Dr_Brainbottle
-
Posts
93 -
Joined
-
Quote:There are two different kinds of concealment: stealth and invisibility. If you want to command minions, you can't be INVISIBLE. However, if you combine multiple sources of stealth you can be very VERY stealthy, which has all the benefits of being invisible (at least in PvE) without the drawback of losing control of your minions.Originally Posted by Turiel12345
A) does concealment work with minions? in other words can I go hidden with them out and will they still function (im guessing no)
Your minions can be invisible and still obey you, as long as YOU aren't invisible.
Phase shift cuts you off from absolutely EVERYTHING, even more so than being invisible. This is very bad for your minions, but might occasionally be useful for saving your own hide.
It depends on your other powers. I found aid other to be extremely useful for leveling my force feilds mastermind, but it's easily overshadowed by a more healing oriented secondary like pain domination.Quote:Originally Posted by Turiel12345
B) first aid and leadership skills? how crucial are they both, if you could link or give me some numbers for each I would appreciate it
There isn't any personal attack you can get from any of the power pools which will seriously compete with your minions for doing damage. If you want to be able to grab and hold aggro for tankerminding, some of the patron attacks take taunt enhancement IOs, and you can also consider picking up the presence power pool.Quote:Originally Posted by Turiel12345
C) For a travel skill Im thinking of picking up super speed, My other character has flight, are the two attack skills in this line useful for a MM? thanks
That being said, air superiority does knock down fliers, which is nice. -
Quote:If that is supposed to be a good example of how unlikely the developers are to give customers those kinds of options, how do you explain the fact that the AE exists in the first place for you to point to as an example of how tasteless customers can be when given those kinds of options?Originally Posted by RiverOcean
Having female minions would require players behaving with some restraint, decency, and good sense. As we've seen from AE, that's unlikely to happen.
Somehow the AE got past the design stage and the ratings board, and was released to the wild for ordinary customers to use. There was some negative backlash, but mostly over power leveling, and they eventually took firm steps to address those concerns. If there had been just as much backlash against playboy bunny maps as there had been against power leveling, maybe they would have done something about that too.
But the arguments against the playboy bunny maps have never really risen above the level of sarcasm and eye-rolling, and the mostly unspoken but still compelling arguments FOR it are implicit in the sheer number of customers (PAYING customers, mind you) happily designing and playing these maps.
For better or worse, playboy missions in the AE are here to stay. If that suggests anything at all about the likelihood of the developers ever implementing bikini girl minions, it seems more like an argument in MY favor than anything else. -
Quote:you first.Originally Posted by Gypsy_of_Paradox
Stop replying like I'm opposed to the idea.
-
Quote:This would be the ratings board that has ALREADY consented to allowing players to create bikini girls, which players have ALREADY abused, which in turn has ALREADY led to the devs settling on a policy of banning individual abusers as an appropriate response to abuse.Originally Posted by Gypsy_of_Paradox
Yes, been here since Oct 04'
Note I said the "Devs" answer to the ratings board. Players are reported for sexual names, actions, and harassment. There is only a degree of control the Devs have over this situation.
What, are you worried that the dev's chance to hit with a banhammer is capped at 95%? I have a pretty cynical view of humanity, and even I don't think that the rate people create abusive characters could ever outstrip the dev's ability to press a button.Quote:Originally Posted by Gypsy_of_Paradox
I'm aware abuse is around, I noted on more abuse to this being added.
Unless you're willing to argue that the ONLY possible reason to have female henchmen is to be abusive, giving non-abusive customers the features they want should outweigh the minor inconvenience of banning people who would probably find some way to be annoying no matter what features they enable anyway.
No, the demon summoning power set for masterminds is going to be available to ALL players, not just Desdemona. And while Desdemona will get a ring of tattoos around her neck that players won't have access to, all demon summoning masterminds are going to get the bullwhip. And I bet it will go quite well with the leather corset and stiletto heeled boots.Quote:Originally Posted by Gypsy_of_Paradox
The character you're talking about is an NPC, not one we are able to play. Very different from being able to actually control and all we've seen is video of her.
Well of course you find me hilarious, because I AM hilarious, and proud of it!Quote:Originally Posted by Gypsy_of_Paradox
Again let me state, I could care less if this is added or not. I personally find it hilarious you seem so passionate about half naked girls being in the game.
If you're the sort of person who thinks hilarity is something to be ashamed of, has it ever occurred to you that YOU'RE playing a computer game where grown men flounce around in public with their underwear on the outside of their spandex tights? I'm perfectly comfortable with that aspect of the game, but I'm a weirdo who wants to sit ominously in a giant egg-shaped chair surrounded by bikini girls with machine guns. What's YOUR excuse? -
Quote:Have you actually PLAYED the game? Have you noticed how many superheros already look like strippers? If bikini girls violate a teen rating, why aren't we ALREADY in deep, deep trouble?Originally Posted by Gypsy_of_Paradox
1) Because the games rated teen and the devs answer to other people.
You'd have to be a retard to not realize system abuse is ALREADY HERE, and has been since the very first day. In fact, I bet people exhausted all of the really obvious synonyms for "******" as a character name on all the servers within an hour.Quote:Originally Posted by Gypsy_of_Paradox
2) Chance of abuse, would have to be retarded to not see this coming. See answer 1
And then they all got banned so fast their heads spun. End of problem.
Meh, all of your arguments would have made just as much sense a few months ago if I had the sheer audacity to suggest we should be able to play a whip-wielding dominatrix in stiletto heeled boots who summons demons to do her bidding... and now it's an officially announced major feature in the next upcoming expansion. So never say never.Quote:Originally Posted by Gypsy_of_Paradox
3) As others stated, its a lot to code and reasons 1 and 2 are why they ain't wasting their time. -
Quote:In case you haven't noticed, the title of this thread is "bikini girls with machine guns". Note that I never asked for robots in bikinis. Maybe it would be nice if they made robots colorizable, and I'd be impressed if we could get some vanguard-themed robots or something, but frankly my focus is on the human minions. Preferably of the female, scantily clad variety.Originally Posted by ShadowsBetween
For the human pets, yes this is true. They all look like pretty standard costume sets. It's the non-humans that would be the sticking point here.
Even in the very first post, I said that I understood if there might be technical reasons we can only have limited minion choices, but I want ONE of those choices be bikini girls with machine guns. Later I went on to describe my vision of the user interface, which would involve selecting minion models out of a drop down list.So, in fact, what I'm asking for could be EXACTLY as simple as weapon customization.Quote:Originally Posted by ShadowsBetween
Again though, allowing MM players to custom design their pets has issues. For one thing, the custom critters would have to be stored as part of the costume data, and shared with each player you get near. For MA arcs, this isn't an issue because it can send the data upfront as the mission starts. Additionally, all characters use the same data for costumes, so not only would MM costume data get larger, every other players costume data would have to include a space for something they're not using. For weapon sets, this isn't a problem, since I think it references what powers you have, and then it's a simply one value from a list to indicate what weapon model you use.
Six sixteen-bit integers. That fits into twelve bytes, which isn't enough room to store my character's NAME, and yet can index up to 65536 possible models for each minion.Quote:Originally Posted by ShadowsBetween
And that's not even counting separate costume slots - things would spiral out of control pretty quickly if every character costume had to include a space each MM pet, for *each* costume slot.
Why are you so desperately emphasizing the most unreasonable aspects of what you seem to THINK I'm asking for, as if that conclusively proves that there is no room for a more reasonable compromise?Quote:Originally Posted by ShadowsBetween
And again, it's asking for a feature that would take tremendous amounts of work, and that will only directly benefit one class. -
Quote:The idea of total pet customization sounds nice as a sound bite, but how would you handle visible equipment upgrades? If you let people make their thugs look like ninjas and their top tier pet look like a bottom tier pet, is that a PvP advantage?Originally Posted by HeroJunkie
I support total character and pet customization.
Well sure, but why wait? I support banning blatantly sexist jerks making a public nuisance of themselves NOW.Quote:Originally Posted by HeroJunkie
I would support banning a player who hangs out in crowded areas and slaps his female henchmen all the time, though. -
Quote:I can put together a perfectly good bikini girl in less than a minute, using the various stock body parts they already have in the character creator. And if you take a good look at thugs, mercenaries, and ninja minions, you'll see that with a few exceptions they are almost entirely made of exactly the same stock body parts we the players have access to. Maybe if they're feeling extra ambitious they design something genuinely unique to distinguish a faction, but even then most of the illusion of "variety" in a faction is created by variations in hair style and skin color. Uniforms aren't called "uniform" for nothing.Originally Posted by ShadowsBetween
The main obstacle I can think of to this kind of customization is time versus payoff. Even if it's just new models on the same animation skeletons, MM pets consume as much effort as a new NPC. (At least.) So to add even two themes to all the existing sets would be as much effort as creating an entirely new faction.
Furthermore, if they do make new body parts for a minion set, I would be perfectly happy if they were added to the character creator for anyone to use when designing a costume. That way the work invested in those body parts enriches everyone, and don't JUST benefit masterminds. -
also, we just recently got a new issue, and all characters that existed at the time got a free respec.
That's a good reason to create characters as soon as you think of them, even if you don't intend on playing them any time soon... the longer they stick around simply existing, the longer they have to pick up freebies like this. -
Can anyone explain to me what actual advantages bots/traps has over bots/ff, other than bots/ff being "boring"? My main character Doctor Brainbottle is a level 50 bots/ff mastermind, and I for one don't EVER get bored of being an invincible force of unstoppable destruction.
I have a ninja mastermind (the king of single target damage) with traps as a secondary who likes to set up a kill zone full of traps and ninjas and then teleport foes into it one by one, so I'm not completely unaware of the advantages of traps, but in my experience it involves a lot of planning where I'm going to set my traps and waiting for various cool-downs before I can move to a new location.
When Doctor Brainbottle wants to move to a new location, he just hovers on over. There are no cooldowns to wait for, and no traps to set up. He can charge headfirst into a room without worrying too hard about what's in it, and then kill whatever tries to stop him. If I really put my mind to it I can strategically use my knockback and force bubble powers to trap enemies in a corner where my assault bot's napalm rockets can REALLY add up, but most of the time things just die before it becomes necissary. And mind you, that's without a single purple IO and plenty of mere SOs still in my build. -
One thing I know the developers are definitely going to be concerned about as they move forward with mastermind customization is backwards compatibility. No matter what happens, they aren't going to "force" anyone to change to something new. So to expand on the idea of sets, one of the sets should be called the "legacy" minion set, just as we have "legacy" weapons and "legacy" power effects.
But within most legacy sets there are lots of different individual ways a minion can look, and I'd like my thug arsonist named "matches" to always spiky red hair. Is that too much to ask? A lot of people seem to think they are reluctant to do this because the programming is hard... but as a programmer myself, I suspect the biggest obstacle ISN'T purely technical. They already have a data structure for remembering unique properties for each minion slot, as proven by the fact that you can give each of your minions a personal name. Upgrading that structure to store more options is just a programming problem, and they've been bragging lately about how they have lots of programmers now.
But how do you expose all the options you could implement to a mere user without making his head explode? THAT is the real issue!
So the way I imagine the interface could be reasonably powerful without being too complicated, each of the six standard minion slots should have two drop-down lists: one to choose a general set of minion types, and the other to choose an individual member of that set, or a special value called "random" that chooses one randomly. These drop down lists for all the minion slots would default to the "legacy" set and a "random" member, duplicating the current behavior pretty much exactly.
Using this setup, my thug mastermind could keep his arsonist as a legacy model but only the one with spiky red hair, while another minion is set to have a different random appearance every time it's summoned, but out of a set of punk girls.
Each minion slot could also have the two standard customizable color buttons, the exact effects of which depend on the model involved, which probably means no effect at all for the legacy models. Hair color and skin color should probably always get baked into the models, but there should be lots of models with different hair and skin colors to choose from in each set where that's an issue. -
Quote:I had been thinking lately it might not even be worth taking health, never mind slotting it, on my pain domination mastermind. With bodyguard mode I don't really take much damage when I get hit, and I heal myself every time I use my AOE heal. I almost did a respec to switch it to hurdle.Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison
Oh, I guess I forgot to mention: The regen isn't really worth enhancing. It's not enough to make a difference in combat, and at best it'll just minimize your downtime between fights. MM's have less hitpoints (and therefor less regen) than any other AT.
But this thread inspired me to look up what "Numinas" means, and now I think I'll keep health after all for more endurance recovery, especially since I can get the recipe from a merit vendor. -
Quote:Heck, I want more options than just bikini girls too. More options are good. The closer I can get to customizing the look of my minions the same way I can customize my own character, the happier I'll be.Originally Posted by Alef_infinity
You can have your bikini girls, and I can have my military women in fatigues, tattooed gangster women, and so on. I just don't want bikini girls to be the only options (like is already kinda the case with the witch stuff and some other costume details).
In fact, as much as I would enjoy having the option to have female minions, I'd probably continue playing some of my characters with male minions, and I'd like the ability to customize their appearance ALMOST as much as I'd like to have bikini girls. yes, shocking I know.
For example, I have a mercenary / storms mastermind named "the Major-General" who bolsters his minions with the fearsome power of British Weather. I'm not going to switch him to using bikini girls with machine guns, it's not his idiom. Ideally, I'd like his minions to look like British soldiers from the late 1800s, but even just the ability to change the color of their fatigues would be an improvement.
The Major-General wears a Baron jacket, and it is indeed awesome. It goes quite well with his antique monocle. I wish I could get a old fashioned Wolsey-style pith helmet for him though.Quote:Originally Posted by Alef_infinity
Then again, I have some general outfit frustrations. I want female characters to have access to cigars for example... and especially that awesome Baron jacket. That's the one that most grates on me (it's enough to make me begin to consider breaking my habit of playing women, just to have one on one of my characters). -
Quote:How is Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura a factor in any of this?Originally Posted by Bookkeeper_Jay
I think they'll avoid any more bad PR and unnecesaary reports/articles with the TTP factor in place.
First of all, the only part of issue 14 that was arguably a "fiasco" was how NCSoft dealt with angry customers on the official forums. That is a small-scale CUSTOMER relations problem, not a larger-scale PUBLIC relations problem. From an actual PR perspective, issue 14 was a huge win. NCsoft got the right to brag to the mainstream media that we're the first MMO with user-created content. That makes GREAT copy! Print it!Quote:Originally Posted by Bookkeeper_Jay
Especially since the i14 fiasco is finally starting to cool down.
Secondly, to the extent that NCsoft mishandled customer relations by vacillating between indulging the customers who exploited the weaknesses of the new architect system with almost tacit approval and then suddenly over-reacting on behalf of customers filled with nerd rage about game balance, ultimately leaving everyone dissatisfied... I don't see what it has to do with bikini girls with machine guns. To the extent that bikini girls might be controversial, it's an utterly different KIND of controversy.
No, a much more apt comparison is the magic expansion pack, with it's leather-and-lacy "witch" costumes. That was a feature that provoked EXACTLY the same kind of controversy... or would have, if there WAS any controversy. The closest thing I've ever seen to an "angry backlash" to that is a little sarcasm and eye-rolling. Where are the gurn-faced puritans brandishing torches and pitchforks? How many people are threatening to go back to playing World of Warcraft if city of heroes starts letting people summon a succubus?
It's funny how many people nebulously insinuate that lots of people would morally object to scantily clad cartoons, and yet when push actually comes to shove nobody I've ever met is actually willing to embarrass themselves by standing up and saying "*I* morally object to scantily clad cartoons!" -
Quote:Well, I'm sure they've said a LOT of things since they started in 2004 as literally the only superhero-themed game in town, but a lot of things have changed since then.Originally Posted by ShadowsBetween
As I said, I don't agree with the reasoning. But that *is* one of the reasons why they've said it'll never happen.
In any case, now I'm stating for the record that bikini girls with machine guns (and giant egg-shaped chairs) would make me, their paying customer, really happy. They can ignore that at their own peril. -
Quote:Yeah, all those reports have sure hurt WoW's profitability.Originally Posted by ShadowsBetween
Actually no, I wouldn't expect a succubus pet. One of the stated reasons for "no female pets" is the possibility of someone creating a pimp character of some kind. I don't really agree with the reasoning (especially since WoW Warlocks *do* get a Succubus pet, and one that looks pretty slinky at that) but I can understand the concern. Look at all the weird news reports that "professional" journalists run about video games, and consider how well researched and objective they are. Yeah. Right.
"You can get a Half-naked succubus to follow you around? That's shocking and morally reprehensible! So, uh... what was the name of that game again?" -
Quote:If giving your customers what they really, really want before your competitors do it is "unnecessary work", what on earth IS necessary?Originally Posted by Prof_Backfire
I don't think that's the reasoning, but that it would be a lot of probably unnecessary work to add female pet models,
I'm not usually one for making hysterical "I'm going to quit if I don't get my way" tantrums, but if Champions Online, DCU, or some upstart company starts offering the bikini girl minions and giant egg shaped chairs I can't get in city of heroes, I'm going to seriously consider giving my "unnecessary" subscription money to someone else.
That isn't a threat, it's just the way free markets work. I think the developers understand that better than you do. Why do you think they're adding demon pets in the next big release? Do you think demons are any more "necessary" than bikini girls? New features are exactly as necessary to the company as income from the customers who want those features, and I'm stating for the record that I want bikini girls with machine guns!
When I said I want bikini girls as an option for mastermind power customization, I put a lot of emphasis on how much I want bikini girls, but it's obviously going to have to be part of the larger task of mastermind power customization. All the other archetypes got the ability to change the appearance of their powers, I want the logical equivalent for masterminds.Quote:Originally Posted by Prof_Backfire
and given that the pet model is chosen randomly every time you summon them, your pet named 'Charlie' might become a woman next time you summon it.
At the VERY least, I want the ability to pick the appearance for each of my minions, and have it stay that way. The fact that it's currently random every time you summon them ALREADY defeats the purpose of giving them personal names: if I want my thug arsonist named "matches" to always have spiky red hair and an angry face, the fact that he can show up as a swarthy guy with a black ponytail kills my sense of immersion just as much as if he showed up as a female.
So yes, the're going to have to change how the existing minion appearance-generating code works. That was so obvious I didn't think it was worth belaboring. Companies that want to stay competitive have to do that sort of thing. Once again, I'm confident that the developers already understand that. -
Okay, I'm going to just come out and say what I'm sure a lot of players are quietly thinking... when NCSoft finally implements power customization for masterminds, we should have the option to have female mercenaries, ninjas, and thugs. And while I can understand if full customization of every tiny detail of how they are dressed wouldn't be computable with way minion equipment upgrades have a visible effect, I will not accept this as an excuse for female mercenaries to ONLY come dressed in baggy combat fatigues, and so on. If there is a technical reason that there can only be a limited number of different looks, make ONE of those options be... Bikini Girls With Machine Guns!
Let's face it, I'm not the only guy on earth who wants a team of Bikini Girls With Machine Guns following them around. If other guys aren't asking for it, they're just being shy or something. This is seriously a feature that could single-handedly convince a lot of men to buy a year's subscription who might otherwise lose interest during their ten-day trial period. I honestly don't think that's an exaggeration. That's money that could be in your pocket, developers. Look deep in your heart, and you know it's true!
And what do you have to lose? If anyone morally objects to the sight of stripperiffic cartoon females strongly enough to quit the game, surely they've ALREADY been driven out by the way straight guys are already able to dress up their female characters. I mean seriously, have you seen the "witch" costumes come with the expansion pack? You'd have to be blind not to! So don't even try to pretend that you're worried NOW about the potential impact that scantily clad cartoon females might have on the game. That cat is out of the bag, the bridge is burnt, and a million horses have bolted through THAT unlocked barn door.
I'd also like to point out that beyond merely being popular, killer bikini girls are also EXTREMELY genre appropriate. What screams "mastermind super-villain" louder than having a personal army of killer bikini girls? That's as instantly recognizable as their penchant for sitting in giant egg-shaped chairs.
And speaking of which, why aren't there any giant egg-shaped chairs available in the list of purchasable base items? Is my supervillain supposed to sit menacingly in an ordinary office chair? It's embarrassing!
But getting back to the topic at hand, my point is that all of the masterminds who summon human minions should have at least ONE scantily clad female option. Mercenary masterminds should be able to choose Bikini Girls with Machine Guns. Ninja masterminds should also be able to choose bikini girls, but obviously without the machine guns. And female thugs could maybe have more of a "black leather miniskirt" theme, or something.