Grey Pilgrim

I'm... not particularly happy with that, since one of Going Rogue's selling points is that you get in with all the Incarnate stuff. I understand that VIPs need to have things F2P people don't have, but it seems like you can make that plenty appealing with other free stuff (the access to new story arcs and 400 "free" points is a huge one already).

Heck, even letting the first few Incarnate powers work could be a good idea, as a step in to the system and to get people to want more... as well as keeping people happy that bought Going Rogue. I know playing for free is playing for free, it's just... cutting people out of these entirely doesn't really sit right, because of past setups where Going Rogue was needed for new Incarnate stuff, and because so much of the new game is going to be Incarnate stuff.

If I hadn't watched The Princess Bride a week ago, I'd probably watch it tonight. He played that little part to perfection: "Yes, you're very smart. Now shut up."

Because it's a story that does not need two movies to make. The reason they're doing two is that they're grabbing extra stuff from all of Tolkien's many appendices and associated writings. As I noted earlier in the thread, while I enjoy reading most of Tolkien's extra stuff (I'm glad Christopher has kept working, and that we have received The Children of Hurin and The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun in recent years), I also don't think it's needed or necessary for The Hobbit. Gandalf and Bilbo finding the ring are more than enough or a tie in to The Lord of the Rings... this movie makes me fear feature bloat.

Like I said, I'm hopeful that the two movies will be solid and I'll want to watch them as much as I have the LOTR movies. But the move still seems questionable, and not everything in the original movies was great (piles of falling skulls was one brief but notable thing, just to name one). The production values will be there, by all accounts of the pictures, but I'm also not so silly as to get my hopes too high, even with directors and actors that I like.

Two things I wanted to comment on. Are epic archetypes unlockable like Controllers? I sure hope so, I'd hate to lose access to my Kheldians... I'm going to hope you just forgot to mention where they go, but it would be great to have that answered.

Also, can you please, please, please stop adding content to the level 20 range? That range has more content than the level 30-40 stretch at this point, and much of it is the newest in the game (and what isn't new can be pretty decent). I guess you are adding this in to continue the story from level 20 in Praetoria, but it still makes little sense with where other game content is. The level 30-40 range could really use some new stuff, and some level 40+ material would not go amiss either.

*swings a pocket watch in front of Penny* You are getting sleepy. Very sleepy. Now, you will not leave Victory or City of Heroes. When you wake up, you will feel an irresistible desire to never quit the game.

*drops the lame act*

Please?

Seriously... who will keep Voo happy if you leave? I don't even want to think how it will be with you gone. *shudders*

I prefer getting the alpha rare boost before jumping into the trials. Being -3 rather than -4 is rather nice, especially during the collection phase of Lambda. So anything WST is good, though the trials would be fine too.

Yeah, I do wish KB did damage to foes. Forget the name of X-Men game on the PS2 (and other consoles at the time... think it was X-Men Legends) was that KB did extra damage. Colossus could knock bad guys back into others and the collision did even more damage. Awesome. Wish we had that here.

Still, the next option is to just give KD or KU to melee powers. I don't think it's an issue with range, as you can follow up with other range attacks. Things like Solar Flare having it are a big issue, though.

I'm admittedly curious as well, especially since they did an overall good job with the LOTR storyline. Still, even my love of Middle Earth and knowing about all the extra stuff going on at the same time (or enjoying the sprawling mythology of The Silmarillion) doesn't keep me from knowing it's rather incidental to the story of The Hobbit.

We'll see how it goes and how they break it up, but seeing the scenes does remind me of the LOTR magic.

Well, on the one hand, these movies do have a long and grueling shooting period on a lot of locations, which is notably different than most films. They also put work in at all hours (scripts being adjusted and slid under actor's doors at 3 AM, according to LOTR extras), so it's not like their slacking for the work.

But yes, on the other hand and in the universal scheme of things, it's an obscene amount of money for only 9 months work. I try not to think about how much my computer engineer friends from college make, and they have comparable or less schooling than I do. It just ain't right.

Still, I'm glad they're willing to work so hard on these.

Didn't really care about this movie at first, but seeing that bit (and the plot line) intrigues me. That is the kind of thing that makes them a hero, more than being some big guy that can punch stuff.

From how it has been explained, you rechoose every time you go back to Premium. That way you're not locked into those characters automatically when you go back to Premium.

Read what he said. YOU pick those slots yourself, just like the current token system. And that's global, the disadvantage of being a non-VIP and playing for free.

*added*

Moo, I would guess you'll have the same amount of slots.

Ha, I did that at first as well!

Here's the thing, though. How are global channels being open to Premium players really going to take anything from VIP status? I can completely understand gating more content, powersets, costumes, etc., under VIP status, and that's what VIP is going to do. We keep talking about being able to purchase stuff and get it in Premium mode all the time, but the devs don't have to do that for a lot of things, and can even limit that so people want to keep getting VIP status (not to mention the "free" points every month).

Better communication channels for players that are at Premium will make sure they have things to do with other players more easily, enticing them to play content that they hear the others talking about, or to get costumes and things those VIP people have. It also can keep players who need to go Premium for a bit interested in going back to VIP, rather than being annoyed that they can't keep up with things as well, which can easily draw them on to other games.

There's plenty going for making communication easier for non-VIP people... the main thing I can see against it is RMT, but that's an issue no matter what you do, and can be limited with this some by keeping it to Premium and higher for channel usage.

I'd definitely put Mystery Men in the same boat as Dr. Horrible, which manages to spoof the genre while somehow embracing it and still telling a good story for the genre (not unlike how Princess Bride does the same for the fantasy/swashbuckling genre). It's hard to say that there isn't a spoofing aspect to Mystery Men when the main "heroes" are a guy that "shovels well," another that shoots forks at people, another that gets "really furious", one that farts at people, and last but not least, one that quit grad school to throw a bowling ball at bad guys: a bowling ball with her dad's head encased in it.

Incredibles jokes about the genre (you caught me monologuing!), but I'd say it's a more serious look at it than Mystery Men and Dr. Horrible. But still, this shows why lists are so difficult. Criteria can range so much for people, even when looking in a specific genre!

They play with the idea some with the Runabout in DS9, don't they? And then also that one rebel group fighting the Cardassians that Chkotay was from (sorry if I manged that spelling... not a fan of Voyager) and was also featured in TNG? I know they were using whatever they had to hand, but I did like the use of smaller craft around all the big cruisers type ships.

Yeah, I could see weariness in the last couple TNG movies... the scripts weren't all that great, and there was spark missing from everything, other than maybe the new Data singing at the very end of the last movie.

Ha, I completely forgot about the opening to that episode. That one is hilarious, too. John de Lancie played off of Stewart in every episode he was in.

Oh, well that makes their too many Shrek movies approach even worse, then!

If they did that, maybe that would make them allot some time for adjusting them. But who knows... Kheldians have always been red-headed stepchildren, for all that you would think an unlockable AT should work just as well if not better than the other ones (and I don't mean that Kheldians should be more strong than other ATs).

My comments on communication differences is from the side-by-side comparison shown here. Premium's only channels listed are "Local, Team, Whispers (Tells)." Nothing else. VIP's specifically notes "All game channels, and can create them." The implication is that Premium cannot use any other channels than local, team, and tells, hence my earlier comments.

Did they state otherwise somewhere else? If so, they need to clarify their side-by-side significantly, as that's a fairly significant detail. I'd also love to know what they mean by "limited" for inventions with Premium accounts.

No, I think the free aspect is nice, as there have been plenty of stretches where I had to let my account lapse: I've even stated that I am going to be taking advantage of the game in that sense (I've thought about checking out LOTRO, to be honest, but I don't have that much gaming time). So there is no asking for too much.

Being able to communicate with players checking out the game is a good thing. If I were new and coming in and could never find a team (since I didn't know about or could use channels), I'd think the game isn't worth playing. And if I'm doing F2P and not buying goodies or going VIP because I don't enjoy the game while playing F2P, that's a bad thing as well.

I understand the logic of segregating some things for VIP players... but adequate communication tools is not one of the things needed. More content, more powers, more access, etc., is what is going to make VIP enticing, and they already have that. Cutting out communication tools is a bad idea.

I'm already concerned enough about all the people posting about "F2P player cooties." I'm sure we're all better than that on Victory, but segregating players and making it harder to communicate are not things I would look forward to with this new system.

And thank you for the cookie.

*added*

Hamster, in case you're not joking, UStream is that new video channel thing the devs are using for some reason to communicate with players. Not sure why official videos, posts, etc., on the website (tied in with other types of media) aren't good enough, but whatever. I miss out on tons since I don't sit on Twitter and Facebook. Meh.