LeighB_EU

My impression of I13 has been much the same as that of other issues, with just a twinge of disappointment that there aren’t any changes to the base editor (the flame of hope is still being nurtured for I14 to bring me happiness). That is to say, there seem like some interesting changes and additions in there and I’ll have a look at them when I can, but the game, as a bit of fun and a social medium, goes on unchanged.

I therefore read this thread and thought, oh, what have I missed. Maybe I should have paid attention to the thread about APPs and PPPs. So I went and read the start of that thread again, and got bored.

As a casual player of the game, with friends who play both casually and with spurts of intensity, I’d like to think that I’m reasonably in touch with the average user who, let’s face it, doesn’t even look at the forums. (Certainly out of the eleven people I know, who I suspect are ‘average players’, I’m the only one who even knows where to find them.)

From our point of view the things that sound interesting are the new missions, and the new power sets, with some of the QoL changes looking good as well. We have varying degrees of technical knowledge about the game, but I can bet the life of my cat on the fact that none of us know what an APP or a PPP is. The changes to these, as with the changes ED brought about, will just mix in with our general game play and probably never be noticed. PvP some of us have tried and while fun it was just a lot of bouncing around and pressing as many buttons as possible, not like the tactile, thought provoking, situations the missions give.

Merits, much like the introduction of the AH/BM, will be something that I suspect none of us will notice for quite a while. The Day Jobs will be something to have a bit of fun with when we can be bothered (sometimes due to RL it’s a matter of get the mission done and log-off wherever you are as there isn’t time for anything else).

What I’m getting around to saying in my normal, verbose, way is that a lot of what’s mentioned both here and in the other threads sounds like maths professors discussing the 35th digit of Pi. For us Pi is 3.14 something and anything beyond that has so little to do with our lives that it doesn’t really matter. Not that I’m saying it might not have an influence on the game we play, but I’m happy to bet another one of my cats lives on the fact that I won’t hear cries of, “Oh, that change of 0.21 seconds on the animation time of one of my attacks has ruined my game, I’m off to play WoW.”

Happy (belated) birthday JD. Here’s hoping that the ever advancing years don’t cause more memory problems – like forgetting to pick up badges during a race.

A good post and always interesting to hear someone else’s impressions.

I suspect that some will agree with things you’ve mentioned (I have heard the slow combat thing mentioned before) and will undoubtedly disagree (hopefully in a sensible way rather than just saying, “No that’s a load of tosh.” )

I would agree with you about the sounds although some of this seems to relate to the age of the game. I know when I moved across from SWG (over three years ago) I was amazed at the amount of sound CoH had. I could run through water and hear it for example which is something SWG never did. Having said that I mostly play with the sound turned off in all games as I like to have the radio on in the background (as well as being on Skype with friends in a lot of instances). The NPCs saying something would be audio gold (for about three minutes until I turned the sound off again), but I know it’s been mentioned before and the Dev’s have said no.

I also agree with the need for a range indicator as with my blaster there is nothing worse than getting too close while trying to line up a ‘snipe’ and agro’ing the mob. Having said that I always presumed it was some sort of lifelike thing and have just lived with it.

With regard to not feeling week, I have never had this problem more often than not faceplanting my blaster when against more than two foes, but maybe I run with the difficulty set higher.

For more fun combat try getting in big teams. That’s just endless smashing, but I suspect if you’re only playing on a trial account this will be something you don’t see a lot of (trials are still too restrictive as far as teaming goes). At lower level there is also the lack of attack powers (again I don’t see this a lot due to having veteran attacks as well), but by the time you bit level ten you should have four or five attacks which will make a good attack string and it shouldn’t take you more than a couple of hours of play to get to that level. (Still I’ve had the same issue as you when playing LoTRO on a trial and my friends tell me this isn’t the case at higher level.)

The one really sweet thing about the game you didn’t mention was the teaming. As per above trial accounts miss out on this, but good, social teaming is what the game excels at (not just the team for a mission and then split stuff). All of my best nights have been in big teams and this sort of experience only comes from being able to send tells, being part of a super ground and having other people always inviting you.

Hope you stay around and watch out for those Americans.

(Not checked for grammar and spelling as I'm busy writing. )

Happy birthday, Bananas.

May many more come your way, each bearing a new and tasty cake.

Already better than me and my patented style of drawing with the pencil between my teeth.

I’ve put you on ‘watch’.

Honestly, you guys. This is making me feel lazy. I just went to bed and slept.

I deliberately avoided having any buddies from NZ because they would get a head start. See what difference that made.

Still, there’s this afternoon when I’ve done my chores, been out and got home again.

Coin, added, ‘cause I want more buddies who put me to shame.

You did that in a morning. Bugger, you’re even better than I thought.

Brilliant event and much thanks to ML for sorting this out, it’s just a shame the bribes to the Dev’s didn’t work to get the zombies to attack just before the start.

Here’s a few pictures.

(No one point out that I forgot to take most of them in first person, but in my defence I did have most of my screen filled with chat windows. Also apologies for not getting snaps of the costume comp’ at the end – I was wowed by the beauty, I mean dark spooky evil beauty, of everyone. )

The Early Birds [linky]
More begin to gather [linky, linky, linky, linky]
People start to line up on the line (look where those crazy Alien Racers are stood ) [linky]
And they’re off! (and yep the aliens are already going in the wrong direction) [linky]

*edited for spelling.

I’m still betting that the changes to the base editor (which is what we all want) are going to come with the mission designer stuff. I’m even sure this is what GR was hinting at in one post last month.

I do agree that NC failed to anticipate how much players would want to do with the bases, but once they did (2007) they were already in different place with the purchase of the IP etc. and so many other things needed sorting out.

Apologies if this has already been posted, but I couldn’t see it anywhere.

I’m not sure on the validity of it as I haven’t had chance to do any more searching, but thought others might find it interesting.

City of Heroes MMORPG Headed to the Mac

I joined just before issue six. I remember reading about the game when it was first released and thinking it looked a bit basic (I went on to play SWG, how stupid was I), but when I finally joined it seemed like a massive world.

Now I look at all the places there are to visit and it’s amazing how I’ve got used to it all. Take me back to I6 and I suspect I’d think it was a very small place. How easy it is for complacency to set in.

I’ve just realised that it was I8 when Faultline got revamped. That only seems like last year!

(This should have been posted yesterday when I was spamming feedback, but for some reason I missed it. Apologies.)

A follow on with potential, I can't comment on the plot yet as it still early days, but keep posting more.

This bit starts off well with description creating some atmosphere, but then it wanders a bit. Part of me thinks it would be better to spend more time on each character, but there is also some editing that needs to be done.

Paragraph four is probably the best example of where I'd recommend changing things. The use of his name [Alexander] isn't needed as it's in the previous bit and the phrase 'experimenting table' doesn't sound authentic (I'll happily stand corrected as it's many many years since I was in any sort of lab). I'd go with something like:

Taking the chemicals, he placed them on the worktop, his hands shaking so much they caused the vials to chime as they gently struck each other.

Or:

His hands were shaking as he took the vials and placed them on the work top.

This moves the story along nicely, and now we finally start to see some of what's happening. A good follow on to the first piece and I like the use of different characters. There can be times when over use of character swapping confuses the reader, but that's hard to tell when only two chapters in. Just keep it in mind as you write the next bit.

There are some editing points which I've highlighted below. Mainly these fall in to the categories of repetition (words repeated close to each other), some sentences which are worded slightly wrong, and the over use of adjectives in a few places.

Too many adjectives is an easy trap to fall into when you are a descriptive writer by nature. This is not to say you shouldn’t stop being descriptive, it's one of your talents, I would just suggest that you keep it balanced. Hopefully the examples below make what I mean easy to understand.

I guess your editing has suffered slightly because of the length of the piece. My best tip to solve this is write something, leave it a few days and get on with something else, then go back to it and edit it. Do this again so you've done a third edit and then either mark it as the final or do a forth edit that moves it to final. Don't edit more than four times though.

Let me know if I've not made sense or you want me to expand on anything, and keep up the good writing.

Editing points:

‘… The absolute blackness of what she had percieved would have felt to most normal beings like a heavy slumber, but Indigo was not a 'normal being'. …’ But there was nothing normal about Indigo maybe?

‘Director Simes eyes shifted from Crimson to make eye contact with …’

‘His dreams of being a field operative had quickly been proven irrational, lacking any skill in combat or infiltration.’ Sounded a tad cumbersome to me.

‘With a long drawn out sigh he ran his left hand through his short blonde curls before pulling his phone from inside his expensive tailored black jacket.’ Over doing it slightly with the adjectives.

‘The sound of approaching foot steps and voices seemed to near with each passing moment …’ A bit of an edit needed.

‘Relieved he appeared to be in time, he accelerated towards the door, simultaneously aiming his 0.45 calibur revolver at the lock , he squeezed the trigger.’ A slightly unwieldy sentence in my mind.

Great to see something different. I like the use of the pseudo boards and some of the little plot devices are well done.

The different entries do an excellent job giving the main character a lot of depth. If you're just doing this as background for Sarah Strange then it's ideal, if, however, you want to do something more it might be a good idea to swap to a more standard narrative. While what you've done is good I suspect most will get a bit bored without any real story.

Editing wise, there are a few times when you repeat words too close to themselves and I've shown some examples below. There are also a couple of other places where you might want to look at re-wording things.

Hopefully this all makes sense, but if I haven't made sense, just let me know.

Editing points:

‘Sidhe's reputation undoubtably proceeds her …’ If this is reference document wouldn’t this be expanded slightly?

‘… being has magical as she was would go unnoticed by any of the denizens of that magical place, …’ Repetition.

‘In terms of looks, Sarah's street wear favours older clothes. She wears 7th cavalry …’ Repetition.

‘WHAT?! Un-fricking-believable! I can’t get at it through the firewall – what’s the deal?’ Nice plot device.

‘In terms of looks, Sarah's street wear favours older clothes. …’ This paragraph seems to start with a discussion about clothes and then swaps to powers. Would it work better as two separate parts of the discussion?

A nice start to the story and something a bit different for a creation tale.

There are a few edits that you'll need to do and some bits where you have repeated the same word very close to itself, which makes for slightly difficult reading. But a couple of changes would sort that out easily. I've highlighted some examples below.

There is also one bit where you've changed the spelling of the doctor's name.

Story wise I like the idea and the way it's portrayed. The only thing I think it's missing is a bit more action when she gets kidnapped.

Also would her daughter really turn to face her anyway? As she's only just gone blind I'd expect her to still have her old reactions and instinct which would make her want to face the speaker.

Editing points:

‘The door burst open, and two girls burst in giggling loudly.’ Repetition.

‘Tina waved half-heartedly as Lily and Hannah left, wishing that she hadn't left essay to the last minute …’ Repletion.

Well written as ever, but I have a couple of questions about the story:

1. Wouldn't Annette be fearful of taking on too much of Ni's aggression? I'm only guessing but isn't this why she's split the too parts off? Surely the moment Ni raised the idea of Annette being more like her, Annette would have balked at it?

2. Would Annette really want to tell Bodi about talking to Ni straight away? As she's only just starting to come to terms with having a split personality surely she'd be keeping it to herself until she got it straight in her own head?

A good intro' for a new character and another enjoyable read.

Nice one.

A really intriguing story. I loved the future you've painted here. The switch of the point of view at the end is also done well.

Style and structure wise I think you're almost there but there a few tweaks I'd suggest. There are also a couple of times when you changed tense, which, while on the surface it may seem to work, is difficult to carry on and if you end up writing very long pieces like that can get a bit messy. I wouldn't say drop it in this story, just be careful when using it.

I've highlighted a few things I spotted.

As ever, PM or shout up here if your not sure about what I've said.

Editing points:

‘So we started to make our move slipping along the sides of the nearby buildings, that's when it started to go wrong.’ Repetition.

‘The Swarm creatures being much stronger, …’ Might read better with ‘tougher'?

There's not a lot I can say about it as it's just a brief introduction, but it’s generally good.

Style wise I think it needs a bit of polishing, as it can read slightly stilled.

I liked the ideas behind this, but as you say it's still in a bit of a draft form.

I've highlighted a couple of bits in the progression of the story that might be worth looking at if you're going to write this out again. The only other bit of the story I think should be expanded on is her fight through the lab. It's a good bit of action and possiblely some tension that should add something to the story.

Editing points:

‘This previous experience almost certainly kept me alive, being well trained and able to ignore disbelief, moving and slashing death with what turned to be 4, what I can only describe as zombies, dead but not dead envious of anything which is still alive and wanting not to be still in that form.’ This sound slightly convoluted.

‘The screens the security system seem to be locked at a certain moment, surprise, surprise 6:42, the records showed that there were 12 other people in the building at that time with one experiment scheduled to run starting at 6:30.’ If the screens are locked how is she able to see the data? If it’s all there on the monitors it’s probably worth mentioning.

Some good stories there. The four main characters you've got in the stories are excellent, and the plots work well, both in isolation and for expanding the characters backgrounds.

I've included a bit of editing below which you might find useful. There are also a few times when you don't follow the norm for writing speech ("Here's an example with a comma at the end rather than a full stop," he said."), but I didn't know if that was intentional or not. If not and you're unsure how to portray speech, by all means shout up.

There were two things that I found made it a bit difficult to read. One was the lack of separating lines on paragraphs. Adding some white space in there just make it easy for the reader and as it's hard enough to get people to read stories rather than look at pictures, you want to make it as easy as possible. If you're using MS Word 2007 in its normal settings it will make you think each paragraph has a blank line after it when it, in fact, doesn't. To solve this just change the style to one without spacing between paragraphs. (The same goes for some other word processors.)

The other thing I found slightly more confusing was the shifting of tense in a couple of instances.

While I can understand why you've done it's as it makes for more a more comic or film style, it can be a bit frustrating for the reader - they won't know who's thinking or from how's point of view the story is being told and it is always important not to let the reader get lost.

Hope this is all useful for you. Apologies if you didn't want the crit', just let me know. I'm more than happy to comment only on story or not at all.

If something doesn't make sense then just PM me or shout up in the forum.

Some examples of editing:

‘She pointed to two characters on the comic book page as the proprietor of the store kept a close eye on them.’ Too many 'eye's in that bit. I'd suggest changing a couple to words such as 'watched' or 'observed'.

‘ “Ah, yes.” The boy responded, “But HE – points at the smaller of the two – knows the other would never do that.’ It depends what style you want to do the prose in, but in most formats I'd be tempted to put the descriptive text outside of the speech marks.

The paragraph which starts with the next noted above reads like you're trying to avoid mentioning characters under copyright, and because of this the conversation reads rather stilled. Generally you should be okay using existing toons if you're not making any money out of it, but if you're not comfortable with that just make up your own.

‘A small flash of silver lodged itself into the wheels 'of the left foot shoe …' ‘on the left boot’ maybe?

[ QUOTE ]
But can't believe your first name got genericiced, that's harsh.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think it did, he's been called Tommy for quite a while.

Gratz TS.

As a bit of help for those who need it (I certainly did), here’s the links to the three important maps with the badges and ferries marked on (none of the whit that ML manages, sorry). These were taken from Vidiotmaps.

If anyone is concerned about how difficult this race is, I managed to do it on Sunday (all bar the two badges very high up) with a level one character and no jump pack. Praying for a zombie invasion for Mercy and Port Oakes might be a good idea though.

Mercy Island
Port Oakes
Cap and Dribble

[ QUOTE ]
Reminds me of series one of Heroes when there were a billion* blonde cheerleaders running around.

[/ QUOTE ]

There’s a problem with this?

Oh, I see, they're not in my house.

I know this subject has been much discussed before, but I found this blog interesting and thought others might. Okay, to be honest, it took me back to my days of studying economics and was combined with CoX so I was bound to like it, but it’s not difficult reading and (rightly or wrongly) has some interesting conclusions.

Enjoy

A Tale of Two Cities