Friggin_Taser

Ronin, I think you were actually right in your first reply.

Doug Benson, a stand up comedian known for a certain type of humor, has a whole bit about McGriddles. They are easy to eat, full of calories, and have bacon or sausage on them. They should be called the McMunchy.

I can't help but think maybe, despite so many of us who focus on villain badges more than heroes now having it, someone at NCNC doesn't realize there's a mission with 1 or 2 Outcast bosses in it villainside just yet.

I agree with MB, Going Rogue should handle it. Outcasts as a whole fit the whole theme, as they can be both good or bad depending on the writing of the arc they are in.

(And un-badge related: I missed you guys, too!)

Yeah, was that a pack of lies that Jack came up with or did I...

I honestly can't remember anymore.

That and "We can't let you do old missions because we want them to be unique events in your character's life."

Under Jack, I seemed forced by some cosmic shame to make excuses and fight with knives to hold this game back.

Unlike Jack, I'm willing to apologize for most of the big fights I threw down that turned out to be absolutely meaningless by the great job NCNC have done in the past two years.

Okay, return aside now, as someone throughout the years who has gotten a bad rap as a Jack supporter:

I agree with all of the negative sentiments.

Yes, it's hard to conceive of a time where it's Taser pitted against Jack in a cage match of nerd rage. But since I've been on "vacation," I've watched the dev digest and new issue release notes as every single thing that Statesman said couldn't be done... is done. It might not have been easy to add power customization, for example, but under Positron we at least had the hope for years that it could come. With Statesman it was always a firm "Can't Be Done."

And that's not even taking into consideration inventions, flashback, and architect.

I remember when new issues would hit on test and there'd be a sense of dread looking at the patch notes; which nerf that probably didn't need to happen will I have to fight with forum ranters with today (a mentality that I thankfully have left back in 2007). Compare that to checking out the issue 16 patch notes which are a sheet cake made out of victory and talking owls. No major game nerf, the addition of customization which has been asked for since day one, changes in a few dozen badges a lot of us never expected to get but now have a shot, and quality of life changes no one ever even considered but will drastically change the way the game is played for the better.

Us early adopters had it rough sometimes. It's good to see such a drastic shift towards giving the players as much of what they ask for as possible instead of saying "Nope, Engine Can't Handle It."

With the added bacon it just might be better than sex.

I will leave the obvious joke about having to pay for both to you, the home reader.

Extra pie for you! I love calamari!

(And Katamari!)

Anyone else see the new KFC sandwich?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/0..._n_266848.html

They replaced the bread with more chicken, added cheese and bacon, and it comes with its own body bag with the Col. Sanders' smiling face on it.

Thanks! I think I've spent enough time in "time out" to realize I should never ever ever do what I did again.

Hugs for everyone! And pie!

I loved the badge changes so much that I kissed them, like a man would kiss a woman.

What I'm saying is use a sanitary wipe if you plan to also kiss said changes in the near future.

Sure, but I'm so lazy.

Probably from all those McGriddles...

Contrary to popular belief, I am not Jack.

I'll bring the McGriddles

So I've completely lost track of when Rikti Raids happen. Is there a set time of the week to be in the War Zone hanging and banging rikti skulls in? If not, I motion that we create one.

Grats to Wolfskirscha and Data Bug for hitting 50 on their Ice Tanker Hjortur and Ice Controller Snowglobe.

Snowglobe was created last Christmas day... unfortunately he ruined his own schtick by dinging 50 on Boxing Day.

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I'll be back when/if they ever come around and accept their share of the burden.


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So you'll be back tomorrow since this latest threat to quit is just a desperate cry for attention like all the other idle threats?

In all seriousness, though, get off your soapbox. I'm ashamed Statesman even replied to your temper tantrum. What part of issue 7 was a lame duck? The hundreds of 40+ villain story arcs that were needed to finish CoV? Recluse's Victory, which is still one of the most populated PvP zones? Mayhem Missions, which were so good they ported them over to heroes and were EXACTLY what people asked for before they were announced?

So please, if all you are going to post is histrionic ranting and threats to quit, do us all a favor and actually be a man and do so.

But is what you want feasible?

People seem to be overlooking the fact that right now we're playing a 3-4 gig beast when the original CoH was a little gig baby. We're dealing with a LOT of code that takes a LOT of testing to get new content added. And we're also dealing with a far more critical playerbase right now than we were at launch. If something goes on test that isn't 100% perfect (Flight poses, looking at you), you can be sure there'll be protests.

While the general idea of "Give us more more more NOW NOW NOW" is okay if you want to be disappointed every issue, the big picture cannot be ignored. We're dealing with a game that literally has hundreds of thousands of missions for their hundreds of thousands of players. And we've already been shown in the past with new content that the playerbase is not above writing it all off as "just more fighting in a different map."

So tell me, Deathstrike, what does the playerbase want right now?

More costume pieces? Well people are complaining that the devs are wasting their time on those.

More high level content? Well people are complaining that they'd rather run alts or low levels than focus on a loot-heavy end game.

More missions? People say it's all the same mission, just different enemies and textures now.

Faster updates with fewer bugs? Do you really think cutting down on the development time would mean less bugs? Do you really think that making a new issue every 3 months wouldn't drastically cut back on the amount of content each issue had?

People are demanding the game grow like it did when it was in its infancy. Back then, we didn't have 5% of the things we have now. Back then, we literally were only half the game we were now. Growing naturally levels off. You can't tell a teenager to suddenly grow a new set of teeth.

I'd like to see an actual list that mattered: The release date of each issue and how large file-size wise each update made CoH/CoV. Then we'd actually have data we can use. Because just say "Well issue 1 only took 2 months to come out blah blah blah" is ignoring a large part of the delays.

After digesting this thread for a little while and thinking about it fully, I've come to a conclusion.

The Playerbase really doesn't know what it wants.

Reason: Look around this thread. Then look around the training room forum. How many posts do you see where someone says "Put I8 on live now!" versus how many you see that say "Wait and fix all the bugs first!" How many times over the past year have we heard the "I'd take a whole issue of just bug fixes" hogwash versus how many people claiming there's not enough in an issue to warrant its development? Or the people claiming they want smaller updates faster versus those who say there isn't enough in each update?

So, going by what the forums have stated they want, we can make this list of demands:

* More stuff in each update
* Less stuff in each update
* Wait until all bugs are fixed
* Push it live now and worry about bugs later
* Give us more missions and content for level 50s
* Give us more missions and content for every other level for my alts
* Give us more costume pieces
* Stop wasting time developing costume pieces
* Just give us an entire issue of bug fixes
* Bug fixes are not content and shouldn't be wasted on an issue
* Give us faster updates with new content
* Take your time and finalize content, don't just give us halfbaked new stuff

See where the problem comes here?

I think it's a bit of an oversight to think that just because some things are veteran rewards, they don't count as content.

Let's face it: wings and trenchcoats have been asked for since launch. Now we get them. Many people in the past have made posts that they'd accept a whole issue of just costume updates.

I think that's what's the problem here: people casting off their own expectations as those of everyone else's. Just because you don't look forward to new costumes doesn't mean someone else out there isn't coming back to CoH for I8 just because of them. A lot of people wrote off Issue 4's costume pieces because of personal prejudice. It just comes off as people trying to claim they know what everyone wants.

Yes, Faultline is a weird leveled zone. But speaking as someone who levels a character to 50 controller through I5/I6 and has a level 34 defender now, I'm not seeing this crunch in the late 30s anymore, especially with Striga and Croatoa. All you have to do is time it out more. Grab a level 30-35 story arc just before dinging 36. Pump up difficulty to keep it even con or better. With my controller, I was doing level 30-35 arcs clear until 37, then I had more than enough time to do the 35-40 stuff without even touching the Envoy of Shadows. PvP Zone missions and safeguard/police band missions will make this even easier.

I think the Greek Mythology game was just a red herring or a forum rumor.

It seems like Cryptic is touting three games right now: CoX/MUO/and the tentacle-laded adventure game. Perhaps a Lovecraftian PC game?

While I'm sure Statesman is working on MUO, I thought there was another game in development, too, that was more of his "baby" in a way. We all know how States was brought in as lead developer of City of Heroes long after its development, so I always got the sense that, while he loved this game, he wanted to develop one from the ground up himself.

Maybe all those tentacle beasts on the Cryptic website is a clue...

It was announced, more or less, in the 2nd Anniversary address from Statesman and Positron that happened this past April. It should be on the mainpage of the website.

So far, Positron has had big gloves to fill, but he's been doing a good job in my opinion. Some stuff we never thought we'd see because Statesman outright rejected them are being considered by Posi (75 accounts per SG instead of 75 characters, etc).

I remember...

... originally being very cynical towards CoH, I played simply because my brother bought the game and highly recommended it. I proceeded to make a character just to run around Atlas Park annoying people. So I went up and started hitting on a character in l33+ speak until my brother saw me and said "That's a dude."

... I remember the first two weeks or so of CoH being a haven of Punisher clones because the Punisher movie came out around that time.

... I remember remaking my original character (Plot Device) but forgetting to delete him first. So I had to pick a new name for my character at the last minute. The only name that came to mind was Friggin' Taser...

... I remember how fun and chaos of sewer teams in the early levels. What we have now in Atlas isn't the same as it was back then with 100+ people in the sewer at the same time.

... I remember the huge rush of heroes hanging out at Icon with issue 1. I also remember the bug where you couldn't leave a mission if a zone had multiple instances, causing much debt.

... I remember the "nerfs" to fire imps and phantom army in issue 2 being the death of all controllers EVER according to the forums. That totally happened.

Issue 8 is shaping up to have some many little quality of life fixes that have been asked about since the beginning of time...

Grats on Bert for hitting 50 with his brute, Toothless Aggression!

You get a huge end of trial bonus at the end for participating in it.

I think the reason why they don't give XP is simple: it'd be like giving people a neverending Dreck map. The boxes keep respawning and you can have 20+ people in the mission at once. So make teams with tankers/blasters or brutes/corruptors and take turns nuking things for fun and profit while everyone gets XP. With that many people in the zone at once, it'd be mass production powerleveling.