Forse
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Posts
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Joined
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Actually, I don't count providing a single animation that's been in the NPC selection for ages as a toggle power for PCs as counterbalancing every time they've done something that is either detrimental or simply not helpful to RP.
Whilst I deeply appreciate [Walk], it is not the remedy to every issue, and shouldn't be waved in our faces as "Why are you complaining, you have this". -
Quote:Oh, I've known it too. All too well from various positions/sides. This example just has a personal element to myself.
Seriously though, Forse. Most of have known for many years now that if they have 2 equal options to do something in the game, one advantages RPers and one doesn't, they ALWAYS choose the one that doesn't.
I'm only applying it so dramatically to GG because it's the latest example, and compared to the other examples where they could have chose to add one of two beneficial things and went with the least beneficial - this time they're consciously taking away.Quote:Frankly, I think applying this to the demise of GG is over-the-top.
Any community manager worth their salt is aware of the main social groups on the servers under their care. Especially the vocal ones, and the positive contribution ones. Roleplayers tend to fall under both categories - and there are two main Roleplayer servers (Virtue and Union) and there are two main Roleplaying locations on Union (PD and GG). They should be aware of us. The development team should have at least been aware of us when making their decision.Quote:To play Devil's Advocate, in this case the changes to Galaxy affect one set of RPers on one server.
What would have been nice is an acknowledgement of us when they had to make the decision to remove GG. And the alternative offer (this lvl 14 Ouroboros map) shouldn't have been made without presenting it as a dialogue - because as we're well aware, a level restricted zone for RP is pretty much pointless and worthless.
Instead, what they've done without actually saying anything, is confirm that once again Roleplayers are a second-thought. -
We've never actually complained about the opportunity the destruction of Galaxy City represents.
What we complained about was destroying our venue for our social RP, with no replacement offered beyond the "Oh, but you can go to the Ghost of Galaxy zone, if you're level 14." Which kind of completely slaps us in the face and misses the point in one swoop.
But, I've given up complaining about it, they won't do squat about it to help the RPers they're displacing (by actually listening to them), so we'll move and adjust.
Woe betide them they do it a second time however. -
I have a reformed Troll character, who's supposed to be 6 foot 9. Even matches on the height slider to that. There's fiction dealing with him being pretty tall and too big for his more milquetoast attitude now he's off the dyne.
I can understand why -heroes- are bigger than the NPCs. That's the way it should be. You can even understand that in the gangs, the bigger/taller, stronger guys (especially in gangs like the Trolls) would get further and last longer.
Civilians however, and the weird way the entire world is scaled wrongly (take a look at the cars sometime) means that he looks, on a good day, about average height in his civvies.
This is solved by his massive suit of combat armour however
. But still... in his civvies he seems positively average to the world around him.
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I don't think you quite got what I meant.
(ETA - Not worth arguing with you. Removed. Forget it. I'm going back elsewhere.) -
GoldenGirl, you realise that that quote from Black Scorpion directly contradicts the other statement right? Therefore it does not support anyone's argument in the way they think it does.
A new ITrial every issue
Vs
Sometimes (their word, not mine) rewarding multiplayer play
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Hyperstrike, I agree and understand what you mean. In fact in the theoretical side of MMOs (okay, so Virtual World Theory) just the ability to communicate and interact with other parties is enough to make it Massively Multiplayer. Nothing is ever, ever set in stone with regards to having to work together on a single goal.
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I'm going back to the creative section now, Cya. -
If you want to continue posting to the forum... then you need to be VIP.
Since a lot happens on the forum, I expect a lot of current RPers will remain VIPs.
I've not thought about the announcement enough to say anything more at this stage, and I'd hate to say something... overly emotional. -
Quote:This, a million times over.
You want cloud computing? Have your own home server, storing your data. Access it around your house via a properly secured wireless network (or wired network) or dial into it from outside and procure your documents from wherever in the world you may be. Do you really want to trust third parties to all that data, more than we already do?
I see the Cloud hype as the Secondlife hype went.
Huge expectation for ground-shattering difference to our lives online, that would fundamentally change the way we used the internet forever...
And then there were too many issues people had to go through with it, sound issues based in fact (along with the scare-mongering issues too, can't forget those). However, there are legitimate issues with the The Cloud, and I don't think it's going to live up to its hype.
The developments that happen in the shadow of The Cloud might prove useful, but then it won't be as intricate as The Cloud is.
((Pah, "In the Shadow of the Cloud" is already taken as a title for a book.)) -
The following story can be found as a late edition entry in tomorrow's papers - 9th June
Construction Raid
In an unusual move, a group of Trolls were spotted raiding a local construction company shortly after 7pm yesterday in the Overbrook area of the city. It appears the gang got away with several pieces of plant equipment, including a prototype digging exoskeleton. Trolls are not commonly seen in the area, though it is believed this gang made their way through Skyway after a Troll Rave before descending upon the construction zone.
A spokesperson for Grandloch Construction was unavailable to give comment last night, however it is understood they are already helping the police with the case.
Graham Cook, creator of the exoskeleton, did speak out about the robbery via Twitter last night, stating that he "may be able to activate tracers" in the suit. Cook's electronics development firm had recently been acquired in a yet unannounced business move. His comments regarding the case have since been removed from the social networking site, amid fears this loss could cost him his recent run of luck. -
Quote:Definitely not disagreeing with that, but considering the genre and setting of comic-books, I feel the writing has to be there and to of a high standard as well.
This kind of enemy class downgrading as the levels go up is a far, far, FAR better way to demonstrate apparent power than any length of text telling you in words how awesome you are.
In a perfect world the narrative story and the narrative action would blend seemlessly. We'd have conclusions that can't be explained by in-game mechanics and events explained to us in reference to what we actually did and achieved. You wouldn't -have- to read them or any story part, but the level of writing quality and its incorporation into your own gameplay should at least pique your interest.
Unfortunately, that's in a perfect world. And don't get me started on what I'd like in a perfect CoH.
Be careful where you draw the lines, for things are never as simple as having just two sides to an issue.Quote:That latter group justifies annoying the heck out of the former group in my opinion. -
Quote:Eh? I wasn't talking about the current stories of Trials at all. In fact we probably agree on more points of the current shody standard than disagree.
Oh right, because the trials represent a triumph of MMO writing.
The whole Incarnate system is an utter failure in writing; from the character-hijacking in a game that prides itself on its customization to the reliance on a Villain Sue and a sudden omnipresent and insane! cosmic force to explain why they're recycling the same villains we've already fought before to the seeming obsessive need the dev team has to write up a storyline explanation for gameplay mechanics even though all previous attempts *cough*powerproliferation*cough* have been terrible and mostly ignored.
As far as "writing" goes, I want glorified paper missions. I would rather have no story to speak of than the tripe that passes for story these days. Make some arcs with neat mechanics and just don't bother slapping the half-*** attempt at a story on after the fact.
What I was talking about was that to make an "incarnate" level of solo-play work, the writing needs to be of a high level. You need the suitable context to your abilities.
Why you ask? Because you need to feel special. There needs to be a desire to learn about your own exploits, to engage with the material and become immersed in the gameplay. If you're at the pinnacle of the gameplaying (which is what the Devs have deemed incarnates to be) then you have to feel like it.
Why you ask? Because if you don't, you get either bored - or you go into automatic mode. People are hesitant to accept solo incarnate play because it'd be fast and boring and too easy (or something). So my post was addressing all elements of that complaint.
I was definitely not comparing it to the current writing and saying "We need that for solo stories", because we need better than the current offerings in general.
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...The first sentence here disagrees that Fun vs Easy is a false dichtomy, but the rest of the paragraph goes off on a tangent.Quote:Not at all. It's been shown in this very game over and over. From dumpster diving to the Winter Lord debacle to the AE exploits, people have taken the path of least resistance in derogation of their own fun.
Fun vs Easy (Faster) is a false dichtomy. Something CAN be both Fun and Easy. Nintendo make a very lucrative career out of it for their company staff.
Easy (Faster) is not the same as something being Easy (Simple). Both are not inherently un-fun universally. Fun is a subjective concept - you can't dismiss something that is quick and easy as 'un-fun' so easily. -
Quote:False dichtomy.
People will always take the path that they perceive to be the one of least resistance even if it isn't the most fun. Many people want a solo option. But for a large subset of those folks, it has nothing to do with thinking the trials aren't fun. It's because soloing is easier, even if it's slower.
Fun vs 'Easy' (read: Faster).
"Large Subset" - numbers or you're just projecting your own assumptions.
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What people seem to be afraid of is that any solo option will be cheap, easy and fast. Or, it will be cheap, easy and take forever.
For the solo option of incarnate plots to work, they'd have to be incredibly well written single-person narrative stories that give the player the impression of working towards greatness - whilst not dealing an immersion-breaking blow of "but... everyone's doing this?"
If the solo options were well written, with a variety of tasks to perform that could not be automated, that had a random element to them that made people engage and think instead of clicking the same sequence of buttons over and over again - with something in place that made it -harder- if you ran it too often...
That gives me an idea.
Time-gates. Instead of time-gating activities, instead have a monitor on the number of times ran. If you've not done it before, or it has not been done in the last 48 hours... it's on normal level. If you've done it in the last 48 hours, spawns are set at x1.5. If you've done it in the last 24 hours, spawns are doubled, and all mobs have a passive increase to resistance to all. In the last 12 hours? Look forward to 3x the spawn with a passive increase to resistance and damage. Immediately trying to re-play the same mission to farm it? Say hello to 4x the spawns with an increase to resistance and damage and a chance of spawning extra bosses. None of this applies if you're in a group.
Solo farming too easy? Make it progressively harder to do. Don't force me to sit on my hands waiting, and don't force me to team with someone. Give me the option to do it. Always options. -
Sigh, I did have a long piece of writing here. But I was moving toward writing a long, detailed dissertation on the difference between Virtual Worlds and Online Games, and whether either side is particularly right in this instance.
To boil it down into the simplest terms - They're both right, but should stop expecting one another to bow to pressure from the other side.
Solo content and Team content SHOULD be here, and SHOULD be able to share the same space. The Dev team SHOULD be able to provide both in a reasonable time.
Whether they will or not is another matter entirely.
Quote:Actually, if you look into Bartle's take on the situation, it's just that a bunch of people will be sharing a virtual space with the ability to communicate and interact. He says nothing about people having to actually playing together - nicely or otherwise. Interaction is encouraged within a virtual space only - it shouldn't be forced.Like it or not, one of the founding principles of this genre is that a bunch of people are going to be playing together. -
Quote:*twiddles thumbs*
I'm sure they WILL have some solo-way of gaining the new shinies, but it won't be for a while.
Are we there yet?
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Seriously though, if they plan on doing it, they better come out and confirm what they're planning pretty soon. Otherwise I'm perfectly justified in assuming that no, they're not planning it.
This isn't content that needs to be kept secret. This is content we already know about and can experience. If they want to please people and repair morale damage then they'll announce how they'll do that - and roughly estimate when (though I totally accept the "when it's ready" answer, since I know how a development process works).
If they stay silent, it will speak volumes. -
((Hidden amongst the general reports in locals about the Zig))
Minor Zigursky Breakout - Major Pain
Conductor Pain 'Marcus Payne', a minor Rogue Isles face known for his musical themed crimes staged a minor breakout from his cell in the Zigursky Penitentiary yesterday. Police have deemed the Conductor a low risk escapee, stating that his trademark double-barrelled trombone shotgun remains safely secured in its evidence cabinet.
Police continue to track Payne and his accomplices, some of whom it is believed took advantage of the disturbance in the main yard to stage similiar breakouts before they could be contained. Information regarding the whereabouts of Louis Nicolau, Frankie 'Biggo' Jones, Edward 'Eddie' Brisbane, Ricky Harkness or "Judgement" Gee should be submitted to your local PPD station, or the response unit at the Penitentiary on... -
Well, not the -whole- planet, as they're on Earth. But the island, yes. Plausible theory.
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Neil Gaiman's is the -next- one, not the Curse of the Black Spot.
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Quote:Both of these only apply after the merge takes place.
A) Regional servers will be no more after summer, really. I'll be able to hop on Union as an NA subscriber whenever I want.
B) Anything involving a clientside patch (like this one did) must be done at the same time so that you don't have version mismatches on, say, Union because you patched up for Freedom.
Since it hasn't yet, what's your point?
A: We still have regional servers until after the summer, and should expect the service that implies.
B: We can't get on Freedom if we're patched for Union yet. So there can't be any version mismatches until after the summer.
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Every time I bring up the treatment of non-US customers (generally the EU customers, since that's the group I'm a part of), I get shouted down by everyone else. I am sorely, sorely tempted to go "I told you so" at every available opportunity, but I'm just not that petty. The evidence is clear as day anyway.
And I got to play in my primetime in the end, so I'd hate to get into another argument where I'm told I'm the minority and should just like/lump it. -
The issue is not (as I see it) the difference between using the first or second person narrative.
Whichever is used, the cardinal sin here is...
Instructing the player what to think and feel.
Those are two incredibly personal things. The narrative should present the player with all the cues and information necessary to think and feel for themselves. It doesn't need to go over the line to be a good story.
I don't like the Tip missions writing because it tells me what to think about what I'm doing. I ignore it. I make the choices and do so for my -own- reasons.
If I want to trash Frostfire's trophies it's because he looked at me funny the first time we met, or it's because I think he'd find me spray painting smilie faces on them funny (I'm warped), or it's because I want to take a couple and trashing the lot is a good cover, or whatever. The emotional response to the Tip Mission's is the player's own, or the character's own.
It is not for the game to decide for them.
In tabletop terms, I guess it's the difference between saying...
"This could be one of the scariest things you've faced yet. Even the walls are bleeding!"
As opposed to...
"You're more scared than you've ever been before. The bleeding walls are terrifying you!" -
As time was imploding and about to rip a hole in the fabric of reality the speed of the time jumps from entering the door decreased. Sort of like a really urgent temporal countdown. Which is why the Doctor was getting more and more jumpy and suddenly got very relieved when he told himself what do to.
Failing that.
Wibbley Wobbley Timey Wimey.
I'm amazing something didn't go ding when there was stuff. -
@Forse/Force is a pretty obvious choice, so I'm expecting I might get a conflict. If need be I'm going with Forseverse, since it'd fit for the RP I do.
Is there a minimum length for a Global (that isn't 1 character)? Will anyone get stuck below that minimum? What happens then? -
Quote:And I'm so glad when people misconstrue my comments. And then someone follows up with deliberate snark to bait me.
I'm glad that you're familiar with the character database structure so you know the decision to handle it this way was based on favoritism, rather than any pesky details like data integrity, costs, etc.
NCSoft took the account database, and looked at the account names.
They decided that if there is a conflict in place, the login name of the EU player gets the EU prefix.
They decided that if there is a conflict between the global names, the EU player gets a letter chopped off the end.
They drew the line and decided the line was between EU and NA accounts. Then they decided that NA accounts took priority.
That is favouring one group over the other in this decision. It's the very definition of favouring one group over the other. They probably do have financial reasons for the group they picked. Yes they HAD to make a decision and draw a line somewhere. They picked the location of their customer - I disagree with that choice.
I'm not angry at the choice. I'm not going to be particularly annoyed if I become @Fors (@For is pushing it though). I'll change it to @Forseverse anyway if need be. I disagree with the option they took, I'm allowed to disagree with it.
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Acting like I'm whinging then telling me I should be happy with all the extra slots and servers and players I'm going to experience doesn't change my point one bit.
This isn't a major issue - but don't tell me it's an irrelevant issue. And for goodness sake people, this community is better than that blasted sarcasm/snark that got fired at me.
I'm approaching this topic in a level-headed manner without raging at anyone or threatening to quit. That's doesn't seem to have changed the response - so why did I bother?
ETA - I'm drawing my participation in this thread to a close. I've already said my piece and it got nearly exactly the same response as when I voiced my opinions on the forum merge behaviour. I'm done. -
I remember when the forums were merged into one *new* list, and several NA players decided that the EU had in fact been moved to *their* forums.
I also remember I was told I had little right to be insulted by such behaviour at the time. And it stung terribly. Mis-aimed niceness can still be wounding to someone who is in the minority no matter how trivial the majority think the issue is.
The server list merge will not solve every issue EU players have. It will solve a couple of the biggies.
However that doesn't change the fact that the manner in which the managers are handling the case is still true to form of their past behaviour towards EU customers.
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And who says I'm not the devil's advocate?
It's just a number. I passed 616 a while ago too
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I don't care how small the numbers are for conflicts.
Any move by a business that shows preference to one group of customers over another, to the point where the business is admitting they're deliberately showing a preference, will cause a drop of morale in the 'victim' group.
They're getting off lightly because it's a minor issue. But with the long history of the EU players being utterly screwed over on several occassions it feels a bit like being prodded with a stick after being kicked several times.
I strongly urge the Community Reps and Developers to take a long, hard look at their future plans within the community and ensure there's a nice solid downtime where the EU players get a break from the conga line of poor service.
No competitions for NA only customers, No improvements to only NA servers, No NA only events.
And on the flipside, don't insult our intelligence with an EU only event or contest. You don't create a balance by constantly flip-flopping between extremes.
You want to do something for everyone? Fine by me. But don't create any more divides in the playerbase until there's been time for us to heal up a bit and get over this one. -
I agree completely with Z. It's incredibly disappointing that they dismissed the idea of street clothing as "not heroic". There are plenty of street-clothed heroes around, and dismissing it out of hand is pretty worrying - it's a disconnect from the genre they're trying to encompass.
The existing civilian clothing options are restrictive. The baggy options look incredibly dated compared to the newer stuff. There's a ton of 'suit' options but nothing casual beyond the tshirts/vests that stick to your skin totally.
Not to mention the vast majority of chest emblems that are interesting can't be used on the Tshirt/vest patterns without running up off the collar.
Hooded tops, jeans, lower boots, and so on would be more than welcome. We don't need the gang colours logos and so on. But we can use things like the scrapyarder's puffer jackets and hard hats, the troll's body warmers and torn jeans, the boots (I think) the hellions use, the makeshift armour and jackets/jeans/shirts the Lost wear (for that distressed look).
In fact, in addition to that, wouldn't mind extending it to new weapons as well. A stop and yield signs for shields. Parking meter for mace and axe. More improvised weapons for the heroes that are super street fighters.