Electric-Knight
-
Posts
4379 -
Joined
-
(*cues the sad music to end* Just kidding, actually... that's not true at all, haha. Just seemed like the right serious gag... Sorry, dad!!)
Ahem...
Hrm, no one is coming to mind... Meditate on this, I will. -
My father
-
Quote:While Redlynne might have some relevant points in there, I think what you are referring to is more touched upon in my previous post.Originally Posted by American_Angel
...
It seems the Studio people have no control over what the Developers themselves do...which is odd. I bolded a couple key points in the response.
It's not that they don't have control (I assume you're saying this because they say they want to do things, but don't/can't/haven't or that they talk about it in the confines of the studio.
That last quote about talking about it in the confines of the studio is simply them talking shop... As opposed to airing thoughts, discussions in public, where people can pick an choose what they hear/read and mistakenly think that such comments are promises of what is to come.
It's not odd... It is sort of simple (Albeit, frustrating, not just for you and me, but for them as well)...
There is an enormous limitation as to how much any team/company can actually focus on and achieve.
It's simple to come up with ideas and list and pinpoint all the things the players, the developers, the critiques would like to have implemented in this (And any) video game.
It is an utterly different thing to accomplish it. While this is obvious to even the most hard-headed fan, the restrictions still go beyond what is immediately considered by most.
The team has a ton of things they want to do, collectively and individually. And most of it (if not all) they could do. However, you need to allocate the resources - the development/design focus, the money, the time, the proper departments, on to the coding team, testing and so on... And, of course, the suits and marketing have their say (or more) in any business. Plus there is the public opinion of what you choose to do with that time that plays a factor. Both for showing outsiders that the product is thriving/headed in the right direction and for keeping the subscribers content and happy with what the team spends its focus on.
We all know that any time something is focused on by the developers, you get some subscribers complaining that they're focusing on that and not something else.
All in all... It is somewhat like the game of Musical Chairs.
The lists of wants/desires/issues are the participants and the available resources are the chairs.
The reality is that not everything a designer/developer really wants to do is within reach (Or, at best, it may be a long wait and struggle before they can convince everyone it is the right time to focus on it).
Anyways... Just babbling a bit, but I think this stuff is what you may have been confused about.
Then again... Maybe evil marketing has them locked up in the studio and controls what they work on with an adamantium fist!
-
Quote:I so called this back at launch.Originally Posted by The Television
...
These questions are going to require some technical specificity, so please bear with me. Please also understand that I dont really know why data mining tasks used to take so long, but the following is better than accurate/true, so Im going with it.
How we used to do it:
Before what we now know as Mapservers, CoH used a set of machines called Minkowski Cartographs to store data and model characters interactions with the world.
What is a Minkowski Cartograph?
The Minkowski Cartographsor MCswere built in the early 1970s by a team of Nobel laureates in Mathematics and Cartography. The teams goal was to build a functional map or road atlas of Minkowski Spacea pseudo-Riemannian manifold identified around 1907. Each MC is a room sized device constructed of thousands of independently sliding looms and millions of strings running between them. The strings are made of several tightly braided filaments composed of a patent blend of Polyolefin and Kevlar, inter-loom segments ranging in length anywhere between 10^-32 mm and 1 mm. Approximately half of the strings run between pernambuco-wood looms. The rest are incorporated into a vast conveyor mechanism that drags against the loom strings, causing them to vibrate at specific resonant frequencies, effectively playing them like millions of the worlds tiniest violins. When played, each string produces a unique four-space wave signature which resonates through its particular loom until it is converted by transducer into an electronic analog signal. Part of this signal is then recorded in a wax disk in much the same way as conventional sound is recorded by the displacement of the spiral groove in a LP record. The other part was filtered and sent through the network for real time exploration of the model by mathematical cartographers. When first created, this was the Network Control Program of the early ARPANET.
Outcome of the MC experimentation of the 1970s:
Though the MCs proved fairly unsuccessful in providing a functioning map of Minkowski space, the MC experiments resulted in two emergent and unpredicted consequences. First, they were very clearly the inspiration for String Theory. Second, as part of their efforts to map Minkowski space through the MCs, scientists began to uncover and chart what appeared to be various sections of a modern city complete with pedestrians and airship implied by the mathematical definition of Minkowski space as portrayed in the MC. Due to the use of hyperbolic quaternions in Minkowski space, physics as modeled by the MCs was significantly more flexible than what we experience.
MC Use by early CoH:
Intending to capitalize on the pre-existing city simulations provided by the MCs, City of Heroes purchased and reused the now renamed Mapservers to provide the persistent world of Paragon City. This created a number of problems. First: game engineers and even game administrators on the project required doctorates in math or physics as well as extensive textile industry experience just to maintain the Mapservers, let alone add new features. Second: due to the wear of continuous vibration in four-space, critical strings often broke or became snagged resulting in bugs and Lost Connection to Mapserver messages that were almost impossible to track down. Third: as you note, data collection was extremely time consuming as the entire mapservers had to be shut down and the wax recording disks carefully removed from each loom on every mapserver.
What happened to the MC devices?
Due to the above and many other problems, the CoH team eventually realized that the Minkowski Cartographs were un-maintainable. Sadly, once dropped by the game, these great loomed-machines were inexplicably destroyed by a group of self-proclaimed neo-luddites. The same group of history-deniers has virtually erased all record of the machines by continuously deleting Wikipedia articles written about them.
What we use now:
Now our mapservers are written in C and use everything from SQL databases to various in-house flat file systems to represent our data. Characters are pretty much created and maintained by SQL queries, but the specifics of the queries are generated by C.
Please let me know if the above raises any more questions.
Those posts of mine, of course, were mysteriously deleted...
-
Wow, thanks for all of the replies
When I posted the OP, I just had a quick bit of down time in a hotel room, on the road, and haven't had time to reply over the past couple of days.
Unfortunately... I just typed out a response here and went to hit CTRL A on this laptop to copy and save (And thus protect what I'd typed, before submitting)... And accidentally hit something else that made me go back to the previous page and lose everything I typed...
Anywho...
I think (from my very limited knowledge of this stuff) that the bulk of the work for the different aspects (Regular Pool, Ancillary, Patrons and even EAT Powers) would be done together, when they design and implement the UI necessary (Which surely includes a bunch of nasty stuff completely under the hood to prevent messing with things we can't even think of tying to this or don't know about).
Still... While I didn't expect it, I've enjoyed seeing the differing thoughts for each aspect.
And yeah, it looks like I wasn't imagining things when I was thinking that I was far from alone in thinking further customization was rather high priority.
Of course, that means nothing more than whatever that means!
(Yes, this was all worded better the first time around)
Oh!
I remember...
About the Khelds:
I can totally accept whatever way the creators of this universe/game decide. I see it as their tiny bit of canon that they can hold/shape/control.
I used to even be against the idea of Khelds re-coloring their powers (Although, never against customizing the different forms)...
However, after talking with people about it prior to I16, I changed my tune and think that they could absolutely allow color customization.
I do think, though, that a limited color palette (Pretty broad for PBs, but more limited for WS) would likely be best.
PB's powers based on light could easily have a broad range of colors.
WS's powers seem to be much more based on the power visuals of the Nictus and should likely be kept within that range.
However, whatever the Devs decide on that aspect is fine with me (From "Let Khelds customize their colors however they wish" to "Zero customization for their powers' colors").
Not like my opinion matters much on that anyways
Still... I hope we have another champion within Paragon Studios to get the rest of Power Customization done. Or that BAB's championing for the initial Power Customization carries on with a continued affect upon the team and they complete what many of us seem to feel is a spectacular feature! -
Quote:And we mourn the death of your inner child.Originally Posted by Teldon
My main problem with the 4th one is that, unlike the first three Indy Films (or god forbid the prequel star wars), I just could not suspend belief long enough to enjoy it. It just felt like the whole thing was forced.
-
I need to watch Crystal Skull again.
When we watched it in the theatre, we greatly enjoyed it. It was big adventure/action in the way that Indy movies are intended. I, personally, didn't like the gophers and the monkeys... But, besides those brief instances, I enjoyed it a great deal.
I've only watched it once since then, when it came out on DVD.
I think I may fire up a full Indy marathon over the next few days (Although... Temple Of Doom can be very painful...). -
Are you asking me out for a date, Marcian?
Hmm...
Would I watch it? Yeah. Speilberg and Lucas can deliver a fantastic show.
I'd much prefer another Harrison Indy movie though.
I liked Mutt though. However, what I liked most about him was that it made fun of him. If a movie tried to have him as a main character without the mocking of that character, it'd probably be painful.
Not that this has anything to do with your question... But... Alfalfa!! There... I said it!
And, Marcian... I have a caveat for everything (except one particular thing). -
Steve Martin (circa 1970s): Yeah man... Me and my henchmen like to get real small! We get so small, they try and put us in normal cells in the Zig and we just walk right out.
-
It took me approx. 1.5 microseconds to realize why I was so very familiar with FASERIP...
I used to play this a good amount (second only to AD&D 2nd edition) and, in fact, the Electric-Knight was originally created there!
I will have to revisit this when I have more time and work with your numbers to see what's what!
Steel Claw... You, sir, are a delightful mad man! Thank you!
Also... I found just about every single book from this game in PDF format online many moons ago.
It was very cool to sift through it all (Including the extensive tombs of existing characters in the multiple alphabetized catalogs) -
For the record, mine goes up to 11.
-
After watching the Q&A portion of the NYCC Panel (where a player brought up Ancillary Pool Customization), I thought this might be worth bringing up!
The topic and priority level of Pool (plus Ancillary & Patron and) Power Customization (And EAT power customization as well, if wanted)
Now, I was thinking (with complete respect and understanding of the whirlwind tour for the Devs on the East Coast) that maybe Noble Savage was caught a bit off guard and didn't quite access his proper knowledge of the topic when it was asked about at the panel. Or maybe he really hasn't been on top of that stuff, as it was sort of prior to his transition (I think). Posi was the lead and, from my limited insight of things, Back Alley Brawler and his crew were largely responsible and in-the-know about the subject. I can easily see how, especially after all of the focus on Going Rogue, this may not be on the forefront for the people/devs that were on the panel.
Regardless, this is NO attack nor criticism of David or any of the developers, nor any kind of base for demands put onto them. They have limited resources to spread around for what they believe is best (including our feedback) and I'm happy as a lark with the game these days.
I simply hope to, at least, satisfy my own curiosity as to the general level of interest in Pool Power customization...
And, if anything more at all, honestly help the developers understand the degree of interest/priority it holds with players (If it at all differs from their current interpretation).
Also, as to the question of why it hasn't been done and what problems there are (Besides the obvious amount of work it takes to rewrite all of the powers and such in order to incorporate customization)... The main difference with the Pool, Ancillary and Patron Customization is that some new User Interface needs to be worked out on how to fit those on the screen and where to fit it in the context of the game. EATs may also suffer from the UI issue, as they have so many more powers (And differing branches/subcategories) to choose from.
The current Power Customization screen is based on the Primary and Secondary powers only. And, as such, the ability to customize them is available at character creation.
How and when the other powers you can choose later in the character's career should be shown is a design question that first needs to be answered and then needs to be created.
Perhaps just a new tab/subcategory within the Power Customization screen... you could switch to Pool Powers with the further collapse-able subcategories of each Pool. And then include Ancillary and Patron Pools on that screen or within another tab of its own.
I've seen Pool Power Customization brought up time and time again and that is why the reaction and response at the NYCC panel surprised me.
I've just assumed it was a major priority for the majority of players (But I could totally be wrong about that and hope to maybe find out -as best one can "find out" such things). Meanwhile, the general response right after Issue 16 was that Pool Powers and the like would likely have to wait until after Going Rogue.
Here we are (Although, I think the coding team is pretty occupied with Incarnate stuff) and those that are under the impression that Power Customization is lacking without the Pool Powers being included are perhaps wondering if, when, how, why this aspect will be taken care of.
So, maybe it is not so important to as large a percentage of players as I had surmised!
Let's see if we can find out!
I'm not sure this is the best way to go about it, but perhaps a 1-10 level of priority from the players' perspective (If they had the final say of developing decisions!).
Also, feel free to just discuss the topic of Power Pool, Ancillary, Patron, EAT Power Costumization
From 1-10 where does Pool (plus Ancillary & Patron & possibly EATs) Power Customization fit on your scale of priority?
1 being something like, "eventually we'd like to fulfill that, but there are so many other things of higher priority"
4 being roughly, "it's on the list but multiple things above it may put it off for quite a while"
6 being roughly, "it's on the list and, while other things will take priority before it, we'll try and start focusing on it sooner than later"
10 being something like, "Zones, Incarnates, Moon Bases? They can WAIT. This game needs Power Pools customizable ASAP!" -
Right.
While I am sure they will continue to add level 50 content, the end-game plan (As far as I understand) is not about adding new content, but, instead, giving reasons to do the existing (And additional) content.
Now, it also seems like they're adding specific incarnate content.
So, it should be a win/win for people who also want new content.
The big thing to always remember is that it takes a lot of time to make new content. So, expecting a ton at once is not realistic.
Steady increments of chapters of content, however, is a healthy expectation (in my opinion). -
Quote:I have my top agents investigating that very idea!Originally Posted by Golden Girl
Maybe the name on the box tricks them into thinking the game is about heroes?
Stay tuned!! -
Quote:While this may not help you at all with this issue, some people play Villain side because they want to play villainside.Originally Posted by AzureSkyCiel
But that doesn't make it any less of a problem. I mean the question comes up: "Why play X when I can play Y?"
Story interest balance is as important as game play balance.
I like it. I play there. When I want to play a villain.
It seems that the majority of CoX players wish to play heroes and play in Paragon City (WEIRDOS!!). There are numerous reasons for this that have nothing to do with the content, and are more to do with personal tastes.
I just accept this and that this game is cool to at least have the option for those of us who like it.
You can lead a person to play the game, but you can make them rob banks. -
Quote:I could be wrong, but I think that the new zone events might be something else for level 50s to do.Originally Posted by Eva Destruction
So, um, what was the big complaint about introducing the incarnate system with i18? Nothing new for 50s to do. So now that we're getting incarnates for stuff to do we get....new task forces? That's it? And the new arcs are going to be for a level range that got new arcs in i17?
Am I the only one that thinks they got it backwards, and the new arcs should be for level 40-50? Or even 45-50? Since it doesn't look to me like 50s will have a lot of new stuff to do with their new Incarnate abilities at all. Soloists will get a grand total of nothing (well ok, there are new tip and morality missions, but those aren't specifically incarnate content and all level ranges get them) and everyone else will get a frenzy of people running the new TFs for the badge and then abandoning them in favor of more speed ITFs unless the new TFs give a good enough reward to incentivize running them. In which case people will speed-run them. I hate speed running, so I'll get new tip missions, which hopefully will be good because they'll mean the Malta Gunslinger Action Figure and Doc Quantum's Moral Quandry show up less often.
So I guess what I really want in i19 is new arcs for my 50s, and more tip missions featuring stupid crazy chaos on convenient terrain, kamikaze Scrapper allies, and/or the opportunity to punch Nazis in the face. Oh, and some level 50 hero tip missions with CoT, because there aren't any that feature them as the main enemy group.
Don't get me wrong... more is better, but I don't think that 1) there is that little to do as 50s and 2) that the Alpha Slot was pulled entirely because of lack of things for 50s to do.
I think that the Alpha Slot was pulled for a few reasons, mostly because of how it was presented.
Now it sounds like we're getting a story arc to unlock it (I could be wrong).
That is just one change that I think is in there.
I'm sure there's more. -
Someone might wanna animate that hair out of GG's face... She doesn't look too happy about it!!
-
A space/other-planet zone. Whether a moon zone, mars, wherever...
And to be lazy... what FredrikSvanberg said here:
Quote:100%!Originally Posted by FredrikSvanberg
Orbit. Earth far below, moon high above, fly granted to everyone in the zone. You enter and exit through a space station airlock. The space station is often under attack. There are various satelites and chunks of rock and other space stations scattered about the zone, with different enemies inhabiting them.
Also, I have always wanted to see a western world in an mmorpg.
I'd definitely enjoy any and all time travel aspects, although I understand the enormous undertaking each of those would be (Just about every single damn thing needs a new art asset).
Other than those...
an Abstract Dimension Zone!
Ups, downs, lefts and rights spin in confusing disorder... land, sky, water, brains... all mixed up, messed up and impossible to understand.
How I'd go about that... Not entirely sure... But something that makes the Shadow Shard seem like a plain, sterile, white, perfectly-square box.
-
Hehe... okay, I have no idea who Katy Perry is (This seems to be a win for me).
Let me tell you...
Peoples is peoples...
And peoples is insane.
It's unavoidable.
Sanity is a lie and insanity is their strawman.
It is funny, because, at the same time, I agree with Zombie.
Then again, I say, let's ditch all of our clothes and get over stuff.
Anyone who gets out of line, we shoot them and continue on our way, naked, free and over ourselves and all this nonsense!
Or whatever... so a skit got pulled from Sesame Street.
Maybe the parents were concerned that their kids were going to be subconsciously compelled to be hungry.
And to my friend, Pally...
Quote:But, Pally!! This is where children come from!!Originally Posted by Paladin
...I still don't like to think of woman who's cultivated sexualization as her public face hanging out with the kids at Sesame street.
...
Kids are always hanging around people into sex.
Maybe all naturally conceived children should be removed from their parents!
And, of course, everyone should hide what they're into!
I don't like CoH.
I am just here because I am pretending not to like following the stock market! Shhhh
And, Paladin, I know you weren't saying these things. I am just building my platform for my upcoming electoral race!!
Sanity is a lie!! And insanity is their strawman!!!
-
Heya, thanks for the offer, Deebs!
I love the style of your art
I'm going to post three here. My main Hero Electric-Knight, main villain Malfaz and... my main disgusting-cephalopodic-alien invader in his bio-mech-exo-comfort-vehicular-suit Zox'Oculox.
I hope some of them interest your artistic sensibilities!
Zox'Oculox
In case you're interested:
That's just a green alien head with one eye and a big gaping mouth (kinda like a muppet). If I could, I'd have ooze and slime sloshing and drooling in and out of his mouth, hehe.
Malfaz (In his self repair brain surgeon outfit):
Well... and here is the Electric-Knight (Possibly b
oring after the other two!):
Thanks again!! -
Martial arts for Blasters?
Oh, I have definitely seen that requested a fair amount.
It's not a bad idea, all on its own merit. I recall seeing some good write-ups/suggestions on powers and such.
*shrug* Just saw this and was surprised to see people not familiar with a common request such as martial arts as a Blaster secondary.
Then again, I do love my blasters a lot. -
Quote:Thanks a bunch for the clarification (and tell them to let you announce it already!Originally Posted by Noble Savage
To reiterate what was said in the panel: we've redoubled efforts to take all newly-developed npc groups and make the vast majority of those options available for players. It's a pretty common request, so we're spending the time to make it happen. Will an IDF-themed set be available for players at some point? That's the hope, yes. But stay tuned--when and how is not something we've announced yet.
The actual announcement at hand is that you'll be able to fight these guys for the first time as part of I19 (updating the Maria Jenkins and Tina Mcintyre storyarcs). ).
I'd say safe travels, but I'm thinking you're back already?
Anyway... I'm looking forward to this Issue already... Some new costume parts always make me even more excited. So, we'll see! -
Well... Here is the picture james-joyce pointed to here as the costume he thought we'd be getting...
Are you positive about this, james_joyce?
Can anyone else recall any specific mentioning/pointing to this?
I'm not trying to question nor blame james_joyce, I'm just looking for confirmation (Maybe I should watch the videos, eh?)
-
I guess I'll just dump this post in this thread... Even though I don't agree/jive with the angry tone of the OP!
Alright, I'm sorry for not posting about this sooner.
If it were as positive as I would have liked, I probably would have, hehe.
Here is the short summary: The things she mentioned in the Q&A were more immediate wishes and things she was looking to do as soon as possible (her "personal crusade")... But ran into the wall of the Code Team's focus being needed elsewhere (repeatedly). So, they have not been working on those improvements beyond looking into them and figuring out how and what... the when continues to elude them (And us).
The rest of this post is probably pointless now, hehe.
And, for the record, I had some great casual conversations with War Witch and this was the only subject that I wanted to make clear that I was asking for sort of semi-official commentary on (Plenty of other things came up, but that was just fun conversation).
War Witch so very much wants to work on bases... It is one of her "personal crusades" and she doesn't seem to be kidding about that at all.
After she became Lead Designer, she looked into fixing up the base editor, researched it and talked to the coders about it.
From what I understand, she was aiming to add new items and really seems to want to allow more than 90 degrees rotation for items (That was one thing she expressed right of the bat)... And I think that the Coders basically said that this was all possible (Certainly the adding new items and such), but the base editor has some major back-end issues AND... You can't be certain what sort of problems things like that can create as you add more code to them.
So, I think that the major point is that they are pretty adamant about fixing up the code to get rid of those back-end issues before they draw attention to the base editor and risk breaking things more and/or put the work into adding items to a messy system (As opposed to fixing the code up and adding new things to it more cleanly).
That is my understanding of that.
Here is what I thought was good...
She/They seem to be interested in fixing the existing editor and not replacing the base editor (As some of us have wondered).
She did not say this outright, so don't take that as a quote or a promise of any sort.
I honestly don't think they'd want to mess up the base builders by swapping out the system entirely.
The BIG PROBLEM for us is (Exactly as we have known it to be)...
All of this requires the CODE TEAM.
The code team is a vital and limited resource that can only work on so much at a time. And it is long work, as most of us understand.
The code team has been occupied by new zones.. and new game mechanics and such... And, as we know... Bases stays put on the list and it gets passed over (and over and over), as other things -deemed higher priority- get the focus of the code team.
The good is that it is a constant on the list...
The bad is that it is a constant on the list...
She told me she wants to get to them.
She was sincere.
I told her that I understand that, because, if even *I* had to choose between say... Power Pool and Epic Pool Customization orBase Editor improvements... I'm not so sure I'd go with Base Editor first (I might, but I'd have to think on it... And if I considered the general player-base vs just my personal wants, I'd probably go with the Power Customization).
I told her about our consolidated lists and extensive feedback and that we could really benefit from some love.
I recommended that, if they could without too much concern of breaking things an without too much extra work, give us some new items, art or low hanging fruit things... it could go a long way.
So... All in all... We are where we've been and nothing substantial has been done to get us anywhere else...
BUT... the current Lead Designer does want to get to it.
She promised content and RP elements and she's delivered on that.
Let's hope that having her in the big chair results in bases getting their due love.
The reality of picking and choosing and being able to spread the wealth in regards to what the code team works on is indeed a giant limitation (Why can't we just say, "Computer... add new base art and allow me to rotate this piece of furniture by 38 degrees, counter-clock-wise"? Instead, we have to save hordes of Oompa Loompas from Vernicisous K'nids just to have a force of workers, who then have to actually take the time to do the actual work. And there's only so many Ooompa Loompas we can feed!) -
Quote:GREAT... I hope nobody is now under the impression that *I* was you.Originally Posted by Venture
...
Oh, and I'd say I was the tall guy in all black with long hair but you'd have to reply "could you please be more specific?"
I have blues eyes... had a 5 o'clock (Or 10PM) shadow...
I was probably nicer than Venture (Or... you know... just nice!)