Darkonne
-
Posts
295 -
Joined
-
Quote:And why not? If it's acceptable that fans of costumes and Enhancements must buy endless boosters, then why is gating badges behind the same mechanic beyond the pale?Originally Posted by Zwillinger
Absolutely, no way, nein, not going to happen, no no no.
-D -
Quote:Most stories aren't allegedly about the dramatic shock death of one of the main NPCs.Originally Posted by Zombie Man
For those who think knowing Statesman will die ruins the story telling, may I ask you:
Does knowing that in every other case Statesman (and any other hero, including yourself in the CoH Universe) is going to live ruin the story for you? We all know with 99.99999% certainty that the hero of a series lives. Does such cases of knowing that the hero doesn't die *ruin* the story for you?
Ordinarily, every time the hero is threatened with death... we know it ain't gonna happen. That's a story spoiler for you, then, right?
-D -
Quote:He did ask for another way to get the costumes. The devs could sell the costumes directly for roughly the cost of the number of packs it would take get the costume randomly. That would still satisfy their mercantile needs, without requiring an unbounded amount of money from the people stuck on the tail end of the bell curve. (Okay, technically, you can still spend an unlimited aount, but at least the option to buy it is there.)Originally Posted by Void_Huntress
This is the thing that perplexes me, and it reminds me of some of the pre-Freedom conversations...
Some folks were saying that they absolutely would not maintain a subscription unless <insert perceived critical feature here> was available to non-subscribers. Making it so they wouldn't need a subscription to get the critical feature they wanted. So.. where's the incentive for them to subscribe, again?
I'm not really seeing how this makes sense. "I will choose not to be a customer unless you make it so that I can choose not to be a customer and still get the stuff."
Obviously, that would force people to notice how high the price for these costume pieces actually is, but I only see that as a short term problem. My fear is that the devs aren't thinking about the long term implications.
-D -
Quote:Welcome back, AC! You're just in time for the massive Stalker changes they have planned.Originally Posted by Angry_Citizen
Anyone miss me? ... Or remember me? Been gone a while
-D -
Quote:After getting curb stomped by the Crystal Titan/Avatar tag team tonight, I'm really wondering what the devs were thinking when they drew up the list of nightmares.Originally Posted by MisterD
As cool as the random Nightmare AVs are...I really dont like the vast vast inbalances in their power levels. Have been on runs that got AVs like..deathsurge, eochai, adamastor..ones who are laughable. Then you get Crystal Titan with unresitable damage (might be fixed, dont know), Avatar of Hami who uses that mile radius aoe and just one shots everyone..Rudulaak the Strong, with his thunderstrike type that does 5000 damage to melees..
Really like the random idea, it is very cool and fun..but when the difficulty of that phase basically boils down to whatever the RNG rolls up for the team..poor show.
-D -
I tried this a few times in Beta, but I only completed it this week; I think I was actually in one of Winterminal's runs, actually!
Personally, I hated the Trial. Like the Keyes Trial, it's not that difficult if the league understands what to do. I suspect level shifts matter a lot, but otherwise the brute force approach is quite viable.
Unfortunately, also like Keyes, TPN is mind numbingly repetitive with far too many extraneous bells and whistles attached. There's no clear narrative, and there's never a pause to study what little there is. In truth, TPN manages to outdo Keyes by giving us the lamest enemy yet (seriously, Maelstrom?!?) and by being entirely pointless even if you complete it.
I have no interest in running TPN again.
-D -
Quote:Originally Posted by Zwillinger
In the interest of making this information more readily available (the other thread , while a great conversation, is nearing 1300 posts), I'm going to summarize some details we've shared since the Pummit regarding Super Packs, as well as let you in on the results of our continuing internal discussions.
First to recap:- The price for Super Packs has been set at 80 Paragon Points Each. There will be a discount for buying in bulk, ala a box of packs, which is TBD.
- We are still discussing/considering concerns expressed regarding the exclusivity of costume pieces. We're open to the idea of making them available through an alternate method in the Paragon Market, however a decision has not been made regarding this particular topic.
- ATOs (Archetype Enhancements) will be purchasable from the Reward Merit Vendor, for a combination of Reward Merits and Inf, and from Astral Christy, for a combination of Astral Merits and Inf. There will be a cooldown timer on the purchase of these items. The amount of Inf and duration of the cooldown are still being discussed and will be evaluated once all of this hits beta. This is in addition to their availability in Super Packs.
- Enhancement Catalysts will be added to the game as rare drops from enemies defeated during Incarnate Trials and in the upcoming newly Incarnated Dark Astoria. Like ATOs, this is in addition to their availability through Super Packs.
Thanks for the news, Zwil. This is certainly a substantial improvement. I'd still prefer to eliminate the lottery entirely, but (assuming you do something like what Samuel_Tow suggested and grant independent access to the costumes as well) this is probably the next best option.
That said, I'm still extremely opposed to selling enhancements exclusively for real world money, and it looks like the Store Bought quasi-IOs aren't getting the Merit treatment. I also take a very dim view of any lottery that won't actually publish the odds of winning. So while I'm very appreciative of the changes you've made here, this system is still a net negative for me. Sorry.
-D -
Blech, why must I get stuck with a gold name?
Feel free to dawdle rescheduling the upgrade.
-D -
Quote:Synapse, thanks for sharing your thoughts, but if I understand Arcanaville's question, she wanted to know what your expectations for Stalkers are after this change. I'm all in favor of "giving us what we want," but speaking as one of us, I have no idea what that is. Could you explain what your impression of the community's ideal Stalker is?Originally Posted by Synapse
That would definitely be helpful. CoH has changed hands a lot over the years and design philosophies change as designers change. A lot of the design decisions were made by those long before my time and quite possibly even before Castle's time as well. So, we have to dig through ancient dusty documents and when none are to be found we are left to make educated guesses.
My personal philosophy is to give you guys what you want provided the following is true:
1) We have time.
2) The request is reasonable.
3) There's good data to support the necessity of making such a change.
4) The change won't negatively impact game balance.
5) The change doesn't cause a bunch of other smaller problems.
Naturally there's a bunch of other factors, but those are the big ones.
To put it another way, what do you think a Stalker should bring to the table that a Scrapper, Brute or Tanker would not? And on a similar note, what should Stalkers be lacking relative to the other melee ATs?
-D -
To quote myself from the other thread:
Quote:If you want to add the random booster in addition to selling the costumes/IOs/whatever directly in the store, that's fine. But I don't want to rely on hiding the cost of the game in a shiny slot machine.Originally Posted by Darkonne
Okay. My suggestion would be to increase the cost of items in the store and VIP subscriptions to a level that can actually sustain the game.
That's the point behind the superpack lottery, so let's just cut to the chase.
-D -
Thanks for the info! I'll have to try this on my character that's chronically suffering from this.
-D -
Quote:I'm fully in support of this suggestion. Please, please listen to it. It honestly boggles my mind that these pre-tinted costume bits keep getting made.Originally Posted by Zombie Man
Listen, I understand the artists have a vision for a set for which pre-tinting gives an artsy effect that looks really good by itself. It really does look really good... by itself. But that same artsy effect is keeping pieces from one set work well with other sets. And that's a really really bad thing. Very few player costumes are all from the same set. We mix-and-match. Besides you wouldn't want us to have costumes made from one set because then all the players would look alike.
If you're going to continue to give us pre-tinted pieces, then at least also provide a second skin to these pieces that isn't pre-tinted so we can properly repurpose them for the costumes that we actually make in game and not for a theoretical set which is hardly ever made.
-D
EDIT: Oh, and while we're at it, can we please get the pre-Ultra Mode metallic costume parts put back into the game as well? I'd like to be able to modify my old costumes again. -
Ugh. I spent an hour trying to rename one of my custom bosses because including the word "Warlord" was beyond the pale.
I really want to like the MA system, but it sure seems like the devs don't.
-D -
(Blast it, where'd I put that list switch? Ah!)
Good news everyone! Despite years of neglect, Aeon's Nemesis is up and running once again. Behold the changes that make up version 21.0.0:
* Dust Bunny custom group evicted! The arc is once again playable! Hooray!
* Warlord, the 8th Dirty word! Even the Techticians must fear the profanity filter. The newly renamed Hauberk Power Suits will protect the tender sensibilities of the children.
* Villains are so 2009! The arc's suggested alignment has been switched from Villainous to Rogue, to better reflect the lack of kicked puppies and maimed orphans.
* Mystery changes! The ambush pattern in the thrilling climax has been altered to heighten the drama and improve playability. How could it possibly get better you ask? You'll just have to see for yourself!
So those of you looking for a little Architect fun, come on down and play Aeon's Nemesis before the next patch breaks everything all over again. :-(
-D -
Quote:It's also not how the actual Furies worked. Orestes was able to escape their vengeance by convincing Athena that slaying his own mother was "just" (another victory for misogyny!). After that, the Furies left him alone.Originally Posted by Agent White
Right but it doesn't make for interesting narrative or an interesting antagonist force. The Talons are kind of interesting in their style with the naga-esque thing but that their whole explanation is just 'someone pissed them off, but it doesn't matter who because they just kill everyone' is pretty mediocre as far as villain groups go. It turns them to just a generic 'grr' evil and we see them for such a short time they have no real impact on anything. They come out of nowhere, we're told how dangerous and scary they are, we see some people fall to their influence, and we stop them. We could have replaced them with any magically oriented group and it really would not have changed anything about the story. They just have no effectiveness except this brief whirlwind that we take down.
I don't see the point of tying the Talons to the legend of the Furies if they're going to ignore the very thing that defines the Furies in the first place. But either way, the treatment of the Talons in the FW arcs is shockingly laid back for what is supposed to be an apocalypse-level threat.
-D -
Wow. After finally finishing the FW arcs, I have to say that however well they started, the ending is absolutely horrible. Just like in Twinshot's arcs, the story is abandoned in the final act for a set of pointless action movie set pieces.
By now I expect the poor play balance and wall-to-wall ambushes, but somehow the stories keep getting worse. With all the resources thrown at these arcs, how can the writing be this bad?
-D -
Quote:Yes. That was the problem.Originally Posted by Mr. DJ
Did you finish Twinshot's final arc?
-D -
Warning: Spoilers in my reply!
Quote:Not really. We're told that he's been mind controlled by the Praetorians, but we never learn what he was tricked into doing, or why they bothered with this plot in the first place. For that matter, we never really learn who the hell the Praetorians are in this arc.Originally Posted by Arilou
Uh yes. We are. I'm not going to say more due to spoilers, but they really pretty much state outright what's going on with Proton.
The ending to the story is a complete non sequitur. I was expecting much better.
-D -
Quote:It's not a matter of not "liking" the explanations, the problem is that they're more like assertions. We're told that Proton has a reason for being the way he is... but we're never told why or how. For that matter, it's never made clear exactly what "the way he is" even is.Originally Posted by Arilou
Dillo and Grym remain as they are Proton... is the way he is for a reason.
I wouldn't say it's "better" neccessarily as much as "things get explained". You might not like the explanations, but you've only got 1/3 of the story right now.
Very, very disappointing. But I'll have to reserve my antifandom for Graves' set of arcs. Those were just straight up terrible.
-D -
Some very nice artwork, but I have no respect for the "gratuitous shock death" mentality. That cliche is now and always had been a terrible idea, and one that reeks of desperation.
Beyond that, though, I don't see why a non-player would care that you're killing off a character they've never heard of. If that really was a goal, I'd strongly advise you guys to come up with a better hook for your next big advertising blitz.
-D -
Quote:You can only get the rewards once/week, regardless of which side you run them on. No love for rogues/vigilantes. :-(Originally Posted by Benchpresser
You know, it occurred to me- this may be the Devs first (albiet sly) way of giving out a solo Incarnate path)- If you are a Rogue or a Vigilante you can do both the hero and villain side. That means 20 Incarnate threads, actually 30 a week, once each side then 1 more for the timer. Times that by 7 parts and by the time the SSA is finish you'd have 210 threads, not bad in 1 week solo. Not great but it's a start.
I agree that the devs are trying to use this as a solo incarnate path. I suppose any solo path is preferable to no path, but I'd much prefer if they added incarnate rewards to all aspects of the game. That way we wouldn't have to choose between doing the content we wanted and advancing our characters.
Sadly, I don't see that happening any time soon.
-D -
Quote:I used to bug all the typos and grammar mistakes I noticed, even though none of them ever seemed to be fixed. But since GR, recent content has had so many errors that I've given up trying to point them out.Originally Posted by Selina_H
I /bugged every typo, misspelling, grammatical error and awkward construction I found during the Going Rogue beta. It ended up being several dozen, and I didn't even do all of the story arcs. None of them was fixed by the time GR hit Live. I think they're still there.
I really do wish they would do a better job of proofreading. It's hardly the end of the world, but the constant mistakes really undercut the professional sheen of the game.
-D -
FoW has been screwy for me, too.
Just after I21 launched, it was pretty erratic; some of my characters lost some of their maps, but Revealing them would usually solve the problem for that map. More recently, it seems like all my characters have had all their maps re-fogged, and anything I do to reveal them (either exploration or Reveal) lasts only as long as that character is logged in.
I have to say, it's getting really annoying at this point, especially when I need to visit hazard zones.
-D -
Quote:This is true, but it also removes the ability for Incarnate slots to help differentiate our characters. If we're all supposed to have a toolbox of Incarnate powers, then we're all basically interchangeable. I hate the way End Game Raid Gear works in other games for exactly that reason, and it's an aspect of modern MMOs I'd rather not repeat here.Originally Posted by Grouchybeast
The difference with CoX, though, is that anyone can create and slot Clarion. I think it's one of the cool things about the Incarnate system, actually -- while on the one hand, the trials set up situations that move away from simple tanking and punching, on the other hand we're being given swappable powers that let any combination of ATs tune themselves to fit the task in hand. It allows the challenges to be more mechanically varied, without locking out particular ATs.
I disagree. Tier 3 Destinies provide the all important +1 Incarnate shift. Swapping out for a Tier 1 Clarion has too high an opportunity cost once you've committed already raised a different type.Quote:Originally Posted by Arilou
It's relatively simple to get the basic clarion, and that's really all you need.
-D -
Quote:Originally Posted by Arcanaville
No rule is absolute, and I don't object unilaterally to retcons. But I expect that they are always done with steely eyed seriousness, the same steely eyed seriousness with which the cottage rule is adhered to. And if its not, then I ask you to look at the writing staff, and look at the powers staff, and explain how the decision is made that one of these groups of people deserves to have their creative vision freed from the shackles of past restraint, and the other one doesn't. And then look at we the players, and ask the same question.Thank, Arcanaville! You saved me a lot of time trying to express pretty much those thoughts.Quote:Originally Posted by Arcanaville
But then Positron goes farther in his blog, expanding on the *reasons* for his position, and his foundational reasons for that position don't stop there, they go all the way to stating that good story should trump canon: that canon should not "stifle" writers.
That's where I disagree with Positron. That's what canon is *supposed* to do: its *supposed* to stifle writers so they don't go flying off and writing whatever they want. If you don't want to stifle writers, you don't have continuity, you have an anthology.
-D