Liquid

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  1. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tyger42 View Post
    Show me where I can buy a bag of just grape Jolly Ranchers, and I'll accept your point.
    Here you go, enjoy!
  2. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
    I acknowledged that specifically: the point to the passage you quote is encapsulated in its last sentence: you can choose to believe that the devs don't care about the some of the players whose suggestions went unfulfilled, or you can choose to believe they do care, but that fact alone wasn't the only deciding factor.
    Your post had a lot of talk about consensus in it. I wanted to be clear that I never assumed consensus.

    Your post also talked about whether or not the developers cared about the players, as if I'd said that they didn't. I believe that they care about the players. I've met several of them multiple times in person, and they are interested in players. I believe that they (some of them, at least) care about me specifically, even.

    Edit: To be clear on my personal belief, in your words, I believe they do care, but that fact alone wasn't the only deciding factor.

    Quote:
    The more specific point is you chose to portray the choice as one between dollars and players:
    I portrayed it as a choice (more of a sub-choice, as this is only about a single aspect of the Super Packs) between dollars and one group of players' opinion about how those dollars are being obtained in this specific instance. You're simplifying it to a degree that I never intended. It makes it sound like I claimed they don't give a crap about players and just want money.

    Quote:
    What if it was a choice between players that wanted the exclusivity, and those that did not?
    It could have been. I find that hard to believe based on the feedback threads, though, as I only saw a few people that seemed in favor of exclusivity. Based on the evidence I have, which is obviously not complete, I have a guess, and that is that a decision was made that would attempt to make as many people happy as possible, while still maximizing sales.
  3. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
    I kind of like at least some aspects of the exclusivity properties of the packs. If they decide to make them non-exclusive, would that be a case of them deciding not to care about me, and care about someone else?

    Its easy to portray this as the devs choosing between some arbitrary or calculated business decision and caring about their players, but as I said consensus is illusory (bah!). When the players don't all unanimously agree, either you choose to believe the devs pick who they care about and who they don't care about, or you choose to believe the devs do what they believe is the best all around, even if that's contradictory to what you believe is best all around.
    That's why I said "than how some of their customers feel about the business practice" (note the word "some") not "than caring about their players". I do think they picked what they believe to be best all around.
  4. You guys are the best I have ever seen in terms of listening to feedback, overall, and I mean that in terms of any company, not just game developers.

    I think the feeling some people have that you didn't listen to feedback here comes from a belief that the #1 complaint about the superpacks was the exclusivity of items to a randomized purchasing method. That complaint has been eliminated for ATIOs (woohoo!), but it has not been addressed for costume items/the black wolf beyond "maybe we'll let you buy them outright later, maybe we won't".

    I wouldn't say you didn't listen to feedback here, you obviously did on several points (and I was really pleasantly surprised that ATIOs were made obtainable in-game). However, on what some would consider the most important point, I'd say that I think someone sees the revenue potential from exclusive items in the packs and thinks it's more valuable to Paragon Studios than how some of their customers feel about the business practice. I hope the "maybe we'll let you buy them later" isn't hinged on whether the packs do poorly, because I think they're going to do extremely well, and I think the exclusive items will have a lot to do with it.

    I do hope you decide to let us buy them outright later. I'm not going to assume that you will, though, until you've told us.

    Psychoti is right that you did sound just like Dr. Claw, by the way, Zwillinger. I think you and Dr. Aeon should hold a conversation between Batman and Dr. Claw on the next U-Stream.
  5. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Psychoti View Post
    Liquid, go watch the recording of it. I was dying laughing when he busted out that Batman voice. HI-larious. Then Z tried to copy it and ended up sounding EXACTLY like Dr. Claw from the Inspector Gadget cartoons.
    Thanks, I forgot that they recorded them!
  6. I wish I hadn't missed this one. I think I would have enjoyed Bat-Aeon.
  7. What side do you pick more than others?

    Hero-side. I'd guess that 75% of my characters are heroes. I have villain characters that I like, but I can't play the villain for long. Most of my villains are actually Rogues anyway.

    What play style do you prefer?

    I like soloing or duoing with my fiancee if I'm running new content I haven't done before, as I want to be able to take my time and read the text/look around without feeling like I'm wasting someone else's time. If I've done the content before, I prefer small teams (4-6 people). We steamroll-- I hate pulling, and will only do it if we team-wipe (which doesn't happen often). I don't really enjoy PUGs, I like to team with friends, but sometimes you have to PUG due to

    I hate events that require multiple teams, but I do them if I have to to get badges or Incarnate powers or whatever. I feel less connected to the game world, and less like I'm playing a character, and more like I'm playing some generic combat game with a bunch of random people on the internet. I think the "social bonds" that form that are so vital to MMOs are more likely to form on smaller teams where people aren't faceless members of the crowd.

    What power set(s) do you favor?

    Super Strength is my favorite, because I like superheroes with superhuman strength. I think I've got 6 characters with Super Strength (and either Invulnerability or Willpower). Other than that, I try to come up with characters that use varied powersets, so that I don't have a lot of similar characters.

    What zones do you like the most?

    Steel Canyon and Talos feel the most like "home" to me, for some reason. I think it's because they are bright and have lots of tall buildings for that city feel, as well as the nostalgia from running tons of characters through them. You might think I'd have that feeling with Atlas, but I actually always preferred Galaxy as my starting zone. Not that it mattered much, as you get out of the starting zone pretty quick.

    Do you usually play as a male or female (word of hatred) ''toon''?

    I DON'T PLAY "TOONS" I PLAY CHARACTERS!

    I think 90% of my characters are female. The male run has always bothered me, and (as was mentioned upthread) makes them look like they've had an "accident" due to the way they won't put one foot in front of the other. I also think women are cool.

    Views on Role Playing?

    I participate in what I refer to as "light roleplaying". Mostly it amounts to in-character comments during missions. I don't stand around and chat in-character for very long, usually, and I don't develop "plots" or anything of that nature. I have done some writing about my characters outside of the game.

    I'd be interested in more in-depth roleplaying, but after years of pen and paper RPGs, I feel extremely limited in this environment, so it gets frustrating when NPCs can't respond and you can't interact with your surroundings beyond other players.

    Servers?

    Virtue, and only Virtue. It's where my supergroup is, and therefore where my friends are. Playing on any other server feels like a waste of time. I like the community there, too, but since I don't play on other servers, I can't really say they are better or worse than on any other server.
  8. I was surprised when you announced that you were killing Statesman off. I'm glad you're going to keep using him for marketing purposes, as I think he has an iconic name and design. I look forward to running SSA 5 tonight to see how it's done.
  9. Liquid

    Tights!

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Commander View Post
    Can someone fix the color palettes? White face masks NEED to be the same exact shade of white that is used on the tights. Here is an example:
    Oh, yeah. This is happening because it's blending with the skin. Black masks have issues with this too-- all greyscale options do this for some reason. You can't get a black full mask that matches black tights, the masks look dark grey.
  10. Liquid

    Tights!

    I'm going to reiterate my opinion from the previous thread to make sure it doesn't get lost: I feel like we've gotten a lot of option C lately. I wouldn't object to more of it, but that's not really why I think people are asking for more "superhero" stuff.

    I'm actually happy with the original 2004 tights themselves as a base. I think the best things you could do to add more "superhero" options would be to make new, simple tights patterns, and add some improved versions of some of the old ones that have issues. For example, the color/skin blending on the old tights with skin patterns when using a grayscale color is something that bothers a lot of people (as I said in the old thread, make them more like Tank Top, so they're opaque when white or grey).

    I'd also like to see upgraded versions of the "with skin" options that match the Sleek tights, both for Tops with Skin and Bottoms with Skin. I'd like to be able to make a sleek leotard with exposed legs (which would require sleek "bikini" bottoms), or a sleek Tanker top to match with sleek leg tights.

    Razorstrike also had some good examples of new tights patterns.

    Thanks for doing this, NS.
  11. Quote:
    Originally Posted by SilverAgeFan View Post
    <snip huge and awesome post>
    Oh, and yeah, I totally agree with what SilverAgeFan said. How appropriate that he said it!
  12. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Noble Savage View Post
    Very useful to know. I figured that the Defense set would've covered it as well, yet there were still requests for more super-hero stuff after that shipped. Wanted to figure out exactly what you guys were after.
    I agree with the Gentleman. You've given us lots of options for B. A and C are what I'm most interested in. I think what I really want is more tools in my toolchest for making classic, simple mask/cape/tights style costumes. Those are the kind of parts I use the most, and having more of them would be awesome.
  13. Quote:
    Originally Posted by MentalMaden View Post
    And white options that don't just blend into skin.
    This has been a pet peeve of mine for a while. The Tops with Skin options, when colored white or grey, blend with the skin color to make off-white colors, resulting in, for example, the inability to wear a white Tanker top. If your skin is green, it turns out pink. If your skin is human looking, it looks like body paint.

    The best way to see the difference (since I can't seem to get screenshots within the character creator anymore) is to make a character wearing white Lower Body -> Bottoms -> Tights, and toggle between a white Upper Body -> Tops With Skin -> Chest -> Tanker and Tank Top. Note how the top won't quite match the pants when in Tanker, but it does when in Tank Top.

    I'm also interested in face masks that appear to have some thickness to them. I don't want to see them floating in front of their faces or the weird bulky stuff that the Competing Other superhero game has, but I'd like something done to make it feel like it's physical (kind of like how Tank Top works).

    Also, more simple patterns (I honestly stick to the simple shapes like those that were there at release. The more intricate ones like Arctic and Googie don't get used by me) and chest symbols, and that glowing chest symbol idea that was discussed on UStream. I'd love to have the option to make some of my chest symbols glow. Glowing patterns would also be awesome. Some large chest symbols that cross the entire chest (similar to Ms. Marvel's for example), and/or more Emblem patterns (Emblem Circle, Emblem Diamond, etc.) would be great.

    Thanks for asking this question, NS, I hope you are getting feedback you feel you can make use of!
  14. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Noble Savage View Post
    That's the general idea.
    I want to make sure that you know that I think the drawing is fantastic, and it's the best Statesman has ever looked. Great work.
  15. I'm happy that they are offering this. There are both gameplay and RP reasons for why people might want to instantly switch alignments.

    I don't think it will have any negative impact on the game, as alignment switching through tips is often a personal process anyway, something other players aren't going to witness. I'm often completely unaware of the alignment of other players anyway, unless they are roleplaying.

    As for it being hypocritical, I agree with Lothic. There are two ways to change alignments, and both have limiters on them to prevent it from being done on a whim.
  16. This issue looks great! I'm particularly looking forward to the new 5th arcs. I wasn't expecting to see the TuT expanded to task forces and working in missions so quickly either.
  17. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Von Krieger View Post
    Z: "For the interesting thing about you, I mentioned that I played Diablo 2 for 72 hours straight. Ben said you should talk to my son, as he was played Everquest so much that he was sent to boarding school to get him away from the game."
    If you're reading this, Zwill, a friend of mine and I played Diablo (the first one) for 72 hours straight on the first weekend that we bought it. Some other friends played too, but they slept.

    Actually, we played some Quake as well, but the point is that I didn't sleep primarily because I was so obsessed with Diablo. When I finally did sleep, I had some really bizarre dreams about all of my friends running through a house fighting each other with swords and Quad Damage.
  18. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Arbiter Hawk View Post
    The scatter effect of the KB is easy to contain with environment if the player desires to contain it, and if they don't, the stun duration is long enough such that it's still a very effective control power.
    While I understand and accept everything else you've said in this post about Wormhole's KB, please hear us when we say that the environment is not always conducive to containing scatter (as pointed out in #3 of teflonshugenja's post). If you happen to be near a corner, it's fantastic, but corners actually aren't that common. Some maps don't have any corners (like one of the outdoor forest maps). When you do have a corner, there may be environment objects that foes will get stuck in/on if they get KBed into them (such as the shelves and boxes in Warehouses, rocks and walls in caves, or trees in forest maps), making them difficult to get to, or in some cases, even making the mission uncompletable. If you're not near a corner, you're going to spread them out, even if you aim them at a wall, due to how ragdolling foes slide around. And you won't always even have walls, unless you want to move the the spawn that your teammates are fighting across the room.

    I love Wormhole. It's the most fun power in the set. But I've gotten requests not to use it so much due to the scatter that my Grav feels sub-par compared to other control sets that have a secondary control without KB. Every other set has a secondary control that can be used every spawn.

    I accept your decision. I know the scatter issue is just a natural consequence of having the game so heavily favor AoE attacks/buffs/debuffs/controls/etc., I realize that there is little you can do about it without effectively removing AoE KB from the game, and I know you don't want to do that. I'm only making this post because as someone with lots of experience with Wormhole, I don't feel that the KB is always easy to contain by the environment. It's not even often easy. I want to make sure that you know that if you're balancing powers while taking into account assumptions about the environment.

    That being said, all of the Gravity changes look awesome. I'm still very unlikely to take a foe-intangibility power, but at least it looks to be as controllable as possible. Thanks so much for looking at this set, it's my favorite control set, conceptually.

    Edit: I second teflonshugenja's request to move the -KB into Crushing Field. I'd be willing to accept the aggro as a consequence if I had the option to not scatter on teams.
  19. I would have started with examining the name, "Statesman", and gone from there.

    He should have been regularly known to take a stand for what he believed was right, and he should have given speeches that were simple yet powerful, inspiring people to do the right thing. While doing so, he should have conveyed emotion without appearing angry or irrational.

    While it is an interesting angle to portray him as an immortal that has disconnected emotionally from the world because his loved ones die, it is a character type that people don't generally connect with, and so doesn't really work well as a flagship character. It would have been better to have had his longevity instead make him feel more connected to humanity as a whole rather than specific individuals, and feel a greater responsibility not just to protect, but to lead and inspire people.

    I feel that the arrogant, impatient, disconnected personality for Statesman that we saw in the comics was a waste of a brilliant character concept and design.
  20. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
    Basically, I would really hate to have good story angles abandoned completely because "old stuff is old." Yes, Dark Astoria has the potential to return to some of the game's oldest factions and stories... If our writers want to go that route. Because it also has the potential to completely bastardise and reinvent who Lughebu is and what the Banished Pantheon stand for by ret-conning everything with the Well of the Furries.
    I feel the same way, and I'm hoping that the Well has little to nothing to do with the DA revamp (and I'm disappointed that Diabolique is involved at all). I really enjoyed the game's release content, story-wise, and I think the fact that someone else wrote the general storyline and lore shouldn't impede anyone's creativity. I wasn't excusing the idea that writers might want to ignore such an important source of lore, just explaining why I think they might do so.

    Also, I have no idea how much of Rick's work has or hasn't been used, I just felt that I should point out the possibility that they've used so much of the story bible that the only thing left is to write more.
  21. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
    What's the point of having a story bible if you keep writing into it and never actually read from it, though? I get the feeling that Jack was referring to the body content that Rick Dakan and his team came up with in pre-production way back when when he talked about a "Story Bible,"
    I don't know if it was originally called that or not, but yeah, I think that is what was being referred to as the Story Bible. It could be a mass of digital documents, a 3 ring binder, or stacks of note-paper, but that content that Rick Dakan wrote is what I think they are talking about. And I think it was expanded by later writers (like Sean Fish and whoever else was doing CoV writing, and very likely Hero 1 for the GR Praetorian stuff).

    Quote:
    but I don't get the feeling that either Jack or Matt actually used much from it. As I said in my thread about stories that could be picked up on, it seems like there's almost never any callback to old content and to a greater persistent world such as might be described in a story bible. While such a thing may or may not exist, it doesn't seem like it's being used.
    I understand your feelings. I think it's been used (especially for the release content, which is thick with connections between groups and arcs), but not always, and sometimes not well. I think new writers are probably more interested in creating new lore than taking the stuff Rick wrote back in 2001-2003 and bringing it to life. I suppose it's also possible that the interesting stuff he wrote back then is tapped out, though I'm hoping that the writers for the Dark Astoria revamp went back to it for reference. We'll see.

    I've also heard that the story bible itself has some contradictions and inconsistencies in it, though I don't remember where I heard that. It was probably at one of the conventions.

    I think most everything we've seen recently relating to GR is brand new, though.
  22. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
    Ouch... I was not aware of this. I guess so much for Jack Emmert's "story bible," eh?
    I fully believe that there is a story bible. That being said, it's not like it's written in stone--they can add things to it. I have reason to believe that the Council and Arachnos (and Recluse and his backstory with Statesman) are two of the things that were added to it post-release content (meaning, after they finished the Issue 0 content, but not necessarily after release, as they do work ahead now, and may have worked ahead then as well).
  23. I think what was actually retconned in GR was the "serves Tyrant in all capacities" part.

    As I recall it, when the Praetorians were added in Issue 1, Ms. Liberty was not Statesman's granddaughter. A retcon made her his granddaughter when his backstory was fleshed out for CoV, Maria Jenkins was changed from Maiden Justice to Madame Danger, and Statesman was connected to Lord Recluse by making Maiden Justice Recluse's sister and Statesman's wife, and Miss Liberty their daughter.

    Edit: Heh, I found an archived copy of the thread where that came to light. I was apparently the first person to notice the Tyrant/Dominatrix problem (on the forums, anyway). Check the bottom of the page, right after Manticore explains that Ms. Liberty is now Statesman's granddaughter.
  24. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
    Technically, you could use that fact to balance an archetype with no (or little) mitigation by default. We could make it so that blasters had one kill speed at long range and a faster one at short range. At long range they would be relatively safe, but at shorter range they would be in greater jeopardy. In effect, range would be their mitigation, but it would also be a damage debuff. And that's theoretically a valid method of balancing blasters, at least in theory.
    I think that would also be a valid method of balancing travel powers that are usable in combat. Honestly, I thought that was the case in the first place-- jousting increases safety, but dramatically reduces DPS. (I'm not saying I think it was designed that way, but that we had built-in penalties for using travel powers in combat to reduce risk.)

    We were once told that there were several PvE reasons for Travel Suppression, and I think the only one given was regarding risk reduction (and I don't recall any mention of the DPS loss it takes to do that). Do you know anything about the reasons why Travel Suppression was put into place, and do you have opinions on whether it should remain in place, and why?

    Note that I don't particularly have a desire for jousting myself, but prior to Issue 4, I had a speedster character that felt like a speedster, capable of running between targets and chasing runners at superhuman speed.

    This may be viewed as a tangent, but I believe it to be related to the "out of combat" concept.
  25. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rabid_M View Post
    I have a question for everyone, because I'm curious as to what the response would be:

    If they made SMALLER (4-8 players) Incarnate Trials, much like the Halloween trial, would people run them more than the larger trials?

    Would they run them enough to make them worth making?
    Absolutely. The single biggest turn-off for me of the existing trials is that it's multi-team content. I enjoy smaller teams, where I find more player interaction and make or enjoy lasting friendships. Trials make me feel pretty anonymous, and I haven't formed a single friendship-bond over them. I also really enjoyed the fact that the Halloween trial only required 4, though I wish it had been 4-8 or 2-4 and not 4-and-only-4.

    Quote:
    Would you run them even if you're taking out "smaller" targets than the large trials take on? (A raid on a warehouse full of New and Improved Enriche, for example, with a non-Praetor AV at the end.)

    Why/why not?
    Maybe. Honestly, we're Incarnates, and we should be presented with serious threats, story-wise, on these. If we're facing down major villains with big schemes like the Clockwork King and Dr. Vahzilok on teams of 3 and 4 at levels 10-20, we should be able to still be facing down major villains with big schemes when we're Incarnates, not taking out a bottled water factory and facing C-List henchmen like Maelstrom or Riptide (though I do like Riptide, he should only be a serious threat in stuff like the Sutter TF, not in Incarnate content unless there's a significant and interesting story reason for it-- not just "oh Cole is empowering him").

    The idea that we'd need to take on lesser threats on a smaller team is one of the reasons that Incarnate content makes me feel like my characters have become less powerful as Incarnates, not more powerful.

    I'd like to see some non-Praetorian stuff in there, too. It doesn't all have to involve Cole or the Well. I'm looking forward to Dark Astoria in Issue 22, and hope that Diabolique is just a side character, with Mot as the serious threat. I wish they hadn't included her at all, actually.