Kitsune9tails

When they come up with the next Trials and solaoble content, please help test them.

In the meantime, I must chime in with Sam and Johnny on this. Presentation. If the Converted Citizens were blasting us with beams of psionic energy, there would still be complaints, but not about my character with Impervium (actually enchanted porcelain, but whatever) skin being hit by a rock. You want the citizens to stone me to death because the Seers have rendered me incapable of defending myself? Fine, throw a mag 9999 Hold on me so that it at least makes sense.

I LIKE the TPN trial overall. I love actually doing the smart thing and exposing the truth to the civilians; that's heroic. I love trying to take out the Seers without hurting the civilians; that's heroic. I love gaining public opinion by smacking around Praetorian Robocop around on national TV; that's heroic. Getting stoned to death by angry citizens? It didn't work on General Zod and it won't work on me (I overstate to make a point; I have plenty of super powerful characters that are not invulnerable).

Some constructive suggestions:

- Change the animation of the converted civilians; have them levitate and blast us psionically instead of throwing rocks.

- Instead of the Seers debuffing us, allow them to draw power from public opinion and deal huge amounts of damage when public opinion is in their favor. In addition, have them visibly draw power from surrounding civilians.

I understand what the citizens hurting us with rocks is supposed to be in-story; I get that, really. It's just one of those things that would look a lot better on a comic book page rather than in a game outside of a rendered cutscene.

Sure, just let the badge hunters who did it the hard way set the price!

We can't truly replace Statesman; we can't be on the next box, on the website banner, in the prerendered movies (more of these, please), etc. I suppose Positron (or Foreshadow) can take on that role, or maybe even Ms. Liberty.

But I suppose being without our Superman expy will make us a bit more unique as a comic book universe.

Statesman will always personify Paragon City for me, because of this video.

It still gives me chills after all these years.

Even if the movie is horrible, this trailer is great!

Love the reactions in the background of the lobster scene. And I liked the Kid Stooges.

iTrials, Old Contacts, Signature Arcs, Newspapers/Banks, Mothership Raids, random teaming

All of the Signature heroes deserve much more in the way of stories in the game that show us who and how they are before killing them off will have the level of tragedy such an event should have.

I will miss Statesman, just because of his iconic costume and his status as a Superman expy. Every comics company benefits from a such a character as a 'bar' for other characters to measure up to or not.

His passing irritates me. I don't feel any aspect of it has been handled well and acheived what such things are intended to acheive.

Is anyone really going, "Gasp! No way!"
Is anyone going, "Not him, he was my favorite!"
Is anyone going, "Now I have to pick this up to see where the story goes!"

I just hope the writing of the actual moment is done well.

Big YES from me!

I don't have a problem with random boosters.

In fact, I think they are a good idea, so long as they are an alternative means of getting product, and not the exclusive means.

I can totally get behind having a choice between spending 400 points on a costume set and spending 80 points on a random 0-40% of that set, along with some random consumables, enhancements, and widgets.

I am most certainly glad the enhancements and boosters are available by other means: that actually increases the chances of me personally buying Super Boosters significantly.

If it is announced that the costumes in the Super Packs will be available for normal prices (400 pp), even if their release is delayed by a year or so, I think the majority of the remaining objections will evaporate. But the idea that the costumes might not otherwise ever be available at all (and 'at some point in the future' is perceived same as 'maybe someday') is leaving a bad taste in the costume collector's mouths. Of course an announced date will cause some people to simply delay getting the costume until then, but these are people that might not otherwise have chosen to get that costume at all.

Just know that the players will soon figure out how many purchases it will take to collect a costume set from those who choose to do so, and from those who fail to do so, and then a 'price point' for the packs will emerge based on that. This price point will largely discount the value of consumables and somewhat discount the value of ATOs, because people are just like that.

I still dislike how closely this ties RL money to inf, and predict an influx of players intending to exploit that system if the packs are tradeable ingame, and I recommend that instead they be made so that you can trade them back to the store at an exchange rate for new random packs.

This might be a good place to compile ideas of what Arachnos should be up to next time we get new arcs from them.

- I like the idea of an arc surrounding the Architect Entertainment system, but it should be one that firmly establishes the system as beyond Arachnos control and legit, so my characters don't feel dumb using it. An arc where you help Positron flush the system of any backdoors (perhaps in a Tron-like environment with appropriate enemies) would be cool. Such an arc should absolutely NOT reveal that we are all dumb for creating and playing arcs because now we have all been cloned, etc. A creepy "...or is it?" at the end is fine, and probably mandatory.

- I like the idea of an arc about taking Recluse to task about his invasions and actually dealing with the Longbow invasions of his land as well. Maybe even establishing a defacto agreement that this is between Cole and Richter, and neither can really call in the UN to help. Bonus points for including an optional Alignment mission where you hear both sides make their cases, and choose between them. The thrust of the mission could be that the UN has chosen you to investigate the various invasions and advise them on a course of action.

- One thing that might be cool would be to set up a big betrayal at the end of the Praetoria storyline. Recluse invades Praetoria in the final push to down Marcus Cole. At a critical moment, he pulls his forces out of Praetoria completely, attacks and seizes Portal Corp and shuts down all of the portals, leaving you and everyone trapped in Praetoria with an angry Hamidon and him in control of Paragon City. Muahahaha! Of course, immediately thereafter, the Coming Storm forces him to retreat back to the isles, leaving a shaken populace in his wake. Naturally, he can claim his seizing the city was to secure it against invasion...

Another thing I'd like to see added to more missions, period, but also Traversal missions like these is dynamics and randomness.

For instance: the local GM is actually 3 different but mostly identical GMs with significant differences in powers and AI. Which one spawns could be random, or depend upon player actions, like clicking a glowy, or even depend upon something like the phases of the RL moon or what badges are present (on players) in the zone.

I also like the idea of a constant open-raid villain base. A large complex, with dynamic events like traps that sound alarms that summon guards, turrets, etc. At the bottom is a Big Bad. Throughout the base are various objectives that dynamically affect the zone/story: buffs, debuffs, turning off defenses, etc.

In other zones, I'd like to see minor zone events that you could just happen to stumble across with no warning, like the classic scene where a bank alarm starts ringing, and a villain comes running out of the local bank, heading for a zone border or submarine, bank security firing uselessly in his wake.

To over-incentivize exploring could be a mistake, though. It kind of spoils the point (people would zoom madly through zones, trying to find the incentive fast and miss smelling the roses), and it would become another chore for some with the completist mindset.

Still, I wonder if it would be litigious to put a npc named Wally who has big glasses and a striped hat in the game that wanders randomly through zones and awards a badge if clicked on...or a villainess in hat and trenchcoat who dropped miniaturized landmarks if defeated...

Here is what I envision:

At the end of the Galaxy City tutorial, in addition to your choice to be flown to Atlas Park/Mercy, you are given the following option:

Or, do you want to go to the University for additional instruction and equipment?

If you choose the new option, you are sent to a common instance of the University (perhaps just the interior, with no working doors to the outside), shared with other players who are doing similar. Each of the instructors in the University offer courses on doing various things in the game. For instance:

Security Guard (addresses you when you enter): Gives a list of instructors and what they teach, can hand you waypoints to them, as well as how to exit the instance.

Admissions Officer Lenk/Dean John Yu: What levelling up does/how to train (awards enough xp to level from 2 to 3), also explains the differences between types of missions: Contacts, Brokers/Detectives, Trials, and Task/Strike Force, also explains Merit Awards. Perhaps explains using Right click to get extra options in the UI.

Professor Boram/Kevin Gilett: What to do when the word Enhancements turns red on your Power Bar... what Training Enhancements are, and how to buy/sell them (awards a few Training Enhancements). Also offers a course on what Inspirations are, how to buy/sell them and advice on their use (awards a few Inspirations), also has a link to the Paragon Market.

Professor Taylor/Charles Ball: A source of ingame Lore (awards badge); who the Phalanx are, who Lord Recluse and his guys are, the Rikti Invasion, the Shivan Strike, and rumors of the Coming Storm and Menders

Professor Chandler/Samuel O' Reilly: Where to find Powers in the Powers List, for when you get Temp Powers (awards a Temp Power, such as an PBAoE damage buff click for villains and a heal for heroes)

Professor Topffer/James Bright: A course on "conning" enemies and the relationship of the color of their name to how powerful they are. (optional battles with minions of -3 to +3 levels), also offers a course on enemy rank and that relationship to power (optional battles with a +0 minion, LT, boss, Elite Boss and AV).

Guidance Counselor Jones/Janitor: Allows you to use a 'back door' to Mercy/Atlas

...of course, all rewards are once per character.

In addition, a Contact should be automagically granted when zoning into Mercy/Atlas for the first time. This Contact can transport you back to the instanced University for further instruction at any time.

I know that Pop Help and Tutorial Arcs exist: this is for people who completely didn't see Twinshot/Doctor Graves and who click through/turn off Pop Help because it annoys them in battle.

For extra credit (to the Devs):

- It would be nice if clicking on an instructor hijacked your UI, ran a movie, or something to show you exactly where to click.

- It would be cute if the badge altered the dialogue you got from University personnel thereafter, as if they 'remembered' you.

This will require no new art assets or systems, just adding an instance of the University with

...what do YOU think of this idea?

I suggest starting with a very narrow focus, like "Movies featuring licensed versions of Marvel and DC Super Heroes", otherwise you will get into endless debates about movies you 'missed' because they were 'in the superhero style'.

For instance, movies like 'Push' and 'Nightbreed' might be debatable.

You might also go as far as to define 'superhero'.

For instance, does Ash from Army of Darkness or James Bond qualify?

I'd like you to review the movies as far as talk about what you liked and disliked about it both as a piece of cinema and a representation of a superhero.

After reading the thread, I have concluded that people are entirely too caught up in the semantics of whether or not this falls into the Coupon Collector's problem.

That is unimportant.

Here is what is important (IMHO):

- The Dev team is listening and has been willing to compromise a bit. Let's not burn that by filling this thread with noise.

- The Costume Parts are currently still exclusive to the packs. This is not good; I suggest they be made available simultaneous to Super Pack release for 400 pp. The people who would have bought them anyway will buy them still (no lost sales). The people who would not have bought them may get pieces in the packs and decide to buy more to get more pieces (new sales). If they are exclusive to the packs, those who refuse to buy packs will lose out on them (lost sales) and those who want them enough to buy packs will get frustrated and quit around 400 points spent (potentially lost or gained sales, definite lost goodwill).

- The ATOs from the packs are still intended to be tradeable. This is not good. It leads to people making a RL profit off of gthe ingame market by violating the EULA. It's okay for the ones that are earned ingame to be tradeable. However, the ones you buy from the store need to be segregated withing the system. I suggest that instead of trading to the ingame market, you check into allowing people to return packs to the market at an exchange rate, even 10 to 1 or so. Essentially a button in the market that 'eats' some of your packs and spits out a new pack.

- The ATOs no longer being exclusive to packs is awesome, and thank you thank you thank you. This makes the 80pp price point much closer to reasonable, depending on the projected mean cost of collecting a costume set.

- Although I don't think Samuel Tow's point applies directly to this particular issue, it is important. More VIP-only goodies that non-VIPs can see/drool over need to be introduced in order to get more Freems and Preems to want to upgrade. But that is it's own thread (per Positron's clarification, thanks Positron! ).