Chase_Arcanum

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  1. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mental_Giant View Post
    I hope they are, but I'd also like a dress. I'm encourage by Noble Savage's response.
    Precisely. I can see a full female spacesuit, for example, based on the style that wins in the polls, then someone doing a skirt that fits that style as an add-on. You wouldn't want a separate vote on that, as it may result in a skirt that doesn't fit well with the rest of the parts.
  2. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Doctor Roswell View Post
    They're selling -- for money -- a product that is, arguably, incomplete, and the reason they've given for it being incomplete doesn't hold up to even casual scrutiny. It presents more questions than answers.
    They're selling a collection of costume pieces at a discount to what it would be if you bought each piece separately. What they decide to offer is their discretion. Just because something exists and would fit doesn't mean you're entitled to it.

    They're the ones defining the bundle. Heck they could throw in a minotaur and cyclops-appearance temp power at their discretion if they so chose.

    Look at the pack as the sum of all its parts and see if its worth it. If it isn't, don't get it.
  3. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Doctor Roswell View Post
    And is, so far, pretty much the only player to express support for the strategy.

    Just, you know... by the way.
    Doesn't mean much- only those that object to the strategy have any reason to post anything. FWIW, I don't see any issue with this whatsoever. Seems to be a good way to strike a balance between the two interest groups.
  4. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Venture View Post
    I'd never use a nuke in a superhero universe.

    You nuke a city, you kill 1.5 million people minus one. The last guy not only gets superpowers from the explosion, but ones that let him survive a nuke...and wow, is he torqued off.
    Posts like this make me miss the 5-star system.
  5. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Venture View Post
    I've rerolled my main twice. Was Kat/SR Scrapper, rerolled to Claws/SR and then Kin/SR. The character was level 50 each time; I transferred the old one to a new server.
    This is the tactic I'd probably take.

    My main's an illusion/kinetics controller because it seemed the best way (at the time) to represent a general-purpose sorcerer. If, in a future release, they offered something better, I'd seriously consider transferring the original character to another server and rerolling to avoid losing any special badges.


    I've been tempted to reroll one character (Shandora Ward)-- currently my most "incarnate" character-- now that street justice is out. Street Justice/Willpower would be so much more like her original, grittier vision (she started as one of my NPC's for a Pen-n-Paper game). Neither was around when she was created, so I 'morphed' the vision slightly to a more disciplined & agile martial arts / super reflexes. Over time those nuances bled into her personality. She's "grown" into a very different character than that original vision... not sure if I want to take her back there or not.

    Then again, the "incarnate" path doesn't seem at all right for her either, so maybe another round through the levels is about all the play that character concept will ever have...
  6. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Sheogoth View Post
    Currently want a fix to Walk/Hover-Board/Magic-Carpet:7
    Snarky Rebuttal: 14
    Actual input/questions: 4
    Resort to insults: 2
    Don't know if you're currently keeping tabs... unless you've lumped every rational response people have had that disagrees with you as a "snarky rebuttal" but from the tally here, I'd suggest you amend your initial post

    Quote:
    (snip)one huge coding problem since we can fly without any trouble. If there is a canon reason, I'd -love- to hear it, and so would he rest of us!(snip)
    (see italics) You continue to act as a spokesperson for a group that you do not represent. More of us have shown that we already did know, understand, and accept the rationale for these powers as they are. We even shared that information in prior posts. We did not need someone to waste the devs' time making demands purporting to be on our behalf. Please do not pretend to speak for anyone other than yourself...


    ...especially when you choose to insult and provoke:

    Quote:
    (snip)I mean come -on- developers, designers, implementers. Have you really gotten -this- lazy?
  7. Quote:
    Originally Posted by FloatingFatMan View Post
    As a professional developer myself, I had doubts about their reasoning behind why the City Vault was scrapped. There's just no way a simple SQL read query would affect game performance. I suspect it was more likely security concerns. I know our customers REALLY wouldn't like their database anywhere where a web browser can get at it, even as read only..
    Well, there are several possibilities here, but one of Cryptic's database guru's used to have a blog, and he talked there alot about using object-based databases, rather than relational tables, so its possible that our assumption that this is even sql-driven is incorrect.

    Granted, I don't buy the "too much of a pull" issue either. If it was, you'd compensate by not doing a realtime on-demand pull of the latest data. Rather than hit the database every time someone requests the webpage, publish a static webpage with the stats every time a character (for example) logs out. Nothing's going to change until the next log-in anyway....


    HOWEVER- you have to remember that things like the database core would be some of the first pieces of code assembled, that CoH was the team's FIRST foray into building an MMO, and that the scalability of database systems back then was frequently in question.

    You can still find press releases hilighting the odd innovations some vendors were doing to handle demand like using a full flash-memory system with a custom allocation system to get fast enough responses. I've also heard horror stories from a former MMO developer on how a database on a major title didn't reach a fraction of the vendor's promised thoroughput, leaving them "gutting every call they could" after their first stress went an unexpected direction (let's just say that they succeeded on the "stress" part).

    It is very possible that the CoH database system is rigged enough that they can't be compared directly to what we work with in business or web development.
  8. Be careful of where & when you toggle-on "walk"?
  9. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
    Anonymous are chimps with pistols. Dangerous, unpredictable, and sometimes amusing, but in the end I'm also not going to be sad when the guys with the tranq guns put them down.
    I was preparing my own appraisal of Anonymous, but this covers it rather well.
  10. Quote:
    Originally Posted by InfamousBrad View Post
    It took me a second to notice it, but the female Big Trouble in Little China armor, chest piece, is a two-tone piece with skin showing. Which the UI has never allowed. Are we getting a tech improvement, or are the gold bits on that baked-in?
    I expect the gold will be baked in
  11. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rubberlad View Post
    Those are all extremely good reference points, and I'm sure more can be had with a fuller community discussion. My point is that the choice of Club Kid and Imperial Dynasty costume packs is pretty narrow-minded niche items that really don't fit the spirit of a comic book MMO game - especially when we've had much the same already (Martial Arts pack; various modern day outfits added to the game over the years). I just can't believe that somebody thought Imperial Dynasty was a more important/"in demand" set to have over a Native American set (or a Pulp Fiction set, a Greek Mythology set, a Deep Sea Divers set, a Fairy Prince/Princess set, an Ancient Egypt set, a Golden Age Warfare/WWII set, a Private Detective set, a Mayan/Aztec set, a Race Car Driver set, an Intrepid Explorer set, a Ballerina set, a Post-Apocalypse set, etc). That we have another Roman Armor set on top of what can already be achieved just by playing ITF also seems rather redundant.

    I'm just questioning the way these costume sets are chosen/prioritized. We're moving further and further away from the comic book influences this game started out with its not even funny (although I'm glad for the upcoming Space/Astronaut pack or whatever the hell its called and the Barbarian/Gunslinger packs were more "on topic").

    I know folks will disagree - that's fine. Others who are probably already upset that there are no new claws/shields items with these packs might appreciate why they'd rather limited resources be put to work on those widely popular powersets instead of a Club Kid costume set. Future costume packs need to be more balanced in terms of what customizeable weapon options are made available and they need to better emulate a certain influence of the comic book genre that we've not seen represented in-game before. We really don't need even more asian-centric costumes right now; nor do we need a club kid outfit so we can roleplay the Sims in Pocket D. There are just too many other comic book/cultural influences missing in-game after 7 years that still need to be addressed.

    Sorry folks, but that's the way I feel.
    I can see some risk in the "native american" set, though I WOULD like to have some.

    - as you say "more can be had" with a discussion. My selection there would already require more pieces than any one pack and wouldn't cover enough bases to satisfy many (and be WAY off for others). A "native american" pack is bound to have broad expectations that aren't met, so that makes conceptualizing and valuing such a pack difficult.

    - The press issue- "native american" characterization is a touchy subject that's easy to get negative press about. Any costume pack would by its nature have to select a few iconic elements to focus on, and that's bound to get those that lament over the generic misrepresntation of native americans in a tizzy if not VERY delicately-managed.

    - The design- If you go for a full "costume set" design, you're going to end up choosing one person's definition of native american over another's- Do you focus on Turok's leather-and-bone that (to me) reflects some northeast tribes or the more colorful symbols that you see in some of the southwest tribes' rituals?

    - Many of my examples had a more 'accessory' feel where some native american elements appear integrated with more modern styles. The way current "sets" are done really works against this method, but I'd love to have this kind of "accessory pack*" that blends in better with other costumes. mixes of native american head detail (headbands, headdresses, earrings, facepaint patterns, etc), shoulder detail (pelt shoulder elements, upper-arm feather bands, etc), chest details (the bone-chestpiece) and weapons (tomahawk, bow, etc) and tassles* (upper arm, glove, boot, belt).

    *This would be my preference, but it lacks the overall look that the devs seem to be gravitating to. I'd love to see this just as an array of items that work well with other stuff in other packs- along with the superhero-accented suits, I could see these style pieces working for the barbarian sets, the animal sets, and the gunslinger packs, potentially drawing more sales of these packs as more costume concepts bring them together.

    **Tassles also pose a problem, visually they'd be rather immobile and sticklike. It would be ideal to have them flow and shift in an almost mini-cape like manner, but not technologically feasible. You're left with making them shorter and less striking than preferred just so their obvious stiffness doesn't cause aesthetic issues.


    Anyway, the point of all this was just to say that yes, while there may be an obvious interest in such a pack, there isn't always an obvious path forward... or a better place down the path for such things to appear (we have 4-legged critter animations, animal packs, barbarian-themed packs, and a new zone that hilighted art styles for different wilderness areas... all of which might be used as building blocks toward new wilderness zones in the future where such styles could REALLY find a fit.)
  12. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rubberlad View Post
    When somebody tells "Marketing" that we want a Native American Indian costume pack before we want an Imperial Chinese dynasty pack.

    Talk about a major minority cultural theme being overlooked for regional pan-asian favortism... We already have a ton of asian-influenced costume sets in game. How about representing a long time comic book influence that has been seriously ignored by this game?
    What do you mean by Native American?

    Do bones, leather, and facepaint cover it?, like Manitou Dawn or Turok?
    Or is leather-and tassles in a traditional superhero cut costume like Dawnstar? acceptable?
    Are we talking about subtle accents like Echo's arm feathers and paint? or moonstar's feather earrings?
    (tangent- Moonstar cannot be a cat owner. No cat-owner would allow feathers that close to their jugular... just saying)
    Maybe something more Marvel-y in its representation?
    or this?
    or more Mike Grell-styled?


    Native American is a pretty broad topic area, so I'm curious about what you'd want in such a clearly-desired pack.
  13. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Electric-Knight View Post
    Haha, what I meant was...
    In understanding that anything and everything is not for everyone... Appreciation can be had for the fact that they did the work to make someone happy!
    Not that I or you or anyone will actually enjoy/like that specific costume piece... but that we can all enjoy the fact that the team did work that was appreciated by whatever fraction of players do like it.

    It requires a bit of unselfishness... But, ya know... I was thinking positively.
    The only thing I'm smoking is love!! Breathe it in! It's all around!!


    You... scare me... when you're on one of your highs-- though the attitude meshes with your forum avatar rather nicely
  14. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Doc_Reverend View Post
    With the exception of the metallic skirt/top and strappy shoes, everything is for both sexes.
    Aw, man, and I had such high hopes for those on my signature character...


    Seriously, though, good to hear.
  15. Interesting costume sets- I do like the style & will be interested in these when they come out, but I do have reservations. The Chinese New Year set looks spectacular, but that elaborate style again sacrifices interchangeability with other parts. I can probably come up with a reason to use the set as a whole for a special event, but can't see the pieces being mix-n-matched much.

    I'd see much more use out of something simpler like a cheongsam (see Rian_frosdrake's posts.... just pick one of them... odds are it'll have a request for one).

    Also.... not to open a can of worms... and I may have missed this... but any chance that the jeans are available for both sexes?
  16. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Kitsune9tails View Post
    I suggest people use this thread to vet very specific, bulleted lists of things they would like to see going forward with the playerbase.

    If the playerbase doesn't reveal gaping problems with the idea, shoot it over to Zwillinger and Avatea.

    They may not agree, but we can try to make sure they know and understand. Even if we fail to do that, it's better than not trying.

    After all, apparently the Devs are getting ready to look at Tankers, therefore anything is possible, right?
    Eh, I think we'll already see a pick up of the story soon enough- they've talked about tying up the Praetoria arc and moving on to other Incarnate threats. Most of those trials never seemed very "incarnate" for story. They always felt like trials & events that were originally written for lower-level heroes/villains and then were loosely ported to "incarnate" stuff to appease the people clamoring for endgame content. They'd have been pretty neat trials for all my level 15-35 characters, but they really don't seem to fit the story of "being an incarnate" very well.

    Once we move to the shivan and or Rularuu, things will see better. Heck, if you took the core mechanics of the existing trials but just changed the story to match the expectations for "incarnate" most of these complaints would be moot.

    (Except mine- I'd still prefer more trial-like events spread throughout the full range of trials (maybe a new one unlocking every 5 levels) than a single new step in the Incarnate system.)
  17. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Texas Justice View Post
    From New World Dictionary:
    n

    1. a long narrative poem recounting in elevated style the deeds of a legendary hero, esp one originating in oral folk tradition

    2.
    the genre of epic poetry

    3. any work of literature, film, etc, having heroic deeds for its subject matter or having other qualities associated with the epic: a Hollywood epic

    4. an
    episode in the lives of men in which heroic deeds are performed or attempted: the epic of Scott's expedition to the South Pole

    adj

    5.
    denoting, relating to, or characteristic of an epic or epics

    6. of heroic
    or impressive proportions: an epic voyage

    I think you are using definition 6 while the Developers have told us (at least as far as the heroic Epic AT's) that the Epic in Epic Archetype has to do with the story which would be definition 3.

    Since part of their story is the initial alignment of the character, it makes sense that Kheldians can only be started blueside and Soldiers of Arachnos can only be started redside.
    As noted, "epic" applies to the archetypes being more tied to the game's lore- thus more closely tied to the game's story. Regular archetypes have rather broad latitude to their backstory and lore but the epics are more closely tied to the game world and backstory.

    Regarding your other concern (their popularity)... epics were also supposed to be special beasts that work best in teams. The devs didn't want to make the "tank mage" or "jedi" (aka SWG's hologrind) mistake where the archetype was so powerful that it eclipsed all the others. Instead, they sought to make these archetypes require others to really shine.

    Kheldians, for example, draw energy off their teammates. A Kheld, solo, can be a bit of a challenge, but each additional non-kheldian added to the team adds to the kheldian's abilities, making a Kheldian in a well-built team fit your working definition of "epic" rather well.... but only when other archetypes are available.

    Arachnos Soldiers/Widows have a similar setup that compliments others archetypes well. They have a lot of leadership-style team buffs. When you're solo, these don't stack up to anything very remarkable just like a solo arachnos NPC isn't much to behold. Get a team working together, buffing one another, though, and things get epic rather quickly.
  18. I usually do:
    - Story Arcs, focusing on the arcs that span a zone (Hollows, Faultline, Striga, Croatoa, RWZ, First Ward, etc) where possible.
    - Radio & Tips to fill the gaps.
    - Architect is a very distant third.

    These are most often done in small teams (2-4 people). That's where the game really shines for me.

    What I hardly ever do:
    - I arrived in Paragon just after the purple patch, and since then I've done less than a dozen total TFs, none of the villainside SF's, and no more than two dozen iTrials.
    - I used to run with Liberty's Sunday Mothership raids, but that was mostly to show support for the effort. Playing any game at 2-3 frames per second never really held my interest well. Once they started regularly getting 3-4 full teams, I figured nobody would miss my absence and stopped going.
  19. I've made promises to attend such things in the past only to have RL get in the way. It'd be ~3 hour drive, but would be fun.

    Can't commit at this time, but I'll keep an eye on the thread.
  20. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tyger42 View Post
    No, but WOW lets you dual wield 2 handers with the right high end talents as a warrior
    WoW (and many other MMO's, to be honest) also has single-handed weapons sized in such a way that no human could possibly wield them single-handedly and stylized in ways that they wouldn't be functional regardless.



    Granted, the general 'suspension of disbelief' of the superhero genre means that any and all of that are valid ideas here.

    I have this great superhero-y idea for a telekinetic weapons-master that dual-wields titan weapons with his mind while using a shield to protect himself and I won't be satisfied with the devs until they stop preventing me from playing the character I want to play.
  21. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bosstone View Post
    The weird thing is the Shield Defense set doesn't fit with conventional balance concepts. The general idea, at least in fantasy games, is that shield + weapon gets you more defense than two-handed weapon. That's reasonable and also provides a balancing measure between offense and defense. You want more offense, take the two-handed weapon. More defense, take the shield.

    But in City, Shield is actually one of the better offensive defense powersets. And in the most direct comparison you can make of Broadsword and Katana, Katana isn't any stronger than Broadsword. It's arguably slightly better because it's faster, but only slightly. And Shield isn't any better or worse than other defense sets that don't require you to give up a hand for it.

    So there's no real balance reason to pick sword and board over a two-hander in City. It makes the current limitations weird. A Broadsword/Shield scrapper has more offense (and possibly more defense) than a Katana/SR, but you can't do Katana/Shield. Why? ...Cuz.

    I think I'd be in favor of the option where you can choose a two-hander weapon, you just won't get a shield, and the defense set will just be a general aura thing like every other defense set. Right now, the only reason there's any limitations at all is cosmetic.
    I don't think anyone ever made any argument that this was balance-related.

    This is mainly just an issue that-
    -You need to make an alternate animation set for each attack powerset to make it compatible with shield. That takes resources, and no small amount of them.
    -Some powersets- which conceptually or logically use two hands for their attack- make less sense than others to be paired with shield. Rethinking these sets as to be shield-compatible becomes even more work and of questionable value.
    -Resources are finite.
    -Resources invested in that item of questionable value are resources NOT done in something less questionable.
  22. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Santorican View Post
    So you're saying it could happen now that they have more people and resources?
    No, they still have better things to do with their time and resources
  23. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
    ....

    There's nothing *wrong* with the female set in the gunslinger pack except that seriously there's no way that's a gunslinger. Except maybe in the 1800s version of Charlies Angels.
    ...
    You just inspired my next Deadlands campaign.


    ...
    ...

    ... or maybe not... thinking about the pen-n-paper players I've got available nearby... I'm now terrified of how that would turn out.
  24. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Zwillinger View Post
    We've been trying to add unique and different costume pieces for female options for the sake of overall variety, however I understand some of the concerns being expressed here, as does the rest of the Art and Production team. Moving forward, where possible, we will be making more gender neutral/male pieces created for females so as to more accurately reflect the Communities requests. Because each costume piece has to be individually created (we can't CTRL+C, CTRL+V the pieces from male to female unfortunately ), this does mean that we will be offering less overall unique options, however we feel it's important to address this concern.
    Good to hear, Z.

    Quote:
    Regarding the pretinting of costume pieces: While pretinted pieces give the artists the ability to provide some very unique materials and add more visual interest to select pieces, we don’t want to limit your creativity, either. Moving forward, we'll be offering both a pretinted and untinted option for all pieces which we choose to make pretinted.

    Thanks

    -Z
    This made my day.

    And, just an FYI, if you guys ever decided to offer previously-tinted pieces as one-shot purchasables on the paragon market (not part of the original pack) I, for one, would not object one tiny bit. I'd just be happy to have stuff I can more easily mix-n-match.
  25. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Lothic View Post
    I already allowed for the "naughty factor" to be a SECONDARY Dev excuse/concern in this regard. Basically the Devs didn't have the time or resources to give us something like customizable MM pets and since some people might abuse it anyway they decided they might as well not pursue it. Somewhere along the line the secondary idea that people might abuse these features in sexist ways became the PRIMARY reason in the eyes of many as to why the Devs decided against them. I just don't like Posi focusing in on that like it's the only reason in play.

    All I'm saying is that based on how sexy they've allowed player costume options to become that the idea that the Devs would avoid anything for the -primary- reason of reducing the potential for abuse is highly suspect at the very least.
    Makes sense, sorry if it seemed to be correcting ya-- the thread's a bit of a mess to see who argued what when.