Lazarillo
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Posts
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Joined
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I'm split half-and-half, just because I have this OCD compulsion to create a villain to balance every hero I make, but that's me. Server does matter quite a bit, especially on the lower population ones, some may have particularly larger hero or villain communities. Infinity, for example, seems quite villain friendly, while Guardian has more heroes (though guess which one is my all-hero and which is my all-villain server!
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Quote:Celestial stuff is available to all characters on your account, from level 1 on up.Originally Posted by RiOTWRAiTH
sorry to interrupt, but i was wondering if only level 50s on your account can wear the armor, or if all your toons could access it? -
Quote:This is sort of the nature of the beast, especially if the villains in question are going to be player villains. They can be stopped, but they can be captured/defeated/etc, because that would change the player experience. Particularly, in the case of these mini-arcs where there's a month between them, you can't end one with the villain being shipped off to jail unless you're making the assumption that that character will be unplayable for 30 days.Originally Posted by Issen
However, I notice this trend of blue-side always having to play catch-up, at least storywise. The villains always seem to come out ahead or with little more than their wrists bruised by the slapping. Perhaps there could be a bit of role reversal with an arc? Make it where the heroes get the upper-hand?
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Quote:...or does it!? BUM-BUM-BUMMMMMMMMM! Cliffhanger for next month!Originally Posted by Golden Girl
The blue side one is outside the Skyway City police building - his name's Theoden, but the arc doesn't have anything to do with horses
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Quote:I am firmly of the opinion that Twinshot is supposed to be Richochet's Primal mirror. Which means she probably doesn't care.Originally Posted by SlickRiptide
I'm still trying to figure out if she gets her CB trucker lingo all wrong because she got it wrong or because the writer got it wrong. I suppose it doesn't really matter in the end. heh.
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Quote:This feature has actually been in place for...several issues now. I want to say maybe as far back as i12 (definitely not before that, and possibly later, but it's been a while).Originally Posted by ScottyB
Do all available contacts do that? If so, that would explain why I clicked away a billion pop-ups when I logged in some of my older characters. My new characters still haven't passed level 10, so I don't think they've received many introductions. When an introduction happens in the middle of a mission you're kind of too busy to take note of who it is, anyways.
Any contact not introduced to you by another contact will pop up, yes. Ones that require introductions (as in, most of the standard contacts), don't get a pop-up, but you'll have another contact specifically refer you to them. Granted, there are a couple who you can speak to without introduction, and who don't get pop-ups (Stephanie Peebles, Seer Marino), however, you will also get a mandatory introduction mission for them.
What's annoying is that once they pop up, they're added to your list, meaning that if you want to keep said list nice and organized, you either have to do their arcs, or just wait to out-level them. The former is easy enough in some cases, but the AE Guide, and the Invention tutorial can't be out-leveled, and in the case of the latter, doing it once doesn't stop you from getting it added again if you change cities! AE might be the same, actually, not that I think about it.
So yeah, I'll take a ring that says "this person has something to do" over a "must do this!" pop-up. Though, on the other hand, I can see where, with new content like First Ward that has multiple alignments open to multiple other groups, apparently (haven't had a chance to hit those arcs yet), a small alert might be helpful, in ways the coin won't be anyway.
I'll also make one last note after all the rambling. Regardless of anything else, I do think using "it's how other MMOs do it" is a horrible justification for anything.
Edit for potential solution:
Keep the pop-ups, but add a prompt like "I'll look into it"/"No time now" or something similar, so you can choose whether or not to add the new contacts to your list. Maybe allow the latter option to add the person to your Inactive contacts, so that one can, at one's own discretion, change their mind later. -
Quote:Honestly, I'd rather they just made the various arcs fall in the "any" level range, ala Montague Castanella. I'm going to hope that this is just one of those cases where something that seems "sensible" is just an "oh yeah, why didn't we think about that" on the Devs' part and that next month's mini-arc is given a wider range.Originally Posted by Aura_Familia
hopefully the rest of the parts follow the leveling progression up to 50.
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Quote:Play it and see for yourself!Originally Posted by Golden Girl
Kick a puppy?
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Quote:Except contacts already were advertising themselves. And that hasn't changed. Personally, I wouldn't mind the change to the coin system if it meant I didn't have someone bugging me to do the Invention/AE/Ouroboros/Vanguard intro from the moment I hit a certain level threshold or zone in to a certain area. But given that players are already given an alert to anyone they can get missions from, whether they're near that contact or not, means that there isn't a whole lot of use for them.Originally Posted by ScottyB
Using the wiki, asking other players, browsing the contact list, that's all an active search for a different contact. Saying you've never heard someone complain about difficulty finding contacts is like saying you've never heard someone complain about difficulty finding Green River soda - if people aren't aware they're missing out on something then they don't know they have a problem. Now contacts advertise their existence without bringing up extra windows - I can run past them and go, "Oh! I don't remember talking to them before! I wonder what they've got?"
To continue your analogy, the coins are a system where any store that sells Green River is clearly labeled. But even before i21, we had a system where turning down a street where such a store existed would immediately result in the names and locations of those stores being beamed directly into my brain. -
Quote:It seems like they usually make a note of it, though with tame words like "adjusted values" or the like, when it goes lives. They leave the notes out of beta/test, though, so as not to draw attention to 'em.Originally Posted by Texas Justice
And they also don't generally mention closing exploits in patch notes, so if that's all that was done, there wouldn't be any.
Personally, I think all of these sorts of notes should just be "Nerfed AE farms. LOL." just for the amusing tauntiness of it all. -
Quote:It doesn't matter what it's for. You can't say they're "dealing with" hunts and certainly not removing them, when half of the missions for the arcs in question are hunts! That's not even insane troll logic, that's just...not logic!Originally Posted by Golden Girl
That's to reduce the load on the mapserver
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Quote:Then you clearly haven't played the new lowbie arcs. Hunts come up constantly. Aaron Thiery's was horrible. "Hunt Hellions. No wait, I mean hunt Arachnos. Good, but now hunt Arachnos that have specific names. Oh, and I saw some pylons, go hunt those. And yes, I guess, if you really feel like you have to, you can go do a door mission now."Originally Posted by Golden Girl
I mean removing
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Quote:By "taking care of", you mean "making worse", right?Originally Posted by Golden Girl
Well, the rolling content revamp is slowly taking care of them
It's been less than a week now, and I've already lost count in the number of times I stalled in an arc because a mob with a very specific name decided to stop spawning. -
Quote:I was so very excited when I heard about the "ongoing training" missions that could be out-leveled because, even if I didn't want to run them, it meant the stupid Architect Manager wouldn't be sitting in my contact window until the end of time. So of course, I was so very disappointed with my first character to hit level 5 after i21 launched.Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
They are nowhere near as annoying as the PITA AE tour, the University tour, and the damn go talk to "x" that have doing nothing but running from one spot to the next on every single character.
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Quote:I never really took that line to be a literal sort of thing. More like if the Tsoo got all the other gangs under their boot, they'd be free to do whatever they'd be free to treat the law in the city however they liked. Think a situation like Batman: Year One, where the gangs run the city. The "mayor" in that sense.Originally Posted by Jophiel
I'm not even sure how taking over the Warriors, Outcast and Family gets one elected mayor unless those gangs have a lot more registered voters making up their numbers than I gave them credit for. And I'm not making this up:
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Every time I see this thread bumped up, I go "Yes, it's out!
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And then I open I go, "Noooooo, still waiting.
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I daresay I've been chomping at the bit for i21 Mids more than I was "nao please, please nao" for i21 itself! Luckily on my end, I've improvised what I "need" using some older sets as proxies for everything except Time Manipulation. Really flying by the seat of my pants, there!
All that said, having to improvise and "ad-lib" my builds just leads me to appreciate you folks that produce it even more! Keep up the great work! -
Obviously, a lot of the older arcs need to be streamlined and have their fat trimmed. I'm reminded by of one arc (I think Angus McQueen's), where you get sent to take out a Rikti base, which is actually a Council base completely unrelated to anything, but go ahead and take them all out while you're here.
The other problem, particularly with the old hero arcs, and particularly at the lower levels, is that the contacts themselves are banal. Arcs like Ubelmann, which was mentioned above, are great in concept, but less so in execution, just because they have to be written in a way that one of the people involved can be one of around five completely unique individuals. Streamlining the contact system and adding in a little more personal flavor would be nice. Even when arcs are given out by unique contacts, some of them are just...written boring. Maxwell Christopher is a notable exception, but Tina and Unai, for example, just sorta read like briefings, not like characters.
On the other side of things, an arc I'd like to see get revamped, especially given that the Devs are working on low level content, would be Mr. Bocor's. I love him for his snappy dialogue, but always felt like his arc was kind of aimless. There's...a book. And Bocor wants it, but it's not really explained why (other than vague nefarious purposes) or what it does, and it ties into a plot thread that has long since been abandoned. Keep Bocor's great character, but maybe redo it a bit so that it's a little more clear and that it ties more into the current state of the game lore.
Finally, to note that even more recent stuff is not immune to having problems, Roy Cooling really did not work well. Good in concept, but the big "twist" really wasn't handled well, not to mention the general disregard for the lore behind the various villain groups involved. What's worse is that they only need a minor change in story (basically, altering a single one of the groups), and the arc would make almost perfect sense. -
Quote:Since when are Sam and Venture people being paid by Paragon Studios to write arcs?Originally Posted by Friggin_Taser
May I recommend you guys write a better arc? Because I have yet to see anything you two have written that's even on the same level of fun this arc provided for me.
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Man, seeing all the Steampunk use in this makes me wonder if the utterly Time Lord-free concept of a pair of Victorian time travelers that a buddy and I are using isn't going to be causing a lot of misunderstanding...
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Quote:Perhaps not "villains" per se, but PC heroes might want to dress up as Freedom Corps, Wyvern, PPD, etc. Or they might have a backstory that involves being a former member of a villain group and want a coupla pieces to reflect that (ala Indigo).Originally Posted by Golden Girl
I could see why they'd want to make it impossible to clone signature characters, but it seems kinda weird that players can't make copies of the normal minions, especially red side players.
I wouldn't expect blue side players to be able to dress up as NPC villains, but red siders should be able to unlock different villain group costume parts while working for them. -
Quote:Nope, once they're unlocked, they're always unlocked, a permanent reminder that you were willing to sell your soul for power.Originally Posted by ChrisMoses
Now, when I go Hero > Vigilante > Villain > Rogue > Hero... If I respec after I'm a hero again, I don't lose access to the PPPs, do I?
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Quote:I actually hadn't thought about it until this topic, but assumed people must not have minded because of the freespec.Originally Posted by Kitsune Knight
(if they didn't, you'd have been seeing a riot by now)
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Quote:Unless they changed for i21, the Patron arcs can only be done at 40+. The powers unlock sooner, but you'll have to wait to do the arc, then respec. However, you get a special respec token for finishing the patron arcs, so it's not that bad.Originally Posted by Kitsune Knight
You'd need to go full Villain to be able to unlock them via the Patron arcs at level 35. Only Villains and Rogues can do Villain contacts (and to get to Rogue you've got to go through Villain).
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If you want the villain toys, you have to be a villain (or a Rogue).
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Quote:Honestly? I could. Especially Rory. That's part of the reason I like him. He's not...resistant to adventure like Mickey, but he's a very down-to-earth, no-need-to-search-for-it kinda guy. Who knows, maybe when the Doctor gets to be his age, he'll think about settling down, too.Originally Posted by Mandu
You know. Thinking about it I really wouldn't mind Amy and Rory getting their own spin off series. Like Torchwood or the SJ chronicles only set in space. After all there is no reason that former companions have to stay on Earth. And I definitely couldn't see those two settling down to a quiet rural life.
Still, maybe when the season's done, River can go spend her intervening days with the folks and we can get a Swiss Family Pond spinoff.