Lightfoot

Not only this, but...

You are giving your credit card information to an overseas entity with zero assurance of protection of that credit card information.

Have you ever wondered how the RMT spammers can afford to keep buying real accounts so they can spam our e-mail boxes? They use forged credit cards, or possibly the credit cards of their customers. What are you going to do? Take them to what passes for small claims court in China?

Or, if you have bought a powerleveling service from them, what's to stop them from sending out an e-mail blast just before they hand your account back over to you? So that it is your account that gets banned, and not theirs.

tl;dr version. Don't use these sites. You have no legal recourse if they abuse your account or your credit card.

What are you and JazMan expecting? Honestly? I simply don't understand the question. In my experience, every single MMO suffers from what you are complaining about in CoH once the "new game smell" wears off. Once you get used to the mechanics, every game will become "the same boring, repetitive stuff with new mobs."

In Going Rogue, we will get missions from Contacts. These missions will consist of going someplace, beating things up, finding objectives, talking to other contacts, and maybe crafting something.

This is the standard MMO model. Even WoW, with eleventy billion players, is mostly talk to contact, go somewhere, kill stuff, find stuff and make stuff.

Has Champions Online revolutionized MMO gameplay? or Aion? You still get missions from contacts (granted, CO has civilians who will randomly approach you and give you missions, which I wouldn't mind seeing here in CoH), who still send you to some place, where you collect stuff or beat stuff up.

Do you expect some kid with dark glasses and a white cane to spontaneously approach you in your Supergroup base and challenge you to a minigame of pinball (which you should lose 99 times out of 100)?

"I want new gameplay mechanics" is incredibly vague. What do you want? What do you think the Devs can deliver?

For the record, while I recognize the repetitive nature of MMO gaming, the fact that we can truly make our characters ours in powersets, slotting and appearance, has made it much easier for me to play each character as a star of their own comic book, keeping me entertained. I can't say this about any other MMO I have tried. Now that Dungeons and Dragons Online is going free to play (+ microtransactions), I might give that a whirl as a long time (30 years) D&D player and DM.

I think most of the folks posting in this thread would agree with you. I don't think anyone has said, "Well, suck it up, you uncreative jerk!" (unless they were under the impression that the character in question bore a resemblance in costume or bio to the Marvel character Angel / Archangel).

The GMs in the game have been conditioned to err on the side of caution. Better to make the extra work for themselves responding to and reviewing the petition to overturn the generic than to allow a potential lawsuit to happen. Nor do these things happen in a vacuum. Somebody out there reported Arc.Angel- because they felt there was something EULA breaking about the character.

Maybe it wasn't the fact that the character resembled a Marvel character. Maybe there was something offensive in the bio. I have several angels myself. I could see a hypersensitive Christian taking offense to Allegro Seraph's bio. If it happens, I'll deal with it.

If it does happen, remember that the GM is just a guy doing their job, at the behest of another player who (presumably) believes that they are helping the game survive by reporting you.

You get to choose how you respond. You can get mad about it, or you can let it slide, or you can prepare your case and fight to get the name / costume / bio back.

This would be a console controller concession. I think we have more fine control with our mouse control scheme.

I wouldn't mind a few non-flapping options, but I'd rather they didn't stay extended while not flying. (How am I gong to get through that door? ) I also wouldn't mind some of the flight options in CO making their way over here as flightposes or animations (Solar Surfer, GO!!!). With Power Customization, I expect that our flypose emotes will become alternate flight animations once BAB gets around to Customizing the Pools.

The flyposes are still in the game, you just have to make them happen. What was disastrous was when they were testing them and made them random every time you turned on Fly.

To most of the OP:

/signed.

In Bastion's case, even though it (probably) wasn't intentional, there are parallels to the X-Men villain of the same name.

Name, and the fact they they are both hyper advanced robots. I don't hang out by Citadel very often, so I don't remember if he looks remotely similar to Bastion (or his previous guise, Nimrod).

IIRC, Defensive means that the pets will attack anyone who attacks you or them, whether they have been told to stay or not. Once the threat is taken care of, the pets will return to the location you specified.

I believe the command you want is "Passive." This should prevent the pets to responding to attacks against you or them.

It's just a jump to the left

And then a step to the right

Put your hands on your hips

And bring your knees in tight

It's the Assassin's Thrust that really drives them insane

Let's do the Time Warp again.

Well, most of their features were ripped straight from this very forum, so what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

All things that I think Jay is working on. As I understand it, our character models have two more possible "attachment points" where new types of costume pieces could go. There are apparently issues with the "back" attachment point as it currently stands, in that what they attempt to put there is attaching to the model's "spine," as opposed to the "skin." This results in the costume piece floating over a character with minimized sliders, or melting into the backs of characters with maximized sliders. Once the "skin vs. spine" problem is worked out, I expect we will see back options.

Personally, I would like to see the last attachment point become tails, independant of belts.

With character creator 2.0, three colors may or may not be possible.

At some point, I'd like to hear Positron's original pitch for a Nemesis system before Statesman told him to put the idea on the back burner.

I still think the best way to do a Nemesis would be through the Mission Architect. I have three mission arc slots on a secondary account I'm not using at all. I'm tempted to take applications for Nemesis story arcs, if people would be interested.

Fire Fly? Flight with an Aura can be done now. Ice Fly? Alternate flight pose. Earth Fly? See Ice Fly. With Power Customization coming in Issue 16, and the promise of PC for Pool Powers coming down the line, I don't see why not.

Tunneling? Kind of lame, actually. I'm not sure how it could work, either. What would the other three powers in the Tunneling pool be, anyway?

Swinging? Same question, what are the other three Powers in the Pool? How would it work, mechanically? Click on a surface like Teleport, and swing to that spot? I don't think it is lame or unworkable, like Tunneling, but I don't think it is easy, either.

I kind of like having to come up with a unique name, thank you. I don't think I would enjoy running into Firebolt Omega@Power_NA while I'm playing Firebolt Omega. And I want to be Firebolt Omega, not Firebolt Omega@Lightfoot. Even if the global is hidden from view, I like the idea that I'm the only Firebolt Omega on Champion, and it would break my immersion a bit to run into another Firebolt Omega. Granted, with the way this game is so heavily instanced, the chances of my running into another Firebolt Omega is pretty slim. This is (one place) where I think CO went wrong. Nothing would hammer into my brain how uncreative I actually was like seeing three other heroes with the same name as I fighting the good fight, or camping the same spawns, whichever the case may be.

The current system forces me to get creative with my names, as I refuse to use the ".", "-", "xX__Xx", or other internet naming tricks.

Your Soldier of Arachnos isn't "working his way up." You are taking extraordinary measures to put yourself on top. I have three SoAs whose sole purpose is to overthrow Lord Recluse and take over Arachnos for themselves. The other two are loyal, if ambitious, Soldiers.

If you play your Soldier as "rank and file," you will never feel "Epic."

I must have missd that announcement.

Masterminds get Thermal Radiation. Mastermind pets now zone with the Mastermind.

Neither sounds like a nerf to me.

You know that there are people that are going of believe all of these fabrications and start flamewars over them, don't you?

You know, I'm not seeing this. No one has come in and said that back items are unrealistic or unwanted.

We've explained the technical hurdles, as we understand them, and put forth our hopes that those technical hurdles may be overcome in the near future.

The only "argument" in the thread is in regards to how realistic it would be to draw a Katana off the back. The "correct way" to wear a Katana is on the left hip, blade up. If one holds enough rank to wear daisho, the Wakizashi is worn also on the left hip, blade up, underneath the Katana. This is the way taught by traditional Kenjutsu / Kendo schools, and those choosing to honor their traditions will do so. Wearing the swords in a different manner shows that either your school was not traditional, that you do not respect the tradition, or that you are untrained or self-trained in the use of the weapon.

I also disagree that a Ninja, in a position to use a Katana against a Samurai, will wear the Katana across the back. When infiltrating a household in the guise of a Samurai, the Ninja will wear the blades in the correct manner so as not to arouse suspicion. If called upon to fight because their identity is compromised, the Ninja would be more likely to draw and use the Wakizashi, as the shorter, somewhat straighter, blade is more suited to their style of combat. Theoretically, if the Ninja is on a quick in and out wearing the mythical black garb, the Ninja would only have the Ninja-to, and therefore have no need to wear a Katana in the first place. ("Mythical black garb" only because there is no historical basis for the black ninja outfit. It is a modern conceit thanks to the way ninja were depicted in Japanese drama. Japanese audiences are trained to ignore people garbed in black on stage, as these are stage hands moving props and scenery. Ninja in Japanese drama were garbed in black to take advantage of this "invisibility." Modern "ninja" have allowed this conceit to grow and spread as it causes people to underestimate their skills at disguise and is another layer of disinformation about them. Those in the film industries who know the difference will still use the conceit because it makes the character instantly identifiable as ninja. I have several ninja characters who all use the black garb as their first costume slot for the same reason.)

Note that the draw animation for the Katana is from the left hip. Alas, the draw animation for Dual Blades while using the Katana and Wakizashi is from both hips. I fully accept this, as I have no desire to see Back Alley Brawler change the draw animation for Dual Blades just to accomodate the Niten style of sword fighting.

Given the complete lack of details and the source of information (Recluse Victory Broadcast chatter), the consensus right now is that it is nothing more than rumourmongering.

In fact, the OP seemed to have come into that chatter mid stream, as he seems unsure that the folks complaining were even complaining about Masterminds.

No Mastermind changes have been announced for Issue 16 yet, aside from Masterminds getting Thermal Radiation in this round of Proliferation.

/em Gabby Johnson

Rabbin'!

The No-Dachi, however, was worn across the back, but, due to it's prodigious size, could not be drawn from that position. It was generally unslung, drawn, and the scabbard discarded until the end of the battle.

There is apparently an issue with the anchor point on the back. You can see the issues when using one of the temporary jetpacks on Huge characters. The jetpack seems to melt into the back of the character.

They know we want it, and I'm pretty sure they want to give it to us. They just need to figure out how to do it without breaking something else.

I have to agree with Aett, here. With some of the available bonii, there needs to be some kind of cap. The Law of Five is elegant, if possibly arbitrary.

However, it is highly unlikely that the casual player will run up against the Law of Five, or notice if they do.

The real powergamers are aware of the Law of Five, so they will never be taken by surprise by it. It is the "professional" powergamers' Standard Operating Procedure to learn all they can about a system before they try to game it, and the Law of Five information is readily available.

The only folks likely to be caught by this, as you were, are the neophyte powergamers. As with any field where one goes from being a novice to being an expert, some things must be learned the hard way. Learning from those mistakes is sometimes more powerful than getting the information beforehand (as Aett said, it is part of the Invention Tutorial, which you presumably went through at least once, if only for the free IO). Your mind glossed over it before. It only truly stuck when you ran into it the Law of Five for yourself.

In this case, experience proved to be a better teacher than the classroom.

I love this idea!

This may inspire me to write and publish some more arcs. I already published one with Serge as the Contact, but I could see so many more possibilities of Contacts unlocked via Day Jobs.

The downside would be that, if there were micro arcs every five levels, there are obsessive folks who would try to get all of the Day Jobs before doing any missions with the character at all.

The Devs and GMs actively crack down on and close farms in AE. Most reasonable people would understand from this that farming in the AE is not a supported use for the system. I think farms are boring as heck, and I don't do them. If I found myself on a farm team, I would leave (and have done so in the past). Why should I be forced to stay on a team with you if you are doing something I don't like to do?


You should have told him that you didn't need a Kin, that you were going to start the mission, and that he was welcome to stay and see how the team gelled or leave, his choice. My guess is that there was more to the situation than the fact that you didn't have a Kin. How did you comport yourself during the search?

Feel free to consider me a liar, then. You would be wrong, but it wouldn't be the first time that happened. People leave. Big deal. I can't control other players, and I sure as heck don't want them controlling me. You are willing to accept the penalties you propose (because you think you will never trigger them), but I am not.


Sometimes I log on to check the market. Sometimes I log on to change a costume. Sometimes I log on with a goal in mind. As long as the team is working towards that goal, I'm in. If the team wants to do something else, and I'm still not quite there, I'll leave. Sometimes, that goal requires I be solo (I'm hunting Common Magic Salvage, for example). Just because I don't want to play on your team doesn't mean I don't want to play the game.

(Example: During the "Spring Fling," I was farming Redcaps for the Cap Buster badge so that my villain could get those nifty daggers. I was on a team, and we did the Snaptooth mission a few times. When everybody else got the Toothbreaker badge, they wanted to go out in the world and keep running missions together. Since the Spring Fling is the only chance for me to get the Cap Buster badge, aside from the Baby New Year mission with a lot fewer Redcaps, I decided to leave the team to keep farming the mission. And yes, it was boring. If not for the daggers, I wouldn't have done it.)



I don't want to fix it. There is no problem except the one you are making for yourself. The problem is in your head (or, maybe I'm deranged, equal probability of either). Nothing should obligate me to stay on a bad team, and nothing should give any other player control over how I play. I'm willing to accept the occasional jerkwad for these two liberties.

Some people are tools. I had someone quit on me mid PPD ambush, just as the Hero "Stop, Villain!" text showed up in a Mayhem Mission. I barely survived (I was playing a Stalker, pre buff, he was a Mastermind) and succeeded with two minutes left on the clock.

He may have had a legitimate reason for dropping out, he may not. I was miffed, but I "got over it" before I was done leveling up at the Arbiter.

People don't have to account to you, or me, in any way if they quit. It could be real life, it could be Supergroup demands, it could just be that you or I was a jerk and they wanted out. They could just be jerks who want to watch you twist (This is what player notes are for, by the way. They can fool you once, but if you use the notes, they will never fool you again.) I know that I quit teams when we are faceplanting all over the place and the leader refuses to lower the difficulty. Nothing should force or inspire anyone to stay on a bad team except the desire to watch the trainwreck.

No! A million times, no! This is getting into forced teaming. The rewards for teaming already exist. Better XP and the fun of playing with a like minded group.


Good on them! We aren't supposed to making AE farms in the first place.

A truly good team shouldn't require any particular powersets or ATs. This game isn't that hard. If your group of 2-8 random people can't handle the current mission, it's time to lower the difficulty. You don't need to run on Invincible all the time. With good strategy, good teammates, and a good leader, even random PUG of 8 non-optimal builds should be sufficient for just about any challenge in the game on Invincible. What you request, to cover the shortcomings of yourself or your teams, is not necessary.

SNICKER-SNACK!

But it only works on Jabberwocks. The Jabberwock hunt is the new mini-game. If you find and slay the Jabberwock with the Vorpal Blade, you get a Recipe for Jubjub Bird wings.

The Jubjub wings recipe requires salvage that is only drop by Bandersnatches, which are found in the Tulgey Woods.

Teaming was vastly simplified. You don't need to make sure that you have retain a specific mentor / sidekick balance. Exemped characters will now earn XP while exemped. It is even possible that exemped characters will retain all of their powers while exemped instead of losing them, pending playtetster results.

Bridging has been eliminated. When you are level 45-47, you will not be inundated with tells asking you to bridge from the moment you log in to the moment you log out (or go on hide).

And they are adding e-mail filters, which means you will only get e-mail RMT spam if you want to.

While I can see that some folks may not think it is "rock your socks off" awesome (in truth, I'm not nerdgasming either. I'm much more excited about the Power Customization), are you telling me that you can't even see why this is good?

It does accomplish your goal, yes, but in a different way than you suggest.

You aren't so important that people will disagree with you just out of principle. Trust me, you are no Angry Citizen, Venture, Perfect Pain or LaserJesus. Neither am I, for that matter.

Because, when fighting Greens and Blues, you have not left them in the dust. They are only one or two levels behind you. Fighting Skulls at level 16 is not even remotely close to fighting Skulls at level 30. At level 16, a level 14 Skull can still kill you. At level 30, all they are good for is the damage badge (and there are far more efficient ways of getting that).

And this is my point exactly. If the fight is going to be that easy, why should I be getting rewards for it? Currently, all I get for exemplaring down and fighting lower level enemies that I outgrew ten levels ago is the thanks of the City (influence). Because they don't push my character to push his powers to new heights, why should they give him experience? The current system only breaks immersion in that I lose access to some of my powers. The new system will likely allow me to keep using all my powers, AND gain XP. Immersion breaking in a different way.