KianaZero

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So I guess being forced to play as limited a pool of characters as possible if you want anything more expensive than a random roll is Working As Intended?

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... I may be misremembering/misunderstanding, but don't you typically get Merits only from situations where previously the only option was random rolls..?

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That's true, but entirely irrelevant to my point.

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Uhm, actually it's fairly relevant. It is player choice that has made the market distintegrate; there are just as many opportunities for random rolls as before (actually more, if you consider the merits for mission arc completion). If people are not choosing to take that opportunity, it's hardly the dev's responsibility, now is it?

[/ QUOTE ]Its their responsiblity to fix the issue where we cant select the level of the random roll. That in itself is one of the main reasons why people are hoarding merits and will end up hoarding tickets too. The system by design encourages people to hoard so they can select the specific level they want.

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You can't? When did this happen? I can move the level slider just fine to chose which level zone of a reward I want to roll in.

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Merits are supposed to streamline the reward process for that character, and that's not going to be changing any time soon.

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So I guess being forced to play as limited a pool of characters as possible if you want anything more expensive than a random roll is Working As Intended?

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... I may be misremembering/misunderstanding, but don't you typically get Merits only from situations where previously the only option was random rolls..?

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Yeah, that's how it was. But people would Quick Katie or farm something else to get as many as possible, thereby making a glut on the market of what they didn't want.
Now they can do the same thing and get what they want specifically doing the same thing they had before (only now they need to spread out what they do, like speed running each TF in order rather than just one) and they choose a specific reward; thereby eliminating the glut of unwanted IOs.
Heck, they can take a Random Roll for IOs at less than the Merit reward for most TFs, so they'll have MORE Random Rolls than the old system with the same number of TFs.

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This has been suggested before and at one time was an active dev project. During COV beta and after it launched as Issue 6 switching sides was actively discussed by the devs as an on going project. During this time several planning details where discussed. With the release of issue 7 the devs took switching sides off of the table. While some people hold that it was due to balance issues between the archetypes the devs themselves indicated it was put on hod for technical reasons.

Looking at the various mechanics and things that the devs have stated since the technical reason for the hold up has to be the patron badge. With Issue 7 the level 41 - 50 COV content was released including the patron badges and the patron powers tied directly to the badges. The mechanics of COX do not allow easy removal of a badge and since patron powers are directly unlocked by having the badge this proved a problem. Positron has indicated that they don't want patron powers hero side so this indicates that until the badge issue was fixed no side switching could be done.

With Issue 13 the badge issue has been resolved, how patron powers are awarded is no longer as directly tied to the patron badge. Also the devs have made noises that could be interpreted as indicating renewed life to this project. They haven't come right out and said so, more that they indicated several old back burnered and shelved projects are being looked at and worked on. Since side switching fits into this category and the badge problem appears to have been resolved speculation is that side switching is one of the projects that have been renewed.


Stated goals for side switching from the deep past when it was discussed.

* It would be a mission/arc that ended with you choosing to save or kill the family of a longbow member. Depending on your actions you would switch sides.

* You couldn't take any influence/infamy with you when you switch.

* If you think you can abuse it they probably have already come up with a way to block it.

* Yes you retain your AT when you switch. ie tankers don't turn into brutes or the like.

* You can switch multiple times.

Logical deductions based on stated goals and dev behavior.

* You will lose all of your enhancements when you switch sides they don't go with you.

* You will be forced into a respecification when you switch sides. This because the devs do not want Patron Powers hero side nor Epic powers villain side. Thus you will respecify your character and have to pick new level 41+ powers.

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All that is what makes me hope Side Switching can happen one day. I have several toons that were made to switch to one side or the other.

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I'd love to get that background image without the text for my desktop.

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Ditto

EDIT: Nevermind. Others have posted the picture's link earlier in the thread.

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I just wanted to give my two cents feedback on the halloween event. the only thing that really bugs me affects every special event we have where there is a zone announcment. there is no distinction between different instances of a zone when they get over crowded.

Case in point, I see the announcement that zombies are attacking Paragon Island. well that's fine but I was in PI but nothing was happening. I went to my base and started zoning in and out of my base till I found the right instance of PI that was being attacked.

In the end it was PI3 that was being attacked but there were 6 versions of PI that were populated. also I was very lucky to get into PI3 when I did because each time I zoned back to my base to check the next ver the previous versions were full.

my suggestion is to either add the event to ALL versions of a zone that has multiples or state in the zone event channel what zone has the activity.

I have noticed this issue with several events past, please take a look and see what can be done about this annoying anti-player friendly issue.

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I've noticed this myself villainside. There's a warning about an attack in Grandville, and by the time I fly from the Black Market to the boat Grandville 1 is Full and 2, 3 and 4 show no signs of any zombie invasion.

Which means everyone in 2, 3 and 4 miss out completely.

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Brutes have axes and maces, two "meh" primaries. I don't think there is any proliferation in I13.

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Fixt

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"Meh" Primaries? My Axe/Will brute is fairing far better than my Dark/Dark Brute.

Looks even better with the Rikti Axe I earned over the weekend.

Yeah it would have, but I got my money's worth with just that much. ^_^

I can only hope there are others out there willing to try their own take on Reichsman.

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How about Reichman ?

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Cool characters

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cool idea, might be something worth trying. Although wasn't there some rumors or hints that went about that we'd see the focus return to the Reichman? I thought I remember reading something when Ouroboros went live and some devs mentioned it as future content with connection to the coming storm

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The only real hints we've had about the return of the 5th Column was from Manticore a long time ago, he said that the 5th Column would eventually return to the game but under new leadership and in noway be the nice-y-nice group they were, and that was all he said on it. This lead straight to player speculation on who would or could lead the 5th Column to be even more evil than they were, and the only one that we could agree on would have to be Reichsman.
I'm not sure what has been said in the Ouroboros TF, since that deals directly with the 5th Column's fall and such; I haven't done that TF yet.

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I am always willing to draw Nazis.

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Does this mean you'll give it a try?

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Isn't Reichsman the Nazi (5th Column) version of Statesman? I don't have any reference pictures, but I'm certain someone might be able snoop around

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Well, that's the thing, no pictures of him exist. He was never in the game, only mentioned in the City Background.

That's why I'm hoping someone can draw him.

Hello fellow art lovers.

There's something I've been wondering, and having no better place to ask than here, I'd like to know something.

Is anyone willing to draw what they believe Reichsman looks like?

We know what Statesman looks like, and his evil double Tyrant as well.

Considering the heroic tights and leather of Statesman, to the gold armor of Tyrant, I can't help but wonder what the militaristic Nazi version of Statesman looks like, and I'm curious if there's anyone here willing to give it a try.

I can offer you nothing other than my thanks, I'm sorry to say; I just hope it's enough for someone.

I've seen fan art of all kinds, from all different characters, but I haven't yet seen anything of what will more than likely be the future leader of our beloved 5th Column.

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If I can't get onto Virtue can I have two free server transfer tokens so I can play my favorite new character on another server then transfer him back?

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Wow, there certainly a lot of people who want free stuff lately.

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I have not read the entire thread yet, just the announcement. Has this already happened, or have they announced that they're going to do it?

They already merged accounts once before. So only accounts activated after that date would have had limited access. So that alone isn't a huge step. However, NC Soft's web site is STILL selling the games individually.

Now, what exactly does this announcement mean? Is it JUST another account merging, "if you had only one side, now you have both"? Or are they giving all characters full access to either side of the game?

Either way, this is the death knell for the game I enjoyed. City of Villains, already all but abandoned in the last two years, will now never see exclusive content again. It's time to finally accept the facts, and cancel my account. *MY* game is dead.

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Okay then. Have fun elsewhere.

/em bigwave

PS. Can I have your stuff?

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Will those of us who purchased City of Villains and the additional content actually receive some sort of "game" compensation for what have essentially become redundant purchases?

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I'm shocked people are even considering such things.

Comparison: You buy a new game - game #1. Three years down the line, the game company starts to give away game #1 as a free bonus to those who order game #2. Would you, as a customer who ordered game #1 demand compensation?

Or this - Command and Conquer, Marathon, Wolfenstein, Tribes and Sim City are all freeware now. Try going to one of the companies who own those and demand a refund for the game you bought a decade ago.

Hint: If you did, they would laugh at you. You bought a product and got several years use out of it. Just because an older product is discounted/used as a free promotion/made freeware does NOT entitle you to compensation. No business model works that way. It would be insane for them to do so.

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That's quite a near perfect example.

Years ago, I bought Grand Theft Auto for the PC, and then Grand Theft Auto 2 once that came out.

Now, they're both available for free from Rockstar itself.

Do those wanting a refund from NCSoft for making CoH/CoV available to everyone think that I can get a refund of GTA and GTA2 from Rockstar?

. . . . Anyone?

. . . . Bueller?

. . . . Bueller?

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Why do I feel im getting slapped in the face again for buying something that becomes free later on......

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Have you ever actually been slapped in the face?

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Ok, that is sig worthy! *goes off to change my sig*

It was a week or so before I signed up, I was visiting a friend for the weekend so we both could go shooting. He was planning on introducing me to guns and telling me everything I could learn about gun safety, care and use.

Before we left, his brother and the brother's best friend came back and loaded up a game on the brother's computer. The friend called me in to see, and he played his Invul/Mace Tanker, Techo Destructo. After watching him play for about 10 minutes, I shook my head and frowned; "I don't think I could get into a game like that." I hadn't wanted to get into the MMO genre, seeing no reason to constantly pay for a game.

After a week, I decided to try it. What the heck, $15 ain't much to lose, and I picked up a book with some cool pictures and jokes in it at least as well (Back when Prima had their not-as-horrible-as-the-ring-binder Guide to it).

I install the game, and on Feb 17, 2005 it began.

So horrible was my first character that he didn't last past lvl 21. He was an AR/Energy blaster, a normal US Soldier augmented by implants to have energy attacks and the ability to fly.

Hearing the music for the first time as I entered Atlas Park, I felt overwhelmed. I had just completed the tutorial and was glad to find my computer was better than my friend's brother's comp, so my graphic settings were higher with a greater resolution.

I also went on eBay and found the entire collection of City of Heroes comics, and bid on them right away. I anxiously waited for them all, so I could read what I had missed when my first free issue arrived.

I almost cried finding out that the 5th Column were gone in the game. The Prima Guide said they were in there, so why weren't they in there? They were in the comics too! Where were my Nazis to pummel?

I missed seeing the 5th Column in their hey-day by just a few weeks, and soon after I started playing the constant patches and updates in the gear-up for Issue4 was sending my Anti-virus software into fits. It almost made me quit.

But I stayed, and made a few new characters, most of them are still alive today on my old home server of Champion, the same server that was used by the two who introduced me to this game (those who have been deleted have been rerolled on other servers). I've since moved to Freedom, where my SG/VG are housed, and to Virtue for all my rollplaying needs (I'd have moved there first had I known it was the RP server) with other alts on Justice, Infinity and Pinnacle. Yes, altitus is alive and well in me, and I'll be buying slots on Freedom and Virtue once I have the money.

I remember hearing that hundreds of players stood at attention silently in Atlas Park when the news of Christopher Reeve's death hit, something that I missed and only got word about from Broadcast, every player there weeping inside and out over the loss. It's something I've wanted to see for a long time, if only to see what it looked like.

I still fondly and vividly remember getting into the game and getting a tell from the brother and joining his team, me being SKed and trying to shoot things before I even has DOs slotted. We fought against Sky Raiders in Indy Port, a mission of his and I marveled at what happened seeing the bubble bot being spawned, watching his toon, a blaster, run into the mob like a tanker and melting everything in sight in a couple hits. He died many times that mission, but it was no problem for him, he didn't care about debt, just going ape against the enemies and laughing like a madman while doing it. Deadman Inc, his blaster, was an inspiration to me, to have fun above all else in this game, be it RP or me, however I find it.

I was such a n00b back then. Things were slotted so wrong, powers were chosen at random, I wasted untold amounts of cash getting more TOs and DOs, then finding out Web Grenade is an 'immobilize' and not a 'hold' "Wha? Why? It holds them there to the ground!" and getting even more cash from my friend when I needed more. I'm not even sure HOW much money I wasted changing my original character's costume and making his second.

I remember when I had just gotten to Kings Row for the first time, trying to find CoTs and asked in Broadcast. "Look on the roofs at night!" was the only reply, and I looked up. . . and up. . . and up.

"Well, there's gotta be some way to get up there." I said to myself, and started jumping up the windows. "DUDE! I'm doin' it like Spiderman! " was running through my mind as I hopped my way up the building, giggling with every successful hop.

I never even saw the fire escapes on the other side.

I haven't left the game since, and my subscription has been active every month, with me faithfully waiting for the next issue, my mind thinking up new characters, new RP stories, new powers I'd like to try with each passing week.

I still weep inside for missing the chance to fight the 5th Column, and I giggled like a schoolgirl seeing them thanks to Oroboros. I still hope that they'll return in full force, an old Katana/SR Scrapper of mine would be reborn once they do. He was made specifically as a guy who wants them taken down after losing his arms to a stray grenade one fired during a battle, forcing him to get cybernetic implants. I deleted him when I found out that the 5th Column were gone completely from the game, but he's still floating in my mind, waiting for a chance to find his home on another server.

I can't see myself leaving this game, not until I get the e-mail saying "We're sorry, but City of Heroes is no more. The servers are shutting down. Thank you for staying with us as long as you did." This game got me hooked because of its player base, the costume creator, the ongoing story and ease of playing. I even got a friend overseas hooked, and she still plays it to this day. I can also proudly say my loved one has been playing too, with the both of us making duos, RPing relationships with characters, and building tight stories that expand more and more as new characters are made between us.

It's been a great time since I started playing this game, and the best is yet to come.

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Can't go through? There's a couple maps with unreachable locations, for NPCs that can't fly or teleport. Can't shoot through? None.

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There are? Which ones? I've seen them reach everywhere using Super Leap, and I can't think of any where they wouldn't reach without it save the open maps where you can fly up to the map's ceiling like Shadow Shard maps, or outside city maps.

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We'll only be able to create the same type of missions that are already in the game. The cool thing about this system is that we can weave our own stories around them!

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As shallow as what's being described, that could lead to a lot of customizing that asks a lot of questions. Hearing about making our own missions makes my imagination run wild with possibilities. Imagine making a storyarc based on the old Blue King comics of CoH! Or maybe find a way to explore the Top Cow arcs that aren't in the game, like The Crash.

Even with limited options for customizing, things can get really inventive and detailed; look at some of the SG Bases people have made (even without using the floating item bug) and the base builder is pretty bare bones.

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Now picture a mission with nothing but rooms full of minions with little or no range, each with a door too narrow to exit, but wide enough to shoot through.

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Posi mentioned picking the map, not designing it.

What map is there already made that has a door/window-thing that NPCs can't go through?

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Holy crap. For a long time I've been working on a story-driven SG idea for virtue, and I've been working on tryin to adapt the overriding storyline of the SG to work with existing missions within the game (if you ignore the current content storylines and replace them with one given to the SG by me.)

This totally allows for me to actually CREATE my own missions to fit the SG storyline. How cool will it be for an SG to form as lowbies and follow an overiding storyline for the entire SG straight through till their fifty?

Man...I hope this is schedule for issue 13. :-)

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SG Missions? What about exploring CoH lore? Imaging making an arc mirroring War Witch, Apex and Horus' adventures from the comics? Think of making an outdoor map that has a HUGE Battle of random Heroes and Back Alley Brawler against an army of 5th Column! Just like in the comic!

Or making your own 'Oroboros' missions like going back in time to fight in the first Rikti War and BE part of Alpha Team while Hero-1 and Omega Team hit the portal!

Heck, maybe make some missions to explore The Crash, when Recluse depowered Paragon City and its Heroes!

Wow

Player generated storyarcs.

And who was complaining that CoX never did anything different or new?

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Yes, those types of e-mails do exist... and worse. Child pr0n, for example. With an explicit description of what the supposed link goes to.

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*aghast*

CHILD Porn? >:

That type of stuff should go to support and right to the cops!

What in the bloody 'ell is going on for those people to get in the game?

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So....since you're answering all sorts of other questions Lighthouse, what about being able to transfer across accounts under the same master NC account with this? If you don't know, just an 'I don't know' would be nice so we know at least someone's reading the posts and know its a concern

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We're aware of the desire for cross account transfers. However I don't have any public statement on it, nor would I hazard a guess if or when or under what conditions it would be implemented.

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Well, wont you deliver my request for consideration???

Max Out Character Slots on 1 Server for 84.99$ ??
and
Half price Character Return to your Home server??

Example: I moved Love Hysteria to Freedom so I would have more space on Virtue.. But now that I can have 36 slots on Virtue.. Cant I move her back for just 4.99$ ?

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We discussed larger price points like what you are suggesting. However, doing so sets us up for more possibility of being in a refund situation.

For example, a customer purchases 36 slots for whatever nifty price we offer it for, thinking that they can apply them all to a specific server, only to find out that they can't because of the current max slots limitation. We can then envision that they won't like that and, not wanting to apply those slots to a different location, contact us for a refund. Unfortunately, all sales are final (as will be clearly stated in the disclaimers when you purchase said slots).

Given this possibility of buyer remorse, we'd prefer to have the user buy them as they go and feel the 5 for $19.99 is a very reasonable "chunk" to do that in.

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Now that's. . . .pretty well thought out. I like it.

*drops and bows, chanting like an Ewok*

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So, I suppose summoning the dark powers from the dark dimensions somehow fits heroes. O_0?

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As the person above you said

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Dark doesn't mean bad. That's an assumption you're making.

Empathy is an emotion and the empathy set is about compassion and caring and even with one power, giving of oneself for your fellow man/woman/huge.

Dark is just a power source. Neither good nor bad.

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It's a pretty good look over it.

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Um... normally I am not the first guy to call doooom, but why not just give them an I win button...

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They did give them an I Win button. It's called Mental Manipulation.

Having not read the entire thread, does anyone else wonder if Powerset Proliferation is being done in lieu of sideswitching?

I've got several villains who were made in the hopes that Sideswitching would be done some day in the future.

And while some ATs are similar in nature, others just wouldn't work at all. My Ninjablade Stalker is a stalker, not a scrapper, and my Ninja MM wouldn't be the same if she had to become a TA/A Defender and lost the ninja who protect her.