Chase_Arcanum
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Posts
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Joined
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Eh,
Never understood how people latched onto his words with such anticipation. Nothing Jack ever said indicated that this was ever in any stage of development. Remember, even before launch, the CoH world had a huge "lore bible" written up to draw from.... stuff that hadn't even entered into the earliest napkin sketches of the development schedule for bringing it into the game, but it existed in record for people to refer to-- maybe slowly unveil---and possibly even bring into full light of the game over the years of development... or it could just stay a footnote in that lore bible as other more relevant aspects of the bible are prioritized.
When Jack first mentioned the Blood of the Black Stream, it was in the context of explaining how the game's "Epic" archetypes would be more tied into the overarching epic of the game's world. He then gave the names of a few possible examples as "teasers." In a funny way, these were probably given to curb expectations- to let people know that these wouldn't be vague powersets with no backstory that they can apply to whoever or whatever they want, but powersets that tightly fit a specific part of the game narrative. There was very little there to mistake for any sort of suggestion that they'd be coming... soon(tm) or otherwise. It was just a momentary peek that he allowed us into that big lore bible. Nothing more. -
Quote:In my defense, the half-a-snowman snowboulder you're referring to was just picked up to scare you and stop your mad charge at my makeshift fort. How was I to know that you'd brake so suddenly that you'd slip, fall on your back, and slide right into my feet, nearly knocking me over?Originally Posted by rian_frostdrake
cost me 50 bucks a session to get rid of.
I was only saved from the fall by dropping said boulder.... which shattered when it connected with face, shoulders, and chest.
I had big plans for that boulder, dammit. Big plans... a snow sculpture masterpiece... all broken into millions of tiny snowballs... all but forgotten in the chaos of digging you out before you suffocated.... but thats the way it always was... it was always about YOU!
I'M THE VICTIM HERE, DAMMIT! -
Quote:Ah, memories....Originally Posted by rian_frostdrake
fixed. for youthful trauma
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Quote:Leave them out of this! I like your parents too much to give them any credit for how you turned out.Originally Posted by rian_frostdrake
It's not my fault, i was born with a personality. i blame my parents.
You were a product of your peers, video games, junk food, and too much TV...
Your personality is a blend of all things Mario topped with an unhealthy Metroid fixation saturated in Danger Mouse reruns blended with liberal volumes of Mountain Dew and left simmering through America's fine education system for too many years to count.
Don't see any place to blame your parents there.
.......Maybe an over-abusive neurotic maniacal friend or two kicking you every chance they get...... but parents? They're better than that. -
Quote:All sorts of supers also see falling as a big enough risk that they avoid it...Originally Posted by Eiko-chan
Because getting hurt from a fall doesn't feel super. All sorts of supers take falls of remarkable height without damage in comics, whether they can fly, jump high, or are just badass normals.
If you like, instead of taking damage in a fall, play an animation of the character landing hard and putting a crack in the pavement instead, or something of that sort.
We already have the best of both worlds- risky rooftop-rumbles that hurt at low levels and virtually insignificant falls off the highest skyscrapers after you level up. Don't see the problem with that. -
Quote:... I could be wrong, but I didn't think it did change damage if you landed onto the same elevation (or higher) than what you started.. Its only when you land LOWER than where you lept that you take damage... and that damage is only calculated from the difference between those two points. At least, thats how I thought it worked...Originally Posted by CanaDixieMan
OK, I can see that it might hurt if you landed badly, but it doesn't seem fair to penalise Leapers when Flyers never run into buildings and Speedsters never hit cars. (Nor do Teleporters ever materalise inside brick walls). Leaping is the only Travel Power that can result in personal damage.
I'm not all that concerned about it, actually, but it's just one of those game mechanics that makes me scratch my head. Ideally, I think any form of Travel Power should be chancy if you're not careful. Adds realism. Then again, it would be a pain in the butt.
Any comments? -
Quote:That's not the sewer line, that's their drinking water. Totally different topic.Originally Posted by M_I_Abrahms
Right above the green water, and the rusted pipes?
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Quote:Several ways to look at it:Originally Posted by Ideon
I've always been disappointed in the Facemaker's workplace - it looks really cruddy. Surely with all the villains around as her clients, she could afford somewhere better to do business?
1) From a pure profit model, the Facemaker doesn't want to waste money on superficial stuff that just cuts into budgets. Things like fresh (clean) surgical gear for the facial reconstruction just cuts into her profits.... not to mention that...
2) Appearing to have a lot of money is a good way to attract the attention of people that want it for themselves... and in a place full of Villains, you don't want that attention-- paying for security cuts into profits too...
3) Much of CoV's design style has many of the public places neglected because he villains focus solely on items of self-interest. A few "ego" areas stand out (Aeon's courtyard, upper level of Grandville, the Casinos in St. Martial, etc). I could see the Facemaker neglecting some of her centers to save costs, but I really expect at least ONE to be ridiculously luxurious-- not just reflecting HER ego, but catering to the egos of her clients.... the one in St. Martial would be an excellent candidate for this, since casinos tend to cater to that 'over the top luxury' mindset. -
Quote:You're missing the point.Originally Posted by Venture
Know what happens if you "joust" with a melee character? You cut your DPS about in half as you spend more time running back to somewhere you can hit the target from as you spend actually hitting the target. The day the devs decided that some characters wouldn't be able to fight effectively at range and that characters can't move while attacking was the day they decided encounters based on mobility would be broken.
The metric "DPS" exists among players because of brainless spam-and-bash keys gameplay. Its because maneuver was next to meaningless in MMO's that the mere idea of continuous streams of damage became the norm.
The devs are adding reasons to maneuver- making it more than just 'dps downtime.' It now serves a purpose- and the better player won't be the one with the biggest DPS stream, but the one that masters balancing the art of maneuver with strategic attack.
well... in theory, at least. It's hard to tack such ideas onto a 6+ year engine without an NGE-level event arising. This is a relatively minor shift-- It isn't as dramatic as what they COULD add-- say, for example, a "buff" to your defense and damage output that decreases the longer you stand in one place, until it becomes a rather sizable debuff-- the buff reflects the advantages you gain by remaining unpredictable, and the debuff... what you encounter as your foe finds your static actions more and more predictable....
EDIT: ... and of course, objections DO bring up some good concerns-- if DPS suffers more for melee than for ranged attackers, but all else stays the same, then in encounters where maneuver is encouraged, melee will suffer disproportionately to ranged, and balance is lost. Don't know (yet) how substantial the difference is, but it IS worth getting metrics on, so the devs can address any incompatibility. -
I'm impressed...
.... and somewhat traumatized. -
...Wow... well, Castle, you'll be missed, but I'll be looking forward to whatever project you attach yourself to next.
On a more selfish level.... DAMMIT.... my first "pilot" storyboard for resuming my comic guides used a fake interview with BaBs... I finally reworked the "recyclable" material in the script to fit an I20 release "interviewing" Castle... the same... I'm gonna scrap that format entirely before EVERYONE I like is gone... -
Quote:They also had approx 3x and 6x the budget, respectively.Originally Posted by Angelxman81
I dont care, we should had animated fingers a couple of years ago.
In some aspects our game look older than most of the fantasy games from same year release.
EQ2, WoW only 1 year "younger" and they had water reflections, real shadows, and animated fingers long way before us.
I just want more for my game
The level of detail provided in character models is always about weighing priorities. More high-detail articulation means more "level of detail" modes do, more detail spent on art assets, and more resources dedicated to elements that people won't necessarily notice. Personally, animated FACES (a much bigger level of effort than hands, overall) would have been a more striking initial investment, before fingers. -
Quote:Must....Gouge... Out.... Mind's... Eye...Originally Posted by Unknown_User
That would be hilarious. After seeing this I wonder if Mr. Yin has a Carnival of Shadows Strongman costume lying around some where.
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Quote:Do some web lookups on MMO's, fraud charges, and maybe even NCSoft in general. You'll find that MMO game subscriptions have some of the highest fraud rates out there, that as a digital service that's largely over by the time the client disputes the charges, there's nothing to recover or revoke, nor a shipping address to compare with. You'll also find that CC companies have gone as far as threatening to revoke the merchant accounts (and/or charge more processing fees) of certain game publishers unless they take more precautions.Originally Posted by nytflyr
seriously? ever hear of a thing called AOL? all of their traffic was funneled through their proxy servers (VA I believe) so it looked like you weren't in the location you were actually at, but coming from VA (which played havoc with people trying to see where hits to their website originated, as at the time it looked like 50% of their traffic was a bunch of Virginians). This has been a know problem forever, and for a company to not compensate for such incidents is just plain silly.
from here: http://www.mail-archive.com/analog-h.../msg13332.html
In particular, AOL's proxy servers
(AFAIK) are not geographically arranged, so a user in California and
one in Maine could be using the same proxy servers and appear with the
same IP numbers.
These limitations aren't there because NCSoft WANTS them there, they're there because NCSoft wants to stay in business.
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The AOL reference you make is somewhat dated, but as a big market resource, it could be recognized and exceptions added. Many find satellite broadband latency (5x-8x dial up's latency) too high for realtime online play, so your particular example isn't just a very small market share, but one less likely to use their services. Understandable that an exception isn't made....
....though you'd expect them to be able to flag specific accounts + CC's as valid after the first time you call in.... if the NCSoft account management system wasn't one of the buggiest crash-prone pieces of s....oftware I've had to experience. -
I just have one common on one character... with 6 other level 50's yet to even look at unlocking incarnates.
... Even with my low play-time, that's slow, but I'm just having more fun (in a cursing, yelling, and threatening to smash hardware kind of way) updating my supergroup base... for some insane reason I've yet to fathom. -
Quote:in part. If you think how a good sparring match goes, its rarely the battle of attrition that a hit point meter indicates.... its a matter of sizing up your opponent, finding an opening, trying to get them to overcommit themselves so you can take advantage of that opening, then hitting with what can often be a fight-defining shot or two. A few of those, and the fight's over. At the same time, you're trying to telegraph false weaknesses and keep him from making such a successful maneuver on you.Originally Posted by Nalrok_AthZim
... Surveillance?
XD
The game becomes a matter of weighing buffs and debuffs against both yourself and the foe... some of your attacks leave you open for counterattack (a self debuff of sorts) so you weigh your maneuvers carefully-- trying to get your foe to debuff himself in the way you need to land that critical blow. Other powers can conceal your own defensive stats... at a cost... so you try to deceive your foe as he seeks to deceive you. The surveillance, countersurveillance, and constant reevaluation goes on through the whole battle.
Of course, AI would be HELL. -
Quote:...I believe that I could see... five lights.Originally Posted by Marcian Tobay
No! There are four lights!
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Quote:Oh, yes, especially when some CC companies had publicly threatened to revoke merchant accounts of at least one MMO providers several years back because the fraud rate was so high (this was several years back). Many companies have been forced to adopt rather inflexible processing rules (which you see catch some legit players on these boards, particularly some who are overseas but bank back home) and fees bordering on... well... they're aggressive (robbery seemed too strong a term...).Originally Posted by Nethergoat
really good points Chase, stuff I knew but hadn't applied to the current discussion. I tend to think of big corporations as being mostly alike, but clearly Apple's customer base and business model would give them far greater leverage than NC when it came down to negotiating rates.
A book published around 2001 listed the various cost models for a subscription-based MMO and suggested $1.00 -$1.50 of a $15 monthly subscription be set aside to address "fraud & CC processing expenses*." In an casual conversation with a colleague that's consulted several A-list MMO's, I asked if that's still accurate. He laughed and suggested that its safest to allocate triple or quadruple that amount.
Granted, that was anecdotal, and conversations like that are bound to be exaggerated, but I wouldn't be surprised.
*this covers both the CC processing fees and the money set aside to offset the losses of people that dispute charges. Since the disputes come long after the month of service has been provided, there's nothing to recover to reduce losses. -
Quote:And one of the better aspects of the Amazon system: you get to rate whether a review was "helpful." The system then orders future book reviews with the most helpful to you closer to the top (I'm told they also use it to "weigh" the ratings you see so the people you trust MOST to give a good review factor in on the review more than people you don't).Originally Posted by Nethergoat
Which is why I'm in favor of the 'like' system of ratings.
Taking it a step further, I'd like to see an Amazon-style system of user reviews appended to the arc, identified by global handle. I'm usually able to get an accurate sense of whether or not I'll like a book by reading what other people enjoyed or didn't enjoy about a title.
Put that into AE and you could have a self sorting system within a few weeks. Good reviewers that share your interest will be liked enough to "float" the stuff you'd find good and "sink" the crap. (unfortunately, I think they patented it along with one-click shopping) -
Quote:Sorry, Marcian. For the last time, there is no moon base in I20.Originally Posted by Marcian Tobay
I tried to leave, but they keep me in. Again and again. I can only imagine that I20, in all its shrouded secrecy, is going to crabshell us with some incredible other feature that keeps me in the game.
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Gotta say a HUGE no for DPS meters... they just encourage the wrong kind of thinking, overall... particularly for this game.
In some games where damage is king, they're less crappy, but here, where even a scrapper can apply minor but significant mezzes and debuffs to a target that would escape the DPS metric... well, the results would be useless.
If anything, following a DPS rating system would just lead to LESS effective teams.
Personally, I'm just waiting for the MMO that ditches the whole idea of "spam damage as much as possible" combat play. One where you read your opponent, find a weakness, work to expand on that weakness via feints, positioning strikes, a few minor injuries, even faking your own weaknesses to lead the enemy on, all to get a momentary opportunity for a more debilitating strike. DPS would be out the window. -
Quote:Also keep in mind that credit card companies deal with transaction charges differently with different vendors.Originally Posted by Silver Gale
In the discussion threads for the last two boosters, (Dance and Origins), several people noted that they feel the packs would sell better (and presumably make more money) if they were one or two dollars cheaper. We can't tell if it's true for the Super Boosters, because we have no access to any sales data, but maybe if we looked at a similar market, we could at least get a basic idea of how price relates to gains.
This article on Gamasutra shwos the top selling (most sales) and top *grossing* (most money earned) games on the iPhone and iPad. The top-selling games are all in the $1-$3 range (no big surprise there), but half of the the top *grossing* games are $3-$4. The discrepancy is even bigger on the iPad, where only *one* of the top-grossing games is $1, and *five* are $10.
Despite this, you'll note that the top-grossing iPhone games are still $1, and they are the same two games as the top-selling ones (again, no big surprise there).
What does this tell us? Well, on the iPhone and iPad, at least, you're more likely to get a lot of money if you price your game up. The income lost from people who look at your game and go "I'd buy that for a dollar, but not for three" is less than the income gained from, well, people paying $3 for your game. You still have a chance of grossing more on a cheaper game, but it needs to be a vast, runaway success.
Extrapolating this to boosters... sure, *you* might have bought the Party Pack at $4 instead of $8. But do you really think it would have attracted *twice as many buyers* at the very *least*? Do you think pricing it at $2 would have made it a "must buy" to the entire playerbase?
Maybe the NCSoft marketing guys aren't as dumb as they look.
NOTE: Please do *not* discuss the relative merits of the actual games, as that is against forum rules. This thread is meant to discuss the idea that "lower prices mean more money earned" and the iPhone game sales are only a point of data in the discussion.
For most vendors, there's a base fee and a percentage fee-- meaning that the less you charge for an item, the larger proportion of the sale that goes to the credit card company.
Apple and several other big customers were able to haggle better deals that make microtransactions more viable. That was possible (in part) due to the user-tracking base that makes fraud-prevention penalties more possible. MMO's aren't as lucky-- as an industry, they have a HUGE fraud cost associated with them historically (and some companies even more than others) so they pay some of the harshest vendor fees already.
They're just not going to see ANY pricing that would make microtransactions more possible.
They MIGHT be able to implement an "NCCoin" system for boosters-- that way the CC charges are in more cost-effective large dollar values, but the things you buy could then be prices at microtransaction levels. Thats about as close as we'll get, though. -
Quote:Originally Posted by Smersh
Finding a good arc is far too difficult. I don't want to have to sift through a million options, I want to get on and play a couple of nice missions. How many thousand farms are out there that I need to go through to find one decent arc?
Also, there are far too many dead arcs cluttering the search. I think a wipe is in order... give a global message of the day so authors can save their arcs, and unpublish everything. Let it be restocked.
Maybe an option in the GUI that lets you search your global friends list for new publications?
The problem is that farmers will 5-star their farming arcs and 1-star something that doesn't meet their needs... and vice versa. Its the utter-failure of all universal rating services. We don't all have the same interests.
What would be helpful in sorting out the stuff:
- A "star" rating thats based on ratings by my Supergroup and friends' ratings. More often than not, you team/befriend people with similar interests, so a MA arc that they liked is one that you're more likely to enjoy.
- Barring that, a simple "recommend" option that you can filter on (what do my friends recommend? What does the author of the arc I just ran recommend? What does Marcian_Tobay deem worthy? Heck, with that one, you could almost see the rise of MA critics-- people that frequently rate MA arcs well, so others follow their suggestions.
- A "Follow Author" option that will email-notify you when an author you liked publishes a new arc.
- Barring this, a website that offers this service outside of the game-- where authors can post their work & players can leave feedback. Heck, authors could use it to promote their work or recruit testers (or casting calls for unique characters) and heck, even pool resources (author A makes a custom villain group and writes a profile, then authors B,C,D,E, and F take that VG and make arcs around it).
I don't have the time for such a project (it's why I don't get many MA arcs played... and have yet to make one) but it could probably get close to done using some open source publishing tools if an existing fansite service (hint hint Titan Network :P) would be interested... -
Quote:Eh, apples and oranges.Originally Posted by DeathSentry
Just saw something on Massively.com where a preview depicted a new hospital and new interiors for warehouses. The latter got a lot of flack as, and I agree, to add more sets for warehouses vs. something we've asked for like space stations, etc would be ludicrous unless budgets have been slashed so low that its all they can afford to do.
Would be pretty disappointing.
1) New warehouses & other interiors are things that can be distributed through all layers of play, so updates to those maps have a broader impact on the game. A space station tileset would be more limited to one zone or area.
2) I'd expect more for "space station interiors" than a simple map tileset-- we could pretend the current science/tech/lab tileset was in space if that's all there was to it. I'd instead want portals that show the outside with some depth/perspective-- perhaps an autopower of some sort to simulate zero/limited gravity-- or even fancier, geometry that doesn't seem to have a true top/bottom. Something like that is an order of magnitude more effort than a few good tilesets. -
Quote:My first guess is an accidentally-accessible dev tool. The devs have noted before that most of their tools are kinda "baked in" to the engine, and a certain other game developed by the same guys added an improved /demo environment that had things like playback/forward and controls.Originally Posted by Leandro
Every so often, this appears at the bottom of my screen. Clicking "off" gets rid of it, otherwise it doesn't disappear even when zoning. It doesn't show on regular screenshots, so I took a photo in order to display it here. Anybody knows what this does, and if I'm supposed to be seeing it at all?
It could be that this team is working on a similar tool to help them make cutscenes and videos more rapidly-- the back and forward views could be used to track (and with other toolbars modify) what appeared to happen.) and this UI somehow slipped out "into the wild."
Generally speaking, internal tools don't get nearly the same visual treatment as user-side tools, which would explain the different appearance....