Creole Ned

I have 142 PMs, though the last one is from October 2008. I've got some from ex-employees -- CuppaJo, Cricket, Ex Libris, Lighthouse, Statesman, _Nomad_, a few from players who are no longer here like Pilcrow, Skunkwerks and Dwimble (among others) and one from someone named "Creole" who sent me a PM on January 3, 2005 titled "Who are you?" He wrote:

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My highest lvl character is named Creole, and my RL name is Ned. Stalking me?!!!!?

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2. Think about keeping or changing your existing forum handle!

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Question: Will we be able to use spaces in our names on the new forum? It appears to be a feature available here that has been enabled only on a "special case" basis (a few rednames) but is a standard feature of vBulletin. If I could have it so, I would prefer my forum name to be Creole Ned and not Creole_Ned.

Also, will post counts and titles remain unchanged?
Will we be allowed to use images?
Will there be a default character count per post? (If I recall, vBulletin defaults to a minimum character count of 5)
Will sigs (or images in sigs) still be permitted?

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Galaxy City (for lowbies)
Talos Island (for midrange characters)
Peregrine Island (for highbies)

Mercy Island (for lowbies)
Cap Au Diable (for midrange)
Granville (highbies)

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Actually, I would go with Sharkhead instead of Cap, as it is equivalent to Talos level-wise. Cap is equivalent to Steel and Skyway.

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I went for Cap over Sharkead because the building fits better in the Aeon City area (where it is currently) than, well, *anywhere* in Sharkhead, which is pretty much all industrial, no real commerce to speak of. The Cap one also has the advantage of having players in the same zone as both ferries, the university and black market.

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I'd rather there be too many AE buildings than too few.

(Though we really don't need 30 bazillion merit vendors. Goodness.)

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I'd rather there be an appropriate number, which is well within the developers' capabilities. Sometimes it feels like this game is drifting away from the game world being anything but a backdrop and stamping AE buildings all over the place (remember Croatoa?) is just another sign of that. Immersion*? Who cares!


* note I did not say "realism".

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I like them too, but they don't suit all characters. It will be great if I can get Darkspeed to have a black glow surrounding his hands for Hasten and a trail of shadows for superspeed. Similarly, my Bane Spider will look much better without any effect on Hasten at all.

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given their historic insistence that every power have a visual component, I doubt we'll be able to turn anything 'off'.

And I expect fairly stringent limitations on how inconspicuous we can make things.

Still, it'll be a lot of fun to mess around with.

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Possibly. Though they might well allow it, because the player is actively choosing to get no visual feedback from the power.

I'm also gonna take a guess and say that PoCu won't work in PvP zones or the Arena.

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My hunch is they will allow it to work in those zones but offer an on/off toggle for players to choose whether to enable the customization effects on other characters or something along those lines.

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QR

I'm very happy for all the proponents of power customization. I can't say it was ever high on my priority list, but then the devs exhausted my priority list when they announced Going Rogue.


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Same...

Here's your NEW priority.

New Maps. We need new maps on both sides of the game. (I think we need new zones and just can some that we already have that suck) BUT, none the less - We need NEW MAPS...

So, like... Prioritise that as something we need and advocate for it.

Kthnx

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Mission maps?

TBH, I really don't think we need new mission maps. We have plenty.

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I find this coming from a five year vet almost borderline insanity. :P

The basic maps in the game -- office, warehouse, sewer, cave, tech lab -- reveal themselves to the player in the first few levels of the game. From there it is an endless sea of repetition, with "variety" added through slight alterations of the map layouts that are quickly memorized (not to mention the static placement of the critters) with an occasional unique map thrown in and even then they are typically built off existing maps (the cool sewer/office transition to cave maps, the cave maps that transition to Rikti maps, etc.).

You have a standard for variety in maps that is WAY lower than mine or you just don't care about where your characters are fighting. Insane!

Yeah, it looks out of place. I think the devs should have put in enough AE buildings to cover (broad) level ranges and no more. The locations could have been chosen with a better sense of aesthetic, although War Witch was at least convinced to remove the one from Croatoa (!) before Issue 14 went live. But the fact that one was in Croatoa to begin with shows how ham-fisted the whole design was implemented.

If I had access to the wrecking ball, I'd do a little urban redesign with the AE buildings.

AE buildings would remain in:

Galaxy City (for lowbies)
Talos Island (for midrange characters)
Peregrine Island (for highbies)

Mercy Island (for lowbies)
Cap Au Diable (for midrange)
Granville (highbies)

Pocket D (co-op)

This doesn't thoroughly cover every level range but since people doing AE missions can get the rewards within the buildings there's no great inconvenience in, say, a level 30 character running missions in the Cap AE building. They may have to zone occasionally to buy new SOs (if they use SOs).

The Pocket D AE should be entire building on one of those floating Shadow Shard rocks, ala the ski chalet. Maybe put in on the other side of the Pocket D building. There would be a portal in Pocket D that would teleport you to it. NPC chatter there could comment on its "interesting" location.

The Granville AE would work best if it was put inside an Arachnos building to preserve the look of the zone. It would not have the groovy window technology as the floorplan would likely need to be sunk below ground level but would otherwise function the same.

Result: plenty of AE goodness for those that want it, better integration into existing zones and leaves Atlas Park free for more costume contests and inane broadcast chat!

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Grav troller/dom, using Propel, throwing a coffin.


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That is both awesome *and* convenient!

Crane Kick: I only have a few scrappers but on my MA (level 23) I will actually orchestrate fights so I can use crane kick to finish off the enemy -- hopefully by booting him off the edge of a building or handy cliff (this is a recurring theme, as you will see).

Power Thrust: most often used on my fire/energy blaster. There is something immensely satisfying about socking an enemy and catapulting it clear across the road...or off the edge of a building or handy cliff.

Telekinetic Thrust: Currently a low-damage attack (it's better in I15) used by my Mind/Psi dominator. The best way I can describe the power is "Talk to the hand. Oh, the hand says POW! You go flying off the edge of a building or handy cliff!" And the hand does this without ever needing to touch the enemy, it's just that good.

Tornado: My storm/energy defender's favorite way to finish off an enemy is to have a tornado juggle it helplessly in a corner as the damage ticks off down to zero. They always need to be softened up a bit first because tornado isn't exactly a high damage attack but that just makes it all the more satisfying when the enemy gets caught it in and doesn't get out alive.

Siphon Life: On my dark/dark brute, Siphon Life is a favorite just because it's fun to defeat enemies without ever hitting them. Just rip out their life force and watch 'em crumple over. My token "nothing goes flying" finishing move.

This thread deserves to be locked. The original post is worded in a deliberately provocative manner, to "stir the pot" as some have said. No useful discussion will come of this.

I admire Mod8's attempts to salvage it but it's really not worth it.

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It's also the model used by some of the bigger games, because while some of those do offer lifetime subscriptions, I know two of those limit them only to people that went from Beta to Launch or bought the Collector's edition, and put everyone else on a monthly subscription.

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In the case of LOTRO, the "Founders" plan allowed people to get the lifetime subscription for $200. Anyone can get it now for $300.

By way of anecdote, I don't know *anyone* who would pay $300 all at once to play an MMO, even if they knew they'd save money in the long run.

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Ah, that's a huge change from when I was actually playing it, then. My bad thar.

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Yep, it was changed at some point. I got in on one of the "sales" when it was $200.

And I still haven't played enough to cover it. :P

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It's also the model used by some of the bigger games, because while some of those do offer lifetime subscriptions, I know two of those limit them only to people that went from Beta to Launch or bought the Collector's edition, and put everyone else on a monthly subscription.

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In the case of LOTRO, the "Founders" plan allowed people to get the lifetime subscription for $200. Anyone can get it now for $300.

By way of anecdote, I don't know *anyone* who would pay $300 all at once to play an MMO, even if they knew they'd save money in the long run.

A lifetime sub is something most players won't commit to because it is a substantial cash outlay all at once. Offering it alongside the regular monthly billing options would probably work out fine for NCsoft (rather than cost them) but it appears they prefer keeping monthly subs and generating extra funds through things like booster packs, selling character slots, respecs and so on.

LOTRO's lifetime subs must be doing okay for them because they still offer them over two years after the game shipped and have even offered them occasionally at a reduced price (it's $300, sometimes reduced to $200). The trick to making the lifetime sub worthwhile for the company is to price it well beyond the average turnover rate. That is, if the average person plays for six months before quitting make the lifetime sub cost more than a six month subscription. At $300 you're looking at 20 months of play before benefiting from the lifetime pricing and I suspect that is *well* beyond the time the typical player invests in a game.

It can serve a niche. It would be a nice option to have, but it's probably unrealistic to expect it to be added to the game at this point.

They have usually done them once in the winter and once in the summer, so the next one should be coming up in the next few weeks or month. I would guess sometime shortly after I15 launches.

The new forum software has been carefully locked away inside the City Vault.

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OK, in all seriousness... I believe they ARE loaded.

Why? Because unlike an instance mission (which only has to scale for eight characters max AND can be 'kickstarted' on the instance server when the mission is accepted) the zones would take too bloody long to load for the first person entering them. Everything IN the zone has to be instanced, which would mean the server has to set aside the resources, run the AI code, et cetera. I'm fairly sure that all of that takes a bit of time to get going from null. Theoretically you could start it all while the client is loading... but the client has to be taking cues from the server, not the other way around, or someone could theoretically hack things by injecting their own code (say, to disable the fog in DA).

An instance that is in idle state probably doesn't take that much away from resources (there's not much 'happening') once everything is staged. But the staging itself would need to either A) already be taken care of or B) happen rather quickly.

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During a zone invasion all of the critters in a zone are removed and replaced by the invading critters. When the invasion ends, all of the zone critters are put back on the map, all of this happening in real time with players in the zone.

I wouldn't hold my breath!

Issue 15 cannot be launched on test due to the removal of 'Pressed the Red Button'.

Sorry!

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If you are playing the game in an environment where your system can be compromised, you probably shouldn't be playing the game there at all.

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So don't play the game unless you have a secure room to which only you have the key, and only you have access to the computer? Disallow installation on any laptop?

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No to both of these.

I was not sufficiently precise in my original statement so let me rephrase.

If you are playing the game in an environment where there is a reasonable chance that the security of the computer could be compromised, you probably should not play the game in that environment unless you can take reasonable precautions to insure that security will be maintained.

A common example is having a young child with active fingers and a curious mind. You shouldn't leave your computer unattended with the child in the room because the kid doesn't know the damage he or she can potentially wreak with a couple of errant keystrokes or mouse clicks. The solution to this can vary, depending on preference or circumstance. You could take the child with you when you leave the room or if that's not realistic ("mommy has to go potty"), hit CTRL-ALT-DEL to invoke the Task Manager and lock the system until you get back, something which only takes a few moments.

What I'm really saying though is that the responsibility for what happens to your game and your characters is yours, that's all. How far one wants to go in keeping his or her system and game secure is up to the individual.

I would be fine with having an instant logout option and having the option default to OFF or as I mentioned earlier, compromising so it is only 15 seconds long.

I understand that many are satisfied with the status quo and that's fine. I can't say I'm particularly invested in the debate one way or the other.

The "security issue" reasoning has always seemed somewhat weak to me since other MMOs allow immediate logout to character selection and have not suffered security issues as a result. If you are playing the game in an environment where your system can be compromised, you probably shouldn't be playing the game there at all.

To me, it just feels like a "forgotten feature". But if the security issue gets trotted out by a dev, I'd settle for a compromise that made the logout take only 15 seconds instead of 30.

The devs will be too engorged to do anything. This will lead to Going Rogue being canceled and the game itself slowly winding down to an eventual demise, all because the devs will have become overstuffed and incapacitated by a generous group of fans.

For the sake of the game and its future...DO NOT FEED THE DEVS.

Clown masterminds personally designed by Positron.

Keep in mind that a number of the RMT accounts are also created using stolen credit card info, so the cost to them is very low.

Considering this thread was started seven months (and two community managers) ago, I wouldn't hold my breath for an update.

They may have diverted the unicorns to finishing the City Vault first.

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What is this Orange thing everyone is going on about? I see nothing in the announcment that has the word orange in it. There's orange text in the forum post but that's about it...

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Haven't seen a response to this. Was it an easter egg they pulled after a while? Nothing in the forum post or the main site post says orange, anywhere.

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For some reason the announcement had the word "orange" appended to a number of words. It's since been fixed and was probably due to some sloppy HTML formatting.

Of such strange things rumors are made....