Defenestrator

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Enhanced Difficulty Options - Players can now fine-tune their difficulty levels by telling the game exactly how they want to be treated. They can choose to be regarded as a specific size team (even if they are soloing), and even have control over the level they are detected to be when it comes to the dynamic spawn system. So if you ever wanted to see if your Scrapper could take on a map that is populated for an 8 person team, four levels higher than your own, now you can! The difficulty settings of the mission owner dictate how the mission is handled, just as before, and you can change your difficulty settings at any Hero Corp.'s Representative in Paragon City or Fateweaver in the Rogue Isles.

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DO NOT CHANGE THIS I WILL RESUB FOR LIFE. 3 accounts.
Seriously. I LOVE THIS.

I WILL NEVER ASK PEOPLE TO FILL EVER EVER AGAIN.

PI will be the Nicest place for all you people who want to team up, you wont see SPAM. THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER.

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Those are exactly my sentimonies.

/sentimonies is a perfectly cromulent word

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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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I've subscribed to games that had people set up as these "mouthpieces" and it usually was a disaster for the fans. The mouthpieces were just as capable as putting their foot in their mouth just as much as a developer could, only it would generally cause even more problems for the company.

Star Wars Galaxies and EverQuest both had notably horrible community relations at various points. If the developers had come in and said, "Look, this is the way it is. Sorry," then there still probably would have been SOME negativity (it is, after all, a MMO), but it would have been better than being spoonfed the lies and halftruths followed by the backpedaling and contempt.

If you've not seen that Blood Bowl is currently available for the PC, you should check it out.

What's Blood Bowl? It's a combination of American football, rugby, the Warhammer Fantasy world, and tons of violence.

For those interested:

I've got a private league set up on the Blood Bowl servers.

Name: CoX Forum
Password: Victory

Anyone is welcome to join but keep in mind I won't be able to approve any applications until I get home from work this evening.

I'm not sure how the whole competition part of the league works, but it will be fun to find out.

1) Please enter with a new team.

2) No exploits.

3) Play nice.*

4) Please post your team name and Blood Bowl screen name so we know who you are.



SCREEN NAME: Dog Welder
TEAM: Tzeentch Firestorm


*"Nice" is a relative term in a game like "Blood Bowl" but I would hope every knows what I mean.

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Around these parts, chili is a ground meat and tomato based topping for spaghetti. Pinto style beans are an optional topping, as are diced onions and shredded Cheddar cheese.

The chili itself is seasoned with seasonings that include a healthy dose of paprika and smaller amounts of cinnamon, cumin, and powdered cloves as well as ground chili peppers.

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You must be from Cincinnati... because what you are describing sounds exactly like the Cincinnati style chili we used to make at World Class in Seattle.

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That's totally Cincinnati style. Just had me some Skyline for lunch.

oh...and the shredded cheddar isn't really all that optional. Mounds of it are pretty much mandatory.

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I would describe Victory as the "NO BS, we don't care if you are gay, straight, white, black, yellow, green, whatever...Play well, have fun. make friends, give each other grief for N00b mistakes, play the effing game and quit yer whining server."

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I vote for this.

Apart from Inglourious Basterds, I don't think there's anything I'm looking forward to yet this year.

There's a few movies that look interesting, but I'll wait until they hit DVD: Public Enemies, Blood: The Last Vampire, Sherlock Holmes and The Road.

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At heart, all of you agree with me. A one time fee would be far better. You may be ridiculing it, there's nothing wrong with the idea. The continuous fee is more ridiculous than the idea to replace it with a one-time fee.

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$15 a month is dirt cheap entertainment. Going to see a movie can cost $10 or more for just 2 hours worth of entertainment. MMOs are $15 for unlimited access.

If it were a pay once and that's it deal, there wouldn't be free content like we have now. A lot of the recent Issues have had game changing features / QoL changes.

I have no problem at all with the monthly fee setup we currently have.

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Another thing to note is I spend WAY less on buying new games because of my involvements with MMOs. A game getting me to drop $60 nowadays has to be pretty good.

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Here's a great movie to check out.

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It's no "Mansquito."

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Jack Emmert got me off cocaine and got my cat down from a big oak tree. He is my personal hero and good friend.

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But on the other hand, he kicked my dog and shoved me down in the mud. What do you think of him NOW?

/maybe I had it coming...

At launch, CoH brought some very good innovations to the MMO market, with the sidekick system being one of them. I remember during the beta that there were other things that impressed me as well, that helped streamline the game. They further advanced this with CoV.

Was Jack always right? No. Did he handle everything with player base well? No.

But this game deserves some props for altering the MMO genre of games, and Jack was a large part of that.

With a decent mix, I've been on a team that downed the King with 3 people left on the TF. If you use the temp. power you get, it's definitely doable. (And you don't have to fight the GM ambush.)

Whether I was getting XP or not, I wouldn't slog through all but the final mission just to quit just because "I'm not getting any XP." I'd want my shiny merits for the extra 15 minutes of effort.

Neighbor's unleashed jerkface dog attacked the other neighbor's kid. Keep in mind that I love animals, but after calling the police and ambulance, the dog kept circling around the kid and his father (who was trying to stay between the dog and his son). Was REALLY close to going out and shooting the dog (grabbed a baseball bat instead of the gun). Basically, these neighbors would let their not-so-friendly dog roam the neighborhood and it frequently wandered into MY yard growling and barking at me.

(Police arrested the neighbor and took the dog due to this incident. Neighbors moved not too long after and I'm glad that mutt is gone.)

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My thought was more "how is ignoring warnings considered a vindication for doing something dumb?"

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there's a difference between glazing over the safety bit in an owner's manual and sticking your tongue into woodchipper after being told it will do terrible things to your face

i'm of the opinion that this falls into the former category since every warning was either out of the way or accompanied by other text that no one really wanted to read

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Ignorance of the law is not a legal excuse for breaking the law.

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I get a kick out of the stunningly willful suspension of common sense exhibited by many of the recent posters in these threads too.

For example, how ridiculous is someone saying 'they left it in the game and I may have abused it but its their fault!'.

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Sorry, officer. I guess my reckless driving was caused by my cooking of this bald eagle on my dashboard Hibachi while talking on my cell phone and snorting cocaine off this dead prostitute's stomach. Is there a problem?

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On another note, Bad, I've noticed an increase in highly annoying people in the game... especially joining TFs and AEs. I dont know why... but I've been playing for almost 3 months and never encountered such craziness. Its saddening sometimes.

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It's due to rampant PLing of new players in MA. They don't know how to play their characters.

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This is pretty much identical to the post-Winter Lord era. It too shall pass.

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...right before faceplanting. Repeatedly.

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I hope this isn't how we are suppose to judge the skill of our fellow players. Otherwise, I'm in deep [censored].

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No. Only if you declare you are the GREATEST PLAYER EVAR right before faceplanting over and over and over and over again on the same group of MOBs.

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My thought was more "how is ignoring warnings considered a vindication for doing something dumb?"

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there's a difference between glazing over the safety bit in an owner's manual and sticking your tongue into woodchipper after being told it will do terrible things to your face

i'm of the opinion that this falls into the former category since every warning was either out of the way or accompanied by other text that no one really wanted to read

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Ignorance of the law is not a legal excuse for breaking the law.

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Used to be that if someone was a level 50, you could count on a certain level of skill and teamwork, because they had worked hard through all the zones

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When was this mystical time? I've got my 60 month badge and I don't ever recall this era of the game.

Achieving level 50 is merely a product of time, not skill. If you play the game enough, no matter how bad you are at it, you will eventually hit 50.

I still fondly recall the players with their brand new Peacebringers and Warshades proudly declaring, "I have three level 50s! I know what I'm doing!" right before faceplanting. Repeatedly. Then calling the entire team a "bunch of noobs" and quitting.

Got mine at the end of April.

GET OFF MAH LAWN!

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Yes but the information was there, it is their own fault if they couldn't be bothered to read it.

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it doesn't matter if they read it or not.

Post all the "don't eat people" signs you want on the Savannah, lions will still do it- that's their nature.


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Also, lions can't read.

Today's Nature Fact brought to you by: Defenestrator

I'm not sure how many runs it's had since I haven't been able to play this week, but the arc in my signature is 5 missions and deals with the Praetorians. Lots of AV/EB class mobs, but I think I provided enough help so a solo player won't get totally pummeled. (And hopefully not too much to make it a cakewalk.)

To throw in the hook...I've got the cusstomized Praetorian versions of the Arachnos villains (who are, in fact, heroes trying to save and protect Upsilon Beta 9-6) in this. I always wondered why there wasn't some sort of "good" Praetorian arc in CoV.

It's also best understood if you know the story arc "A Hero's Hero" from Peregrine Island (the one where you fight Tyrant).

Voo,

I'm pretty much agreeing with you. Defeat Alls tend to be lame. I thought about putting one in on my arc, but decided against it.

Also, any hostages on big maps I use the "Captive: Energy Barrier" (or whatever it's called) animation so it really stands out at a distance. There's also a magical equivalent.

And since I hate glowy hunts, I've used those sparingly. (And will continue to use them sparingly.)

You can set up a Battle in the missions and use bosses of two different groups. Just set both factions to "enemy."

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Sorry Pilgrim, I disagree. If on a team, the map scales/changes completely as well as the number of mobs to defeat. If you want to make your objective "easy", you specify X number of objectives. "Everything" isn't a number.


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Nope. If you specify which map to use, it will not change.

There are some maps that are good for defeat alls (i.e. linear warehouses, linear tech maps, the Bobcat map even though it's a bit big). There are some maps that are horrible for defeat alls (almost anything in Oranbega, the Dreck map, the five tier cake room).

Despite what I've said, I don't mind defeat alls if the map is easy to navigate and there's a reason for it. I hate playing hide and seek with that last MOB that was hidden behind something somewhere at some time.

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I'm sure there is a thematic reason for "defeat alls" that wouldn't be so bad. After all, everyone knows if you leave just one zombie/vampire/werewolf/infected around you're just asking for trouble.

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For vampires and werewolves, don't you just have to kill the head vampire or werewolf? That's how it works in the horror movies.

Zombies are a whole other issue, though.

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"Find 60 glowies", or "rescue 27 escorts" are defacto defeat alls IMHO. Sure you might be able to skip a few groups here and there, but in practice you're going to be fighting most of the mobs on the map.

I'm more worried about the "find lots of glowies on this huge Orenbenga map", because those are the ones that will find a new clever hiding spot for one of them and I'll spend 10 minutes combing the map from back to front looking for the stupid thing.

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Yep. I hate those missions when they come up in the regular game. I certainly have the right to hate them in the MA arcs.

And I certainly won't be writing a story arc that I hate just to try to annoy people.