Doc_Scorpion

Any words yet on the Seattle/PAX meetup? I'm not going be to attending PAX, but I'll certainly cross the water for a meetup.

A very poor guide.

There is no reason that the Safeguard/Mayhem cannot be soloed at level 5 except with the most inexperienced of players.

I'd post it in the Corruptor forums for comments and general nitpicking, then once it's whipped into shape - post it here.

[ QUOTE ]
Use this thread to discuss Positron's announcement of the coming Double XP weekend.

[/ QUOTE ]

<sigh> I have precisely *one* entirely free weekend in June - and that weekend isn't it.

I have a party to go to that Sat - that will run from early afternoon till late. And I _never_ miss this party. (Not once in 19 years.) Partly because it's a major social thing for a club I'm in, and mostly because I met my wife because I attended the first of them. (She wasn't there, but events that followed from the party lead me to meet her.)

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I helps if you actually know how things work rather than simply blindly lashing out.

Scrapyard isn't broken - he is being nailed by the 'kill field' that surrounds the Black Market.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ahhh, so to post at all is to "blindly lash out." I see. Useful info. *sardonic rotation of eyes heavenward*

[/ QUOTE ]

No, to post incorrectly is to blindly lash out.

[ QUOTE ]
It might help to have all the facts before you render such august judgment: in this case, we were nowhere near the black market when Scrapyard up and died on us, not to mention the fight was progressing in a vertical fashion: he was running up and down the same set of stairs near the ferry, not running pell-mell through Sharkhead.

[/ QUOTE ]

You specified the grain silo's "near the ferry". The only grain silo's that can reasonably be called near the ferry are in fact directly adjacent to the BM.

[ QUOTE ]
Waste time working on this GM at your peril. He is nowhere near fixed and you stand a vastly greater chance of not getting the badge.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yah. That's why last week I fought on teams that nailed him successfully about five times, and not once did he suddenly up and die.

[ QUOTE ]
.... just wait'll you are on a Scrapyard team and after much trouble, you get him down to 1/3 health and then..... he suddenly just keels over on you. He's not droned. Last night this happened on top of a grain-silo? near the ferry. There were no drones around; we were 50 ft off the ground.

No one on the team gets the badge. They've got a bunch of debt, but no badge.

THis has happened to me 3 times on two different alts, I am officially on strike against hunting this guy until he is fixed. Right now there is ZERO incentive to hunt him.

[/ QUOTE ]

I helps if you actually know how things work rather than simply blindly lashing out.

Scrapyard isn't broken - he is being nailed by the 'kill field' that surrounds the Black Market.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
crap crap crap......they just keep on showing they really don't give a crap about us.

[/ QUOTE ]I'd like to contend that they do. The makers of this game and the community coordinators have been working on multiple projects, including the City Scoop and the PvPEC.

[/ QUOTE ]

OK, so they've added two things - one for a minority (PvPEC) and which has players doing 90% of the work, and one where the players do 90% of the work (City Scoop).

Meanwhile they've _dropped_ a much longer list of things that they did for the community.

[ QUOTE ]
There are several projects in the works, and there always will be.

Just recently (as in earlier this week), we were asked about what we, the fanbase, would like to see next in the game. The options we were given were taken from across the message boards, which they read constantly.

There is an entire thread based on giving us what costumes we want, and the Suggestions section is a constant source of inspiration to the makers of this game.

[/ QUOTE ]

They were doing those thing before they started dropping things _they_ provided to community.

[ QUOTE ]
The inner workings of this company, such as any company, are too complex to judge solely on what we see on the outside.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nonsense. What we see on the outside is what the company delivers, it's what you judge a company on by definition. When what they are providing is dropping - the conclusion is obvious.

[ QUOTE ]
The comic has had a great run. It has always served as an ambassador for the game; showing comic readers the potential that can be found in City of Heroes or City of Villains to set their imagination free! However, when we evaluate the production and distribution of the Comic, our current feeling is that the needed time and energy can be more wisely spent and net a more direct impact to the game. This includes things such as organizing more player meet and greets, additional in-game events, focusing on great in-game content like the recently released 9th free expansion, Issue 9: Breakthrough, more contests and promotions such as the Comic Book Creator Contest and more support of quality player initiatives like the PvPEC and City Scoop.

[/ QUOTE ]

In other words; "we are giving up essentially the only marketing tool for reaching new audiences we have in favor of turning inward".

This isn't a positive development.

[ QUOTE ]
All Google engineers are encouraged to spend 20% of their work time (one day per week) on projects that interest them. Some of Google's newer services, such as Gmail, Google News, Orkut, and AdSense originated from these independent endeavors.

In a talk at Stanford University, Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products and user experience, stated that her analysis showed that half of new product launches originated from 20% time."

Adsense is one of their major revenue sources.
Gmail revolutionized webmail.
Google News is causing seizemic changes in the news industry.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually - your quotes prove my point exactly. (Remember my point isn't just sucess - but the quality of the tools.) Precisely one of those tools has had major sucess (AdSense), and it's quality is acceptable. (It's so simple it would be hard to be otherwise, though its webmaster UI really needs some tweaking .) Gmail is feature-lite and a distant third in the market. Google News is causing seismic changes? Hardly. Most people aren't even aware it exists. It works decently enough - but there have been multiple accusations of bias leveled against it.

Now, if you look at the remainder of their launches - you see precisely what I noted in my original post. Most are feature-lite, tend to use 'unique' user interfaces, and get fixed/upgraded at great intervals if at all. Google got lucky with AdSense - they hit the jackpot. With Gmail they got five free tickets. Orkut is a ticket with four of the five numbers needed to win.

[ QUOTE ]
Pretty gigantic dividends for a tiny corporate investment.

[/ QUOTE ]

Gigantic dividends from precisely *one* product - and a vast 'meh' from most of the world on the rest. (And 10% of an employees salary and overhead is hardly tiny.)

I'm quite aware of the theory Arcanaville, and indeed, that's all it is - a theory and a gamble. (One I'd make if I ran a business sufficiently awash in cash.)

What I am challenging is the OP's assumption that the 10% program has produced significant and useful tools.

Yes, it probably attracts some talent. However it's but one of the many perks (real and virtual) of working at Google. I suspect it's a dealmaker for relatively few, if any at all.

Their sucess at (and quality of) products that have made it to market (even in Beta) is spotty at best. (And we don't really know how many are a result of the 10%, all of the ones that are the result of the 10%, or how many of the 10% get rolled invisibly into existing products.) The quality of those products is equally spotty - and Google is slow to upgrade/repair them.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Perhaps Cryptic should impliments a 10% "own project" time like Google, where their art/code/numbers people get 10% of their paid time to devote to any feature they like.

[/ QUOTE ]

It hasn't worked out real well for Google - it has (mostly) produced a bunch of poor-to-middling applications that will be fixed and finished at some uncertain future date.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, it's worked out just terribly for them. Would that CoH enjoyed the same level of failure as Google.

[/ QUOTE ]

I see - you assume that somehow the 10% program is a significant contributor to that sucess. Care to back up that assumption with facts?

[/ QUOTE ]

Nah, too OT,

[/ QUOTE ]

In other words, you are willing to challenge my conclusions - but you aren't willing to back that challenge up with facts.


[ QUOTE ]
and anyway given Google's success I think the burden of proof really falls on a person disagreeing with their business/engineering/project decisions.

[/ QUOTE ]

Had I challenged their business/engineering/project decisions, you'd have a point. Instead, what you have is a smokescreen to divert attention from your inabilty or unwillingness to bring facts to the table.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Just ask the UO people about how that works. They used "Freely submitted" code and then got sued for it and lost.

[/ QUOTE ]

Cite?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think he's referring to the UO "volunteer" program. It wasn't code-based, but volunteer guides. A few years ago, there was a dept. of labor review that examined "volunteer programs" and employment law.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm familiar with that one - and it didn't sound like what he was referring to, so I didn't know if he was confused or (unlikely) there was a suit this long time UO player hadn't heard of.

I wasn't a UO Seer, but I was an AOL moderator back then - and it was indeed ugly the way AOL and the more senior moderators treated us.

[ QUOTE ]
Just ask the UO people about how that works. They used "Freely submitted" code and then got sued for it and lost.

[/ QUOTE ]

Cite?

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Perhaps Cryptic should impliments a 10% "own project" time like Google, where their art/code/numbers people get 10% of their paid time to devote to any feature they like.

[/ QUOTE ]

It hasn't worked out real well for Google - it has (mostly) produced a bunch of poor-to-middling applications that will be fixed and finished at some uncertain future date.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, it's worked out just terribly for them. Would that CoH enjoyed the same level of failure as Google.

[/ QUOTE ]

I see - you assume that somehow the 10% program is a significant contributor to that sucess. Care to back up that assumption with facts?

[ QUOTE ]
Perhaps Cryptic should impliments a 10% "own project" time like Google, where their art/code/numbers people get 10% of their paid time to devote to any feature they like.

[/ QUOTE ]

It hasn't worked out real well for Google - it has (mostly) produced a bunch of poor-to-middling applications that will be fixed and finished at some uncertain future date.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You are certainly entitled to post your opinions. Equally we are entitled to point and laugh when you post arrant nonsense simply because you can.

[/ QUOTE ]
That's 'errant'. >_>

[/ QUOTE ]

WRONG.

[ QUOTE ]
I realize of course that my statements are just my opinion, and Positron is certainly in a better position to know just how manpower intensive a project would be than I am. That combined with my low post count and my lack of a level 50 character will certainly lead a number of people to discount my posts no matter how sensible they are.

[/ QUOTE ]

No - it's being discounted because you had the gall to tell Statesman (who does this for a living, unlike you) that he was wrong.

[ QUOTE ]
It is my belief that the forum is here for all of us to state our opinions, not for all of us to simply agree with yours.

[/ QUOTE ]

You are certainly entitled to post your opinions. Equally we are entitled to point and laugh when you post arrant nonsense simply because you can.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Might I remind you that this game is played by people who make 20 foot tall nekkid women ???

Wonder what their custom content would be like ???

[/ QUOTE ]

Probably something better than the Positron taskforce...

[/ QUOTE ]

Something like a series of 20 missions, all in the same physical door, all in a warehouse, all just three rooms of +1 and +2 spawns ...

Quick, easy, fast mission completion bonuses ... Repeatable.

[/ QUOTE ]

With Wentworth's, a Pocket D entrance, a tram line, the hospital, and a base portal within 50 feet of the door.

And the contact that hands out the mission standing right beside the door.

I recognize when the hero gathering at the very end of the video was taken - right towards the end of closed Beta. (My char can be seen in red-and-blue right on the left hand edge.)

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Or heading over to the Krispy Kreme after the midnight showing of RHPS - still in costume.

[/ QUOTE ]

Fellow North Carolinian? Or just coincidence?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep - from Winston. (Well, actually a little town just outside that nobody outside of Winston has ever heard of.)

[/ QUOTE ]

You might be surprised - I graduated from UNCG

[/ QUOTE ]

Rural Hall!

The KK we used to go to was the one down Stratford from the old Thruway Theatre.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Sorry man, but right now Inventions are something I barely understand. Trying to add IOs into my 50 Illusion/Sonic and then incorporating that into my guide will be near impossible for me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Given that the request wasn't to add IO's - what's your point?

[/ QUOTE ]

did you bother to read his request, he asked to discuss builds with IOs in them as well, I was telling him my guide would not be doing this.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes I read his post - and there was no request to add IO's to any guides.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Or heading over to the Krispy Kreme after the midnight showing of RHPS - still in costume.

[/ QUOTE ]

Fellow North Carolinian? Or just coincidence?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep - from Winston. (Well, actually a little town just outside that nobody outside of Winston has ever heard of.)

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I used to get together with some friends once a week at a local Chili's to discuss our results/plans for the turn of Middle Earth Play by Mail wargame we were on. Imagine a couple guys in suits and ties, and a couple guys in T-shirts & shorts, all with briefcases sitting around eating chips, and discussing how best to assassinate the Witch-King of Angmar and mobilize troops to protect the southern flank of the Greenwood from the Dog Lords heavy cavalary.

I think we got the best looks when we pulled out the full size grid maps of middle earth and began putting pins and markers out to plot troop movements.

[/ QUOTE ]


I keep trying to burn my friends' laminated Middle Earth map for that but they keep thwarting me at every turn. They keep trying to drag me into it, but I just can't get into plotting what grid 2467 attacking 2674 in three moves does.

[/ QUOTE ]

Brest Army Holds
Rome Army Holds

[ QUOTE ]
If you really want to get noticed in a restaraunt, enter dressed in full plate armor complete with dents from the days battles.
I used to be in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism).

[/ QUOTE ]

Did something like that one time... Went to Burger King in garb after a Shire business meeting. A lady asked me if I was in the SCA - and I couldn't help but respond "No, I'm in a play!".

Non SCAers may or may not get the joke....

[ QUOTE ]
I used to get together with some friends once a week at a local Chili's to discuss our results/plans for the turn of Middle Earth Play by Mail wargame we were on. Imagine a couple guys in suits and ties, and a couple guys in T-shirts & shorts, all with briefcases sitting around eating chips, and discussing how best to assassinate the Witch-King of Angmar and mobilize troops to protect the southern flank of the Greenwood from the Dog Lords heavy cavalary.

[/ QUOTE ]

No worse than heading out to Taco Bell and discussing our current Champions campaign, which involved aliens having taken over the town. Nothing gets the attention of fellow diners quicker than discussing the best place in town to drop a tactical nuke to divert attention away from our raid on their HQ...

Or heading over to the Krispy Kreme after the midnight showing of RHPS - still in costume.