Dyne_

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What exactly do you have against the Southeastern U.S.? You skipped D*C last year after hitting practically every Con in America and now you're skipping it AGAIN?

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They skipped it last year because Dragoncon wanted them to "jump through some hoops" that they weren't willing to. I'd assume that either the same situation still applies, or else because of that experience, they aren't even going to bother fooling with Dragoncon anymore.

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Talk has been that the Boss were gonna be rolled back, but that was weeks ago.

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It was one week and five days before your post. In fact, it's the first post to this thread.

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Skills is in Issue 5...

Issue 4 revolves around the Arenas (now under construction)....

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Since I know you've said you generally work several Issues ahead of what is coming up next, in the spirit of promoting even better communication, could you give us an overview a few ahead? (I'm mainly talking about features that the playerbase already knows you intend to put in, but you could also toss in hints to what else is coming if you wanted ).

I mean, I know that any such list will get more nebulous, less confident, and less reliable as an estimate the further you get from the present, and I know the playerbase would instantly try to convince you that their favorite feature is more crucial than something that comes earlier, and that things will inevitably shift around as plans become more concrete. It might help people see the bigger picture of where the game is going and get a rough idea of when to expect it, though.

Then, as new things are revealed, new Issues come out, and things get shuffled around, you could release a new version of the list. Say, once or twice per issue.

I'm thinking of something like this (containing a few upcoming things I remember and a few that I made up from whole cloth, in a completely speculative order):


Pre-issue 4:
Short-range changes from boss difficulty feedback
Fix Special cape not available on female models
More Tanker changes

Issue 4: Colosseum
PVP Arenas
A bunch of new costume options (we got one cape early)
Adding flavor to old zones: Kings Row, Atlas Park, Galaxy City

Issue 5: An Invitation in Writing
SSOCS
The Seaview Project
Sonics powerset
Adding flavor to old zones: Skyway city, Steel Canyon, Talos Island.
New body types: Teen and Massive
Mid-range changes from Boss Difficulty feedback (?)
New Archetype: Coralax
New enemies: Aquatic Race
The Clockwork Palace (custom art for Psychic Clockwork king dimension/mission)

Issue 6: ?
Archery Powerset
Long-range changes (mission UI, etc.) from boss difficulty feedback (?)
Personal Archvillains
New zone: Beacon One (space zone)
New fabric costume options (trenchcoats, hair, etc.)
New Trial zone: The Junkyard (a new trial zone built on the ruins of Baumton International airport, basically a nascent Clockwork Palace, infested by clocks)
New enemies: Various new types of clockwork, space enemies

City of Villains (stuff relevant to CoH):
Supergroup Bases
Minions
PVP Zones

Issue 7: ?
Pistols powerset
Rope travel pool (tenative)
New body type: Quadraped
New Archetype: Incarnate
Additional powers for Power Pools (teleport anywhere on zone map, etc.)
New secret zone for level range x
New secret zone for level range y
Custom Powers (effect colors and models)


And you can even prepend the list with 100 copies of "There are no promises in this list! Rough estimates of intended features and order only!", just to drive the point home.

I know you like to surprise us, but a lot of this stuff we already know, and I'm willing to sacrifice a certain amount of surprise on the rest in order to have a somewhat clearer picture of where things are heading and in roughly what order.

The point, and the reason why I mention this here (other than your post giving me the idea) is because doing this on a regular schedule would keep us up to date on changes like moving the SSOCS back, and there would be one place we could go to for the summary on longish-term development plans (instead of having to cull it from a myriad of posts).

I'm not holding my breath this'll happen, mind you.

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I think this is great for the game.

Not just in terms of the actual mechanics but also,more importantly, at what it does for your players' confidence in your product, and in yourselves.

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I've long felt that Cryptic had their heads on straight, but occasionally something happens that makes you lose faith just a little. That's inevitable, since we as players can only see the intent behind changes (or the big picture of where the game is going) to the extent that the devs explain it to us.

And even those explanations are frequently, to use an apt term for it, cryptic (even when the devs don't intend for them to be, devs being busy people). They have to be interpreted, and are easily and often misinterpreted. Ultimately, we can only really rely on the results that we see and the impact they have on us personally. There's often a disconnect between what we can see and what the devs say.

I didn't want to give the impression that I was holding my subscription over the Cryptic's heads in order to get my way, but this could have been a game breaker for me. So I quietly decided earlier on in this discussion that if they decided on something that restored my confidence in them, I would put my money where my mouth is.

That has happened, even moreso than I was looking for. Not just the decision that was made, but the explanation that came with it, and the way it was stated. It lays out exactly, with no ambiguity, what the devs are driving for and how they intend to get there. It makes sense. And it is a direction I agree with, naturally.

So, to demonstrate my restored confidence, I've just committed to the next year in CoH (or rather, I will have once the next billing cycle comes around).

I know, it's not as exciting as if I'd announced that I were supplying ten million dollars in capital for future development, but it's the most appropriate thing I could think of. And also, I don't have ten million.

To whoever mentioned displaying codes or whatever at the contact when missions contain a boss (I'm too tired to hunt back through and find it again), I posted something very similar over in the Suggestions forum not long ago.

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Note: It's very important that you don't get something like this in the contact's mission selection window:

Go Rescue the hostages from the Freakshow!

and then get this once you selected the mission from your contact:

By the way, you'll need help, because you'll be facing Dreck!

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I got that! Or rather, one like it:

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Yes, this happens quite a bit. I believe some of the early Lost, Hellion, Skull, Clockwork, and Vahz missions do it too. Once you've accepted the mission, you get: "Watch out for the (faction's boss mob) called (tough sounding name). He may be tough."

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I've been discussing many of these issues internally with the team...and I think I might have something interesting that satisfies both parties...but I've got to do more research first.

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This is the sort of thing that reassures me. A willingness to take another look at changes and try to think of something creative.

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I really dislike social engineers, people who think that just because they like something everyone should or will if exposed to it. Why can't people accept that we just are not all wired the same and we will never all like the same thing.

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I have to concur with this.

I do not do pickup groups, period. I will team if I feel like teaming and my friends are available, and I will solo when I feel like soloing. The only thing you accomplish by making my missions harder is encouraging me not to play at all. (Missions were already harder than I preferred .. getting an "easier" setting was my major reason for wanting a difficulty slider mechanic in the first place, and damned be the effect on how fast I run out of missions).

Edit: trimming the quote slightly.

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Ah, like the end of story arcs? Gotcha, I think.

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Or the start of one. I just started Path of the Dark. First mission, I pass a few even level minions and lieuts., and I quickly come to a +1 level boss (red). I'm soloing.

I fought my way to that first boss four times. He beat me twice. The third time, sick of the debt, I brought five defense and three damage inspirations, and managed to beat him, barely. (After which I discovered the other four or five even-level bosses in the mission.) Before I could finish the mission, the mapserver decided to flake out and it got reset.

The fourth time, I called a scrapper eight levels below me, sked her, and she took him down. I contributed very little to the fight, and have no doubt she could've taken him down without any assistance on my part whatsoever.

Also, yes, I realize that I was essentially forced to team. Congratulations. At no point during this exercise did I have fun, much less more fun than I would've had soloing. (I retract what I said about having fun because she was there ... normally I would've, but you basically made me impose on her, and also forced me to do something I wasn't inclined to do. You also removed my ability to feel self-sufficient, much less heroic. This negates any benefit you might have gained.)

Edit: Oh yes, Kinetics/Radiation Defender.

Edit: Elaborate on last paragraph

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I would LOVE to do Pulp stuff...but would it sell? That's the issue.

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They said Superheroes wouldn't sell, didn't they?

Personally, I'd be far more interested in pulp CoH than in CoH itself.

I don't play a radiation blast defender for nothing... (emits rays from his eyes)

FWIW, I also played Adventure. This character is listed as the Scarab in the Playtester credits.

I'll blame the article and sleep deprivation due to end of semester crunch for "Spriga" vs. "Striga" in my post.

Striga isn't north (well, north-ish) of Talos? I seem to recall that it was when I looked on the city map, but it's been awhile since I did.

Actually, the 14th is about what I was expecting, given the recent announcements about reserving names and preloading and such.

If not then, it probably wouldn't be out until after christmas or new year's (because the devs will need to monitor and fix things when it hits). Updates don't go live on the weekend for the same reason. They don't go live on Mondays because Mondays are evil and nobody would want to deal with that sort of chaos. I believe both Issue 1 and 2 went live on a Tuesday, but I could be wrong.

Edit: Hah! I fixed it! Now you have no proof! Hmm, wait a second...

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And should the need come up for you to gain some clarity on a situation, or something the others said always indicate when Out Of Character, or OOC, by using either the (( )) approach, or the more complicated OOC: approach.

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The "OOC:" approach isn't actually MORE complicated, it is LESS complicated (to use, at least). With the parentheses, you have to type four shifted characters every time, two at the beginning and two at the end. That'd get pretty annoying, in my opinion.

But, if you are just prepending something to the start of your text rather than surrounding it, you can bind it to a key, like so:

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>/bind o "beginchat /say OOC: "</pre><hr />

Now, whenever you want to type something OOC, you just hit the O key instead of Enter to activate the chat. Easy.

This method works with everything in the chat system (as long as you have the desired channel active) except private messages. You'll have to type OOC there manually, but then you'd be doing that anyway.

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Is it just me... or is the head villain of CoH way more friendly and talkative than the head hero in terms of forum posts...?

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It's a trick; get an ax!

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You can't see anything from even a singular hundred yards away in DA...using cheats to remove the fog from the zone can get your account banned.

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Ah, a lesson in knowing whereof you speak before you open your mouth.

I am not using a cheat and Adamastor is VERY easy to spot even from halfway across the zone. That's how I first found him on the test server, and how I spotted him again on live a few nights ago.

Older video cards like the GeForce 2 do not handle the fog of Dark Astoria properly (at least mine doesn't). Mobs, doors, and various bits of foliage are not fogged out like the rest of the scenery, so they are often visible more clearly and at larger distances. Given Adamastor's size, that is even more true.

I think I have some screenshots of me spotting him from huge distances which I could post, but I'm at work right now.