Judgement_Dave

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I hope so too, but making new animations aint my preference either. Dual blade for example imho is very very poorly animated, then i rather pickup the existing dual gun abilities (along with some modified AR attacks).

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Maybe an alternate set of dual blade animations could use scissors, secateurs and shears.

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I believe it was issue 8 when we had a massive mission update, the newspape stuff. Or that was issue 9?

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IIRC I8 was newspapers and the faultline revamp. Wasn't I9 inventions? (from memory without checking)

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Imagine that, me, FFM and Londoner agree on something!


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I may just be the end of civilisation as we know it...

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The hero in me feels a need to break this up before it passes the point of no return...

hmm... how to get them arguing again..?

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Too late...

GROUP HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUG!!!

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Hah! Caught out!

You post virtually everything twice.

Virtually everything except the group hug!!!!

Obviously you couldn't bring yourself to post that twice because you.. err.. still hate and want a board war. So transparent, really.

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Imagine that, me, FFM and Londoner agree on something!


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I may just be the end of civilisation as we know it...

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The hero in me feels a need to break this up before it passes the point of no return...

hmm... how to get them arguing again..?

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And I still think the biggest thing they could do to make the game fresh again is slash and re-work all the missions, red and blue side but blueside especially. Yes it's a damn lot of work, but it would be for everyone's benefit. No more 'Talk to', no more pointless glowy clicking patrols.


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Oddly I sort of enjoy the glowy clicking patrols as they are at least a little different to the go-there-and-hit-everything that most missions are.

The problem with many talk-tos is that they aren't really missions in a game where you have travel powers and can safely get to the contact. Also: if it's so darn important that you talk to the person then why don't they give you the phone number?

I've not experienced many MMOs, but thought that CoX should have looked at it's NC stablemate Tabula Rasa for some of its mission ideas. I found some of the variety quite refreshing there. e.g. a talk-to where you're transporting delicate equipment (evidence?) that gets destroyed if you take too much damage - throw in a decent ambush or 2 and that could be quite fun.

Hey - no fair!

The French get to call I16 "Kaléidoscope" - we have the word Kaleidoscope in English and it's a much better title for the issue.


Though after calling it Going Rouge a few times (partly to wind up those who got worked up saying "no - it's not Going Rogue") I'd have gone for that in preference to Power Spectrum.

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That said guys, I remember BaB saying that Brawl was the single most complicated animation script in the game because of the Left/Right switching and all the exceptions (kicks for Archery etc)


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Though a big part of that may be if the engine was built to just have 1 animation per power and so brawl was effectively trying to work around the system. If the system has been altered to support multiple animations in more general usage then adding this to additional powers ought to be easier.

Of course, it'll probably still be the case that brawl remains the most complex, as it has to work with every other powerset.

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The Rikti are returning.

Starting Friday July 17th (4pm BST) and lasting through Monday July 20th (5am BST)


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Does anyone know if there's a server downtime before this goes live?

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Would still like more (much more) dev stories that aren't TF's or SF's please!

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I think GR might give you one or two new arcs

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I really wish you'd stop doing that, GG...

GR is a seperate expansion. It will probably cost us as much as buying a new game.

It is a very different case to the issues that are provided out of subs.

There should be dev-story content in the issues and the existence of GR should not be a factor in that at all.

BTW - wasn't it meant to be the case that we got alternate story issues and tech/system issues? I know MA threw the issue ordering out, but we seem to have moved a long way from that.

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MA - from the start - was rather ill concieved. There's a reason no MMO has done this already.

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Yes, there is - they're all not as good as City of Heroes

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Someone has to be first.

Yes - I know that CoX isn't actually 1st with PCC, but it probably stands as 1st for a MMO of such a size to do it with a generally user-friendly system that anyone and everyone can use without needing technical (programming/graphics/design) ability.

And I disagree with Sing that it was rather ill conceived. The concept is spot on, it's part of the execution that failed.

The idea of an easy-to-use system for players to create missions is what more MMOs need. That's the concept - that's not ill-conceived.

But the execution needed tweaking to stop or remove exploitative missions (or missions falling outside the devs acceptable boundaries) or to prevent exploits from getting into the system in the first place.

It should have launched with a smaller number of resources (mobs/maps) that was added to regularly once it was clear that there were no major exploits in existing assets would have been better than adding so many assets and then removing so many of them when exploits came to light. Then MA PL/farms wouldn't have become such a problem (most of the problem has been because of farms that skew the risk/reward ratio) and authors wouldn't be anoyed at arcs becoming broken when assets are stripped out.

A pretty uncalled-for post.

And I think you're quite wrong about Londoner.

I've never read Londoner as hating everything, as you say. I read his posts more like he likes the game but doesn't like the direction the devs have been taking for the past few issues (particularly the lack of dev-story content and the MA).

I think if he did actually hate everything he'd have gone long ago. Like some other posters, I suspect, it's liking the game that makes him critical when he sees it going wrong in his opinion.

Edited by Avatea

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I'm very happy about Assault Rifle for Defenders.
Trick Arrow/Assault Rifle anyone?!

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Oil Slick, Ignite & Full Auto? That's a lot of orange numbers.

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I foresee a lot of weapon redrawing!

Other than DB have we any sets combinations for ATs where there are 2 seperate weapons for customisation (as this should allow)?

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Now, on the one hand, im VERY happy that this will mean the end of "Fill plz" requests, and MA may actually be used as intended.

But, its going to have an impact on themarkets. Who knows how much? I supsect inbetween trivial and devestating.


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So you should be really happy. You get rid of something that annoys/irritates you and there will be an unknown effect on something that isn't needed in any way shape or form.

Surely it only really has any negative impact if you really, really need those specific sets (purples)... Otherwise higher prices in the CH mean that you make money when you sell off the surplus recipes/salvage - easily enough money to fund your SOs/CIOs.

I've a few purples (not yet slotted) that have dropped for me, but past that I know that purples (and Numina's/LotGs etc) aren't needed to play the game (PvE anyway) and so I've never worried about them. The devs stated that they would be very, very rare (they're probably more common than the devs suggested) and so it was always a road to nowhere pinning hopes/enjoyment upon getting specific sets of them...

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Personally, im getting very confused on the Devs attitude towards Farmers. If they really are going to give all the cream to them, as Issue 16 threatens, I know a lot of people who are going to be pretty upset (translation = lost subscribers, how many up for debate of course). I'm one of them forwhats it worth. To be honest, farmers/farming are, to me, the coffin nail in a game if they reach a critical mass.

Can anyone enlighten me what actually IS the vision of the devs with regards to farmers?

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It's only giving all the cream to farmers if you can't see the other uses of the tools provided, and other intended uses.

Your argument is a bit like me stating that kitchen knives are giving the cream to muggers and murderers - they don't. They're created for use in a kitchen preparing food - the fact that they may be used in ways not intended by the manufacturers/developers doesn't mean that they have really been developed for the undesirable use.

My guess would be that the devs don't mind anything as long as it isn't detrimental to the long term successs/life of the game (and, therefore, to the enjoyment of the majority of the playerbase). I don't think they have a philosophical objection (or approval) to farming or PLing within the accepted risk/reward limits, but when activities step outside these limits they can cause gain undue popularity (in some circles) and cause some in-game instability.

So farming (as in resetting maps or running the same map repeatedly) is (probably) generally fine. The players still need to defeat a number of enemies at 'risk' to themselves for the standard rewards. It's not so far off running any other missions - just that some farmers will pick and chose mobs/maps to suit their character.

But that's not far off non-farm teams avoiding mobs that don't suit them. So we've all done similar when we avoided the CoT arc/mission because we hated CoT... what we usually meant was 'we hate CoT becuase they are hard for this character'.

PLing at the rate that they used to see is (probably) generally fine. As long as real money doesn't change hands, it's still people defeating a number of enemies at 'risk' to themselves for the standard rewards. Again, not so far off running any other missions.

Farming an exploit (usually in the MA) is unacceptable as allowing any progress/rewards for little or no risk means that some players will grab as much as they can as quick as they can. This can lead to:
* Destabilisation of the game markets, with a sudden boost of enormous amounts of (unearned) INF that can leave players who didn't abuse the exploit at a serious disadvantage. Players disadvantaged this way can feel aggrieved and leave the game: bad for game longevity.
* Players who know nothing but the exploit farming may quickly bore of the game that they percive as 'far too easy' and leave.

Exploitative farming can also leave non-farmers upset that 'their game' is being ruined - whilst some farmers might say 'tough', unhappy players eventually stop being subscribers.

The devs game is to keep as many people as happy as possible so that they keep paying and the game is succesfully (and so too are the dev's careers).

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This is actually already in game, too. Look at the tier one power on Dual Blades, next time. One time it uses left hand, the other it uses right hand

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IIRC brawl does similar.

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hmm makes a differetce from previous DX wk-ends they usually finihs at 08:59 Monday morning

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Thought they were usually scheduled to end at c. midnight but in practice carried on until morning maintenance (c.08:00). Certainly been scheduled to run up to the end of Sunday, so this one looks to be scheduled for a shorter duration than previous dxps.

Of course, it may still run until the maintenance slot on Monday morning...

As regards non-farming use of I16 difficulty flexibility, this is great news, Particularly for:
[*] People who often claimed that CoX was too easy with the 5 difficulty levels available might just be able to ramp up the difficulty to suit them and provide a challenge in the dev-content. This alone might take some people back to playing dev-content.
[*] MA authors should actually be able to test their arc spawns for teams of varying sizes even when solo (hopefully they'll put a difficulty overide in MA testing so authors aren't constantly bouncing back and forth to the difficulty-setter).

With possible knock-on effects for others of more teams doing dev-content again and better quality MA arcs (from better testing).

I just hope that the difficulty of spawns is dynamic based upon team sizes. So that the spawns still alter in size if team size changes (for remaining unspawned spawns and for subsequent missions).

If the effective team size is a fixed/static value that remains until the mission owner changes their settings it could dissuade people from:[*] adding more members to a team mid-mission, as the mission gets effectively easier;[*] continuing with a mission (without recruiting) if people leave the team mid-mission, as the mission gets harder and possibly too hard for the remaining team;[*] changing team sizes at all if it means having to pop to a difficulty-setter (and pay, which may be a problem at low levels) every time the team size alters.

So I'd hope the spawn size is dynamicly based on team size - after all it's worked fine that way up to now.

Though the example given of facing a 8-man spawn whilst solo would mean a team size modifier of at least +7 (possibly +8 if simulating 8man at CL:2 or CL:4, which both act as +1 teamsize) an dthis may not be sustainable to larger teams. The server may not be designed to spawn mobs for teams of 15/16 (8 man team with a +7/8 modifier), or some maps may not have room at spawn points for such big spawns. But if 15/16 man spawns aren't possible, I'd hope that the spawn size is still dynamic, but has a ceiling at a reasonable level (maybe 12/13 man spawn).

Of course, I trust that, even with the new flexibility, the existing 5 bands will still exist as the quick'n'easy method of setting difficulty for new player if no-one else.

Excellent addition of the enhanced difficulty selection - suggested both a team size selector (for MA testing if nothing else) and individual selection of spawn size/level difference. So good to see this coming.

A decent selection of power proliferation.

Be good to know if there will be any mission/TF content though... Good as the I15 TF/SF are, it feels like very little story progression has happened outside of TF/SFs for so long. And with big events meant to be coming I'd have hoped the story progressed a little in preparation (and was clearly seen to progress, even if exactly where it was going wasn't realised by the players). But I guess that may come under the 'other features to be announced'.

Odd that there was no mention of colour selection, though there was something to do with 'colors'

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[Android Armor Plate], [Android Blaster], [Android Circuitry], [Brain Lichen], [Plague Spores], [Primordial Moss], [Progenitor Lichen], [Undamaged Android Brain]

All those ^ have appeared in the Invention Salvage section of the AH/BM.

<Personal opinions deleted on second thoughts>

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All these appear to have been removed in Wednesdays/Thursdays patching.

Hasn't realised that he's one of my automatons (and one that sends me a realtime feed of all his activity).

btw: that's not how I'd light a torch.

Sounds like a fun little competition.

Do you have any idea when and where you'll be running it? Or are you waiting to see what suits theose signing up without knowing..?

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According to posi's twitter he's giving more information tomorrow. Well its thursday now here in the EU so gimmie!


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Any announcement may be off due to BSG.


Twitter is now our main source of info about Posi isn't it?

Is the scout for an alien invasion.

Did you really think you could get away with using a pseudonym that is an obvious anagram of 'I is RL ET'???

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Well if you really want Sing

Is this I16

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And the CoP is fixed in this patch too.

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I also read about that fix on the City Vault.

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Anyone here that plays on both Union and Defiant? All of my toons are on Defiant, but the server just doesn't seem active anymore. This has led me to consider moving my main (Jeff Vader) to Union.

So, can anyone provide a quick summary? Or give the pros and cons for contrasting the two together?

I have plenty of friends on Defiant, but hardly anyone is online anymore. What's it like on Union (blue side mainly)? I've only heard negative comments towards the server for a large amount of insolent players.

EDIT: I realize Defiant isn't known to have a large playerbase, but the activeness of most players has definately reduced.

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Might help if you give an idea of play times and any activities you prefer...

If you like TFs then joining "Sals Badgehunters" (may be "Sal's") and "Union Taskforce" (not as busy as Sals) may be a good idea. Pop them in a seperate tab and keep an eye on them to judge how busy the 2 channels are with new TFs/events before deciding for yourself if it's busy enough.

Note: Sals isn't actually server-specific, but it emerged after some disruption on Union Badgehunters (think it was called that) and virtually everything on the channel is Union-based.

A lot of the 'normal' players on Union/Defiant are the same people. There shouldn't really be as much difference as there is similarity.

Defiant always seems to have a lower population and has never struck me as being as easy to team. But most of my defiant characters are villains, and villains is quieter than heroes anyway.

Union seems to have a far healthier TF/SF scene (if Sals vs Defiant Events is a fair indicator).

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I've only heard negative comments towards the server for a large amount of insolent players.

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One of the few true differences in players that I've ever noticed is that many players on Defiant seem to happily pronounce Union as full of noobs/rudeness/undesirables, whereas I seldom see players on Union accuse Defiant of having poorer skills (ingame or social).

But I guess that the main people seriously throwing insults/negative views about the other server will be the few who stick to only one server and have developed a them-and-us mentality. Enough people play on both that it really shouldn't be the case that there are any big differences.

On either server you can get into a PuG from hell - the thing is not to let 1 or 2 bad experiences (so teaming with up to 14 others) taint your view of the whole server population (which may be thousands over any one day).

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Is this the same Defiant server that was running multiple ITFs in the early hours of the morning?

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Damn - I'd never have logged when I did if I knew a TF was about to start up...