random salvage and recipe drops. AE tickets allow you to more selectively choose your drops.

-If you're having to buy enhancements with influence you will have to find a vendor selling your Origin, then you'll have to wade through the sometimes oddly named inventory list (curse you Magic Origin). If you use AE tickets you travel a few feet to a single person who offers not only every type of regular enhancement, they even have a nifty menu that lets you select the type of enhancement you're looking for.

These are just a few of the examples of how convenient AE is compared to regular content. Why does AE not have ANY downfalls to balance all of its amazing features that dwarf the regular content?

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In theory, this is all balanced by there being no "end of mission" reward in terms of XP/Influence/Prestige. In practice...not so much.

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I appreciate your candor, but at the same time, I'm not being a time thief as I'm done work... are you? j/k, but seriously.

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Yeah, I woke at 3am or so and was unable to go back to sleep -- a formula I was working on yesterday had "issues" and I figured out why and could not go back to sleep until I fixed it. So, I came in *REALLY* early. Now, I'm just killing time waiting for traffic to die down so I can go home and pass out.

Not all community types are "mouthpieces" -- and fortunately, we here at Paragon don't really have any like that. But, as I've said, I've worked with them before and it isn't pleasant.

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Then again, I've made it clear that dev's shouldn't be posting, they should have community reps that specialize in doing that. There is a reason our CFO doesn't address the public. Speaking to the public is as much a skill as programming code or ensuring the financial viability of a company.

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Noted. As much as I can see where you are coming from, I've worked at companies where the only customer interaction is through mouthpieces and, frankly, the experience is painful and frustrating both from the consumer side and from the developer side. I vastly prefer having the freedom to address folks as myself (keeping in mind that I am a representative of the company and that certain things must, perforce, not be commented upon or certain activities undertaken.) Yes, that leads to headaches sometimes, but it also leads to our fans being able to "see behind the curtain" a lot more than other games allow -- with all that that entails, good and bad.

FWIW, I took courses in business communication and PR while in college. I *could* filter everything I say with marketing doublespeak and spin. I choose not to. Sometimes, that causes me a lot of grief from the fans, other times, I get called to the carpet by my boss. I can live with that, though, since I believe that what I am doing is overall beneficial to everyone concerned.

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C'mon Frost, you trying to hard to find something hidden in Castle's words or agenda. Let it go.

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Actually, I'd really appreciate a post on the subject myself. It's hard not to worry that the message never even got through, in all the complaints and incorrect assumptions about the End costs and power adjustments.

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After spending weeks reading various threads (and noting who is posting what and how often in them) I have yet to really see any sort of consensus of there being a problem (except PVP damage, which has already been mentioned in another post.) Hot spots that I am paying close attention to are End Costs, Flares and low level play issues.