Doc_Scorpion

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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.

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

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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.

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I think you miss the point a little. The OP isn't asking for IO's to be added to guides, but for xO's to not be forgotten when you do write a guide.

/signed

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I'd bet really good money on the return of the Reichsman and the 5th leading to a Hero and Villain team-up.

I mean, think about it... The Reichsman is not about to play second fiddle to anyone, the Fifth Column Loyaltists would still be smarting over the Council taking over, and the Reichsman is just as powerfull (If not even more so) then Statesman. And, considering that Lord Recluse wouldn't be able to manipulate Reichsman as well as he could Statesman, he'd know full well that Reichsman would be a grave threat to his desired future.

Suffice to say, Reichsman will be a major player. I bet dollars to donuts on it.

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Except that Reichsman is (currently) somewhere under the rubble in Boomtown...

Hmm... the revamped zone and zone event mentioned by Posi is the Reichsman being freed by Fifth Column loyalists?

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Ok...let's try this from the other side of the coin for a change. Stop making this all about me and make it about someone else...how about you?

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Ok, let's.

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Have you been to the Test server since I9 went to open test? Have you bought or sold ANYTHING at the AH or the BM? If so, what was it and how much did you get/spend?

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I've been on test longer than that - I've been in since the 2nd wave of the closed beta. Yes, I've bought and sold at the CH. The last question is irrelevant.

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As to the explanation of why the system will blow up? I think I covered that rather well.

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That's just the problem - you haven't. You start with an assumption (the Devs don't want piles of Inf) and ladle theory on top of conjecture over a base of suppositions.

The end result is a wonderfully spiced dish of handwaving - but no facts, and no explanation. (Mostly because, as I now realize, there isn't actually anything for you to explain.)

I love your assumptions 1 through 3... And you how you create from whole cloth not only an excuse for why you can't be bothered to test on Test, but provide yourself with an ongoing series of excuses whereby you can explain away why you cannot test inventions for yourself.


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I am NOT here to cry doom all over the place based on wild conjecture and assumption.

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The funny part is how you claim this - yet proceed to do so anyhow.

You still haven't bothered to learn the basics of the invention system. You still cannot explain how the invention system will 'blow up'. You still mistake quantity for quality.

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One thing I have noticed, my lowbies are raking in the money on the test server, I'm thinking this will help newer players. I see this as making the game more fun to the newer player.

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Won't be happening quite as much on Live.

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One thing I have to say in closing, is I've noticed an improvement in my characters from the IO's and I'm looking forward to I9, and to be honest, I didn't think it had much to offer to me.

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I'm noticing some slight improvement - but then few of my chars are in a position to really take advantage.

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There...how's that?

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Not much better. You still haven't learned even the basic of the Inventions system, and you still don't specify why you think the system will 'blow up'.

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Sorry to have droned on too long but I sincerely feel that Inventions might blow up in the Dev's faces and make what they wanted to change worse.

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Except your lengthy drone doesn't actually make any points on how the Inventions system might 'blow up'.... It's just a lengthy and pointless drone with a little dooooooooooom sprinkled in for spice.

Being concise is a virtue.

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I haven't been on the Test server

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Then all you are doing is crying dooooooooooom without even knowing the most basic facts of the Invention system.

Very nice analysis.

I do question however about your emphasis on 'Enh value' (in the summary) however. The raw total is important - but it doesn't really tell the whole story. (I know, this goes against the grain of the "if there is a number, make it bigger" mindset in MMO's.)

For a fast recharging power (for example) it may not pay to max out that extra x% - if it's in recharge. If you have a functional attack chain - having each individual attack in the chain be suboptimal from an 'Enh value' standpoint may still yield an equally powerful character from the cumulative effects of the chain.

Take for example the 'proctastic' slotting - I suspect that for my scrapper or blapper it may prove more effective to scatter procs across multiple powers in a chain, at a cost in rch. Why? Because you still get the chance for procs to fire - while also maintaining the benefits of individual attacks (-def or disorient for example).

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the earliest version of Neverwinter Nights came out six years before that!

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What game is that? NwN isn't that old

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Yep, it is.

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It began with the first MMO, EQ

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EQ wasn't the first MMO - not by a long shot. Not only did UO preceed it by two years - the earliest version of Neverwinter Nights came out six years before that! (And that's ignoring the long history of MUD's, MUSH's, MOO's, and BBS door games stretching back a decade and more before that.)

You must also keep in mind that Superhero gaming is a pretty small niche in all forms of gaming - pen 'n paper, video (console as well as computer), etc... Thus is it unsurprising CoX is as small and fringe as it is. (But there is no particular reason why a small game cannot last for years.)

But the biggest killer of games (that I have seen in twenty plus years of varied forms of MMO's and persistent states worlds) is technology. Sooner or later the physics and/or graphics engines reach exhaustion - and can no longer compete with games with newer and/or better engines. (Such games can still last for years and continue to fund expansions - witness UO.)

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I have never before seen such a game or online community that works so integrated.

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I suspect that is due to your lack of experience with such games. UO has a community fairly well integrated with it's Dev's - and the Dev team for Puzzle Pirates shames the CoX Dev team when it comes to community involvement.

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Also having to do the event multiple times per character is also pretty annoying when you have multiple characters.

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You didn't have to do the event multiple times - you chose to do the event multiple times. Nobody forced you.

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5- Wiki's are hideously unsuited for housing multiple articles that are really just slight differences of opinion. (I.E. the multiple guides to x/y AV.) They are even worse at trying to combine those multiple articles into one.

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Mostly agree with this, although I think the purpose of a Wiki would be to host the links to the guides, not the guides themselves.

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Most of the replies in here imply, to me, that they want the wiki for content. (Difficulties with wikis aside - a 'locked' wiki used by the Devs to maintain content isn't a bad idea.)

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That said, MediaWiki's definitely overkill... there's gotta be something (Wiki or other) for link databases out there, though.

(And I want one for my own purpose, so I may just go a-huntin'.)

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Linky .

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I do however fully agree with moving the guides to a wiki. It would be extremely easy to keep updated and get started, since likely most of us would add all the guides for you.

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There are also disadvantages to running a wiki - disadvantages rarely visible to the user.

1- Wiki's are very intensive of server resources. Mediawiki (the most popular and well known) is notorious for being a server hog.

2- Adding a wiki means adding another program that has to be maintained, updated, secured, etc... etc... Its not as simple as just installing it and letting it run.

3- Mediawiki does not natively allow edits to be queued for approval.

There's also a couple of social aspects that are disadvantages;

4- Because it is can be edited - it often is edited, which sometimes improves the article - but often leads to nothing but slow degradation. (This eats editor/approver time because each edit has to be carefully checked.)

5- Wiki's are hideously unsuited for housing multiple articles that are really just slight differences of opinion. (I.E. the multiple guides to x/y AV.) They are even worse at trying to combine those multiple articles into one.

Wikis are very popular, very versatile, and very powerful. But wikis are a hammer - and not every problem is a nail.