Johnny_Butane

I no, rite! We're all big scummy liars!



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Now it looks like he's trying to get the thread shut down by a mod.



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A possible history of Axis Earth:


Perhaps like Preitorian Earth, Stefan Richter is out of the picture.

After gaining powers at the Well of the Furies, Cole remains in Europe. Without Stefan giving him a reason to return to America, he lives comfortably for a time.

Meanwhile, without Statesman there to organize the heroes, America is at the mercy of Nemesis and other super powered villains and slides further into Depression. Without Lord Recluse's manipulations, the Weaver focuses Arachnos's efforts on Europe instead of Richter's hometown.

Over the next decade, things get worse in America while Arachnos grows in power in Western Europe. Living the good life, Marcus Cole fills his days mingling with the upper crust and growing out of touch with what is happening around him. By the time he notices the instability Arachnos had created in Britan and France, he is unsure of what to do about it. It's around this time he's introduced to some high ranking Nazi officials by mutual friends.

Cole is impressed by their organization, but appalled by some of their other aspects. But he can't deny Germany's ability to remain strong while the world seems to be going to Hell. He sees them as the best bet in restoring order to the world and reveals his powers to them and offers his allegiance. He tells himself it's for the greater good and will play along while trying to change the party from the inside.

Any resistance Cole meets for not being German or of pure blood is put down by his natural charisma, ability to lead and most importantly, fear of his geat power. He quicky rises through the ranks and by the time the Axis is ready to begin the "liberation" of Europe, he's second only to Hitler in importance to the party as its living embodiment, the Reichsman.

The Axis sweeps across Europe. Key countries already weakened by Arachnos and other factions fall easily to the Wehrmacht and Reichsman's might.
America is in no shape to come to Europe's aid, much less defend themselves when the Axis sets it's sights on them.

The Soviet Union puts up the greatest fight. Even with many supers of their own, the Axis has been producing super soldiers and fantastic weapons non-stop with help from captured scientists from Europe and the Americas. By the mid 70's, the Axis controls the entire world.

Power corrupts, and with no one to temper and ground Cole, he begins to take the party's ideals as his own. Decades pass, Hitler dies, Cole remains young, taking over as leader but grows ever more twisted. What was once an act has now replaced the once noble Marcus Cole. Now, he is only the Reichsman.


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Bill is a walking, talking life lesson for us all.



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Right now they're calling up their buddies to come post against you to tip that balance. If they can't get a turn out, the next post will be noise about how the forums aren't an accurate sampling of all the players in the game, but that somehow these invisible, silent legions agree with them that there is no endurance problem in the game.





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They could have bumped his volume up a bit, because he is a little quiet, but I don't get everying calling him "monotone". I don't hear it at all.



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That's the obvious point a lot of the "build better" people are missing.

If it was as easy and painless to manage the end problem in the game as they contend, people wouldn't have the problem and wouldn't be complaining about it. And despite all their trolling to the contrary, Ultimo_ isn't the only one who complains about end, especially in the early levels. The devs certainly don't need convincing, because they've been gradually trying to relieve the problem in various ways and from what I can see, continue to do so.

The claptrap coming from most of the people giving Ultimo_ grief is saying what amounts to "Poor people are poor because they want to be. Otherwise they'd be rich like me." It's nothing more than e-peen waggery from the usual wastes and Ultimo_ would do best to just turn his crap filter on.



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I concur.
It's a pre-set in Adobe After Effects. I think they just added it to spice up the shot, just like the flash effect when he lands.



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Nor is it the same as hearing, which is likely why they didn't make that claim.


That is true, but you can't deny there room to be more faithful to the concept. Something that was progressive seven years ago doesn't hold up in this case. I argue they were more conservative than not and in my opinion still have a long way to go. I'll never deny CoH was a good first stab at adapting the genre, but that doesn't make it a great adaptation over all and I think it's misleading to call it a comic book inserted into a MMO.

Not to start discussion about it, but you don't consider SO (or any) enhancements gear? They wear out/become outleveled, you slot them on your character and they improve your stats (at the power level). To me that's gear. Simpler than some other game's gear, but it looks/walks/quacks like a duck.

Like I said, I don't deny they got some stuff right. I just don't think that is enough to characterize the game the way they did. A MMO with some moderate super hero overtones and window dressing perhaps, but not a comic book inserted into a MMO.


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That's one way to look at it.

Another is that they exclude the majority of the community and place the opinions of a handful of players they've befriended ahead of the rest and have given them special treatment and say in matters.

Yet another is that they've snagged themselves some Jr. community reps handpicked from the community. They don't even have to pay them; trips, tours and inside info help keep people in your pocket.

I say this speaking generally. I don't know EVE and its community from Adam. It's just a common tactic for larger companies conscious of PR. Look how Valve flipped those Left 4 Dead 2 haters with a simple tour of the studio.


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A few things they said irked me a little too:

"CoH is a comic book that has been inserted into a MMO."

After much argument about the subject on the forums, I don't feel that's an accurate description of the game. I would say CoH is a MMO first and foremost with select super hero overtones nailed onto it or smashed up with a brick to fit inside it. Here the MMO conventions take precedence over comic tropes. This animal is way more likely to appeal to MMO fans and spurn comic fans, as I've observed with friends of mine who are one and not the other. Them trying to spin it the other way around is just going to lead to disappointment.


"We actually listen to our players"

When they feel like it, to select players, some of the time, with no clear indication of when they are or aren't listening. Now how about a Blade Runner quote?



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That's currently in game. You can set that as the starting emote for enemies in the MA and I'm pretty sure Wyvern randomly stand around like that. It could be just posing they used for the video.

I'm hoping the stance emotes are like Ninja Run where you run differently and idle in that posture. Similar to what they have in Chamopions Online with the Beastly run-on-all-fours+stance, Heroic run+stance, Average jog+stance, etc.

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Also, there'll be a number of players who will demand a pancake aura, leading to requests for a breakfast-appropriate power set.


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Followed by demands for customization. Blueberry or chocolate chip pancakes. Waffles. Syrup or no syrup. French toast to satiate the European players...


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I took them to be search lights.


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I think the issue is this game was designed initially with less of a focus on soloing and to be played slower and more deliberately than most players want to play it now. Castle has pointed out that team buffs remove the need for Stamina or downtime, but the fact of the matter is, few people want to be unable to solo well and nobody likes downtime, so Stamina becomes mandatory.

They aimed lower for average performance than most people want, so when you're well below that average in the early levels, it's very frustrating.

They've done a few things to help correct this, however. Making Brawl zero cost end means you always have at least one attack to use at zero endurance, even if it's a pathetic one. If it wasn't for the issues it would cause with IO sets, I'd suggest they should do the same to all Tier 1 attacks. The Beginner's Luck mechanic lowers the number of whiff attacks and indirectly improves endurance effiency in the lower levels, and the tweaks to the leveling curve that have already been mentioned means you get to the 20's and SO's faster.

The devs have been trying to address some of the issues in the lower levels, but that doesn't change the fact the mechanic is frustrating and unfun.

Going forward in CoH 2, yeah I can see them not making the same mistakes. It's interesting to see what Cryptic did when they started fresh with Champions for an endurance system, considering they have the same knowledge of CoX's system, and what players think of it, as the current devs.



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That's nothing.

The Freedom Phalanx novel takes place in 1986. In it we've got a fully grown Justin Sinclair as Manticore who's hunting Protean who had murdered his parents decades before. Positron and Synapse are also in it and the novel gives their ages at 27.

The simple explanation is that like comics, the CoH universe works on a sliding timeline.


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I noticed that. They may be waiting for BayCon, or perhaps after BayCon.



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I thought a bit about the picks you would get back. Yes you would get four picks back, but...

Consider that there are really only one or two powers in each pool that most people would consider "cherry" picks. Since you are limited to four pools, two more cherries wouldn't be all that game breaking. At worst we're looking at someone taking, what, Stamina, Weave, Aid Self and Vengeance?

Prior to level 41, most would still end up having to fill out their build with powers from their primary/secondary(which I don't see a problem with), or perhaps getting "filler" powers like Punch/Kick/Swift/Hurdle but later rather than earlier when the power pick/slots could have gone to a place that needed them more.

I can't think of any severe game breakers this change would cause. If anyone can think of one, post it. Even if they couldn't remove the tier restriction from all of the power pools, removing it from a couple like Fighting and Fitness would help.



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From Paragonwiki
Mantore and lead writer Joe "Hero 1" Morrissey both know the lore. Wrote all of it? No. Contributed a lot and was responsible for it? Yes. Manticore set up many threads to answer canon questions, including a sticky'd one called Fodder for the Canon in the Developer's Corner that AFAIK is sadly on hiatus.


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