Lobster
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:<.<Originally Posted by Father Xmas
Ironic how it's available just before the game's apocalypse. -
Just read through the story pieces (I'm hoping there is more!?). Very, very awesome. A fitting endcap (?) on your contributions. Thank you so much Arcanaville.
To me, this ending - your ending - OUR ending - is canon.
I was at a Springsteen concert, or I would have been there. I'll see whoever there is to see on the 30th. -
Quote:Had me excited for a moment there. Now I'm back to bummed.Originally Posted by Doc_Reverend
And we can't even see that VFX work. ;_;
*bangs futily at the beta Market* Gimme... -
Quote:Jinkies!Originally Posted by Fire Man
True story. "Black Pebble" is an Asian, playing an Asian, disguised as another Asian.
FPABP.
*rips off mask*
[edit: Oh. Well then, possibly my FPARN. But will it be the last.... DUN DUN DUN!] -
Quote:Last line in that post is terrible. But that's probably the only event I'll be on for. Double XP at this point is some salty woundsOriginally Posted by Hit Streak
Let's go out with a bang!
Summer Blockbuster - October 5 - October 8
Double XP - October 18 - October 22
Halloween Event - October 26 - October 29
Winter Event - November 9 - November 12
Rikti Invasion - November 23 - November 30
To clarify: you will be able to play until 11:59:59PM on November 30. They will shut off at midnight.
.
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*applause*
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I've typed out and canceled out of this post numerous times over the last few weeks. Here's to hoping I hit "Submit" this time....
A little background: I used to write poetry as a kid. Hundreds of pages. Notebooks filled, that kind of thing. I also had issues communicating with others - especially about emotions (surprise!). As an adult, I write much less poetry (very little at all). I also eventually got diagnosed with (Limited? Mild? Spongy? High Functioning? Violet?) aspergers, and lots of things about my behaviors and life in general started to click.
Face to face social interactions with people outside of my immediate circle (wonderful, patient wife & 3 kids, some extended family and a few scattered friends) can be difficult for me. Sure, I've done it pretty much all day every work day for the last decade or two, but it takes a lot out of me. It's exhausting. It seems like removing a dimension or two (gesture, voice tone, eye contact, facial expressions) makes socializing much more relaxing and fun for me. So, hey, no surprise I wound up digging online communities - especially games (because I'm a gamer) - right?
I've been through a number of MMOs and game communities over the years - from mudding back in the day (I still program occasionally on a 20+ year old LPMUD) to Everquest to Diablo 2 and the D2X mod scene (I spent a year or so making my own mod - I still get one or two messages a year from folks discovering it and playing it, always makes me smile) to DAoC to WoW and a host of others over the years.
Nothing has stuck with me like this game.
Like many others, I heard about it long before it released and followed hungrily after any juicy newsbits and pounced on the pre-order and (brief) beta access. Day 1, and I'm still here. Sort of. Lately I can't bring myself to log in... it feels like dancing with the dead. Hopefully I'll move out of this phase and be back a bit more before the big barn burning (or barn reshuffling if we get really lucky, *fingers, toes, claws, tails, wings and eyebrows crossed*), but right now I just can't do it.
The community in City of .., both in game (Pinnacle!) and on the forums is just absolutely, positively second to nothing. This is it. The best gaming community I've ever been a part of - maybe the best there is (best there ever will be?
). So supportive and friendly, welcoming... I can't count the number of times I've seen people (or done it myself - gotta give back!) breaking systems and builds and powers and microscopic bits of lore minutiae down for new folks or just being plain helpful and decent digital human beings in general. Not to mention all the non-gaming stuff that goes on within server communities (and, I'm sure, the forum community as well, I'm just even less in tune with that one) and all the crossover into RL support groups, friends, lovers, etc.
Hopefully this doesn't come off wrong, but I felt like I should leave this on the forums somewhere... to metaphorically burn with them, I suppose. Bits and pieces of this were floating around in my head, percolating towards... who knows... when the news hit. Things started clicking and clacking and here is where I wound up:we stayed inside
Thank you to the devs for making such a wonderful space for people to have the option to be wonderful within and thank you to all the people who did so.
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proud white faces, rotting in the sun
their browner kin rolling onward
as the sheen from pallid skin buckles and sneers.
gloried in excess of real, touch
flush with clamoured confidence, mummied.
they said “come outside, the world’s just right”
but we stayed inside.
there were worlds in our eyes
worlds yet to be rendered visceral upon
pupils denying seasons at unset refresh rates
there were worlds cast through our eyes
worlds riding frameshivs between blinks
gloried in excess of dream, sight
our pupils refracted liminal galaxies
upon a screen of spandex, chthonic schemes
nigh killable messiahs impaled in unbreakable dreams
gloried in glory, glory
they said “come outside, everything’s on right”
but we stayed inside.
sometimes.
I seriously doubt I will ever get as invested in another game as I was in this one (emotionally, temporally, or financially). In fact, I have several mental notes NOT to do so, so I don't have to go through this again. -
Quote:Some of us are crazy and log every single trial result....Originally Posted by Black Scorpion
We had no effective means of counting pet management, so as part of the design we gave a AT weighting factor to MMs (and a lesser one to some other ATs IIRC). We tuned it up several times, but it became difficult to judge if it was at a good place or not because a lot of the feedback was mixed between how it had been and how it was after the changes. I would have been interested to know if it was still happening after about the first or second patch following Keyes, which is when we increased the MM weighting factor. Sorry for the lousy player experience on that.
Myself and a few others posted our data several times, I don't think I ever saw a dev comment specifically on it.
FWIW, after the 3rd or 4th 'bump', MM rewards did seem to get a bit more normal.
Before the first fix, my MMs got ~70% commons for BAF and Lam. After the 2nd or 3rd it was down to ~50% commons. My closing, complete (include pre & post-patch #s) average was ~55% commons for mms, over all trials. One flukey (?) stalker had the same average, every other AT was < 35% commons.
Thanks for continually striving towards parity.
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Quote:Wow. I'm gonna be honest, I was not expecting an answer. Thank you!Originally Posted by Black Scorpion
I'm guessing the stat being checked was total time, and the method you were checking that was clicking on an NPC and being told your total time that way. (if this is inaccurate let me know and I'll try to think about how that was done instead). It was pretty much just a count of seconds stored on your character and updated each time your character was saved to the db. If that count was accurate in the db, then the output method probably had some sort of bug - that was probably traceable. If the count was not correct in the db, then there was some sort of subtle db container bug - and that usually rated a complete table flip on the "scale of how hard this bug is going to be to fix" meter.
Yes, I just checked via click on an "m-pc" (npc with name starting with M). I always wondered why there wasn't an easier way to get at that info...
I guess, if it was a db bug, it's a good thing the bug didn't spill over into anything else (noticeable!) then.
AHH. I didn't realize it logged time that way. That could totally be it for the newer characters, wouldn't surprise me if I left them in an AE mish/tf. However, for my pre-AE chars I can't see why I would have ever left them in a tf for weeks/months. Perhaps there was a separate bug that failed to remove someone from a TF?Quote:Originally Posted by rodionOne cause of this is that if you log out during a TF (which includes any kind of AE mission, Ouro mission, etc.) the game considers you still logged in. You appear in the global friends list as apparently logged in but with no actual status.
You can test this by creating a level 1 character, starting an AE arc, logging out and then coming back in a day to see how "old" the character is.
(Also, I always wondered about those ghosts in the global list, thank you!) -
Still monitoring this frequency... just realized I'd never logged into the forums from my new workstation. Wow. Yet another depressing thing.
Thanks so much for all the hard work! You have/had (ARGH!) my dream job. I wish you only the best. Hey, thanks again. Just because I can.
Here's a very random, technical/bug question:
For years(?) there has been some kind of bug with the character age recording. I can't tell you what triggers it, but the result seems to be that the characters age (in hours) gets shifted one decimal point. So say a character that I just *coughPLd* will be 67 hours old. I didn't mind this so much for new alts...but it made it impossible to find out how much time I put into some of my old alts.
Any idea what was going on here?
I reported this bug at least twice and I'm pretty sure the response both times was "there is no bug". -
Quote:Hmm. Now I just need to check and see which version of detonator is used on beast/. I would guess non-human, but it is a new set so who knows. I'll do some tests if I can get my spirits high enough to log back in.Originally Posted by ricohdah
Here's the link to the Detonator info. Read the Adeon Hawkwood and Socorro posts:
http://64.25.35.208/showthread.php?t=248962 -
Quote:Well, that's depressing. The forum won't let me do allcaps, ruining my already terrible, terrible joke.Originally Posted by black pebble
i wouldn't say this was "the best," considering i engineered the flowbee-haircut of positron.
So i had an idea to capitalize on the confusion.
On The Confusion?
[edit: EDITED. Alas. Note: That would have been a really amusing promo.] -
I don't know who you are, but this made me smile.
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Quote:Originally Posted by Black Pebble
- Unprecedented customization. Eight years later, no game has managed to come close.
- Flight. No mounts. No gliding. True, unfettered flight.
- Taking on dozens of mobs at once, and blowing them all away with a nuke.
- The friendliest, most supportive community in all of gaming.
Stop saying my thinking words before my mouthing brain. -
Quote:Originally Posted by Black Pebble
Awright, so Andy implemented a new powers feature in I24. It basically allowed a power to pull targets towards you.
So one implementation was going to be for Water Armor, where you could create a vortex around you and suck mobs into you doing damage to them and other fun stuff.
That's the new mechanic I was being coy about. I was really looking forward to it too. You could use it to pull off cool tricks like snatching mobs from across the room.
The things Andy can pull with a 8+ year old engine is phenomenal.
...and then it was going to be ported into grav control. Awesome!
As a coder, I find engine and code stretching, at least from the gaming angle very cool. I program on an LP-Mud, and we are still figuring out new workarounds for things all the time. True, I think it's less limiting (but I wouldn't know) than a graphics-tied game engine. But still.
Also. DROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL. -
Quote:That's hilarious.Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Why yes it is. -
Thanks for using your powers for cheese for good.
I hope whoever saves Paragon does it right quick so they can hire you! 
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Quote:Why is *marketing* giving away all the info now? This is like we're living on opposite day... forever!Originally Posted by Black Pebble
Assault, yes.
What are you.... marketing?
<.<
Please be marketing something.
>.> -
Quote:OH ... I....no. I got nothing.Originally Posted by Black Pebble
You're missing about 4 really obvious ones, most of which were expansions or modifications of what had been seen so far.
EDIT: Hints. Tanker, Controller, Dominator, Blaster.
Not even an archaic TV reference.
The code banter is fascinating though. -
FWIW, I have a 41 necro on GW. It's completely unlike a mastermind in the (most?) important ways - absolutely no pet control. The pets are fairly weak, and you resummon them A LOT.
I'm working on a ranger as well - they only have a single pet, but it has command control similar to masterminds. There are something like 30+ pet options for the rangers as well, kind of a pokemon deal to find them.
Both are a lot of fun. Pretty much everything in GW2 is. It won't have near the longevity that CoH has/did for me, but it's fun for now. -
Quote:Oh really? HMm. That would actually make a twisted kind of sense. I do recall the damage scaling up with pet type though (from ages ago). I'll have to do some testing.Originally Posted by ricohdah
I read that Detonator does damage according to the pet's damage buff, not from the slotting of the power itself. One Force Feedback recharge/endurance IO would be good enough.
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Spoil us at-worky people - what does it dooooo!?
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Thanks so much Posi & co. Again. Also thanks for everything else. Again. Just because.
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This may be my last MM build. I'm ~32% s/l, capped to energy & negative, ~30% psi/fire/cold, 33% melee/aoe & ~40% ranged. I tried to get as many procs as I could in there along with going for e/n softcap (so I could Levi for the SHARRRRKS).
Thoughts? Can I make it better? I just hit 50 the other night, started working on my alpha. It's pretty solid so far, but doesn't feel as uber as other mms I've had with /time & /dark. Thinking I need to work hasten in there to really milk /traps.
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.96
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Level 50 Magic Mastermind
Primary Power Set: Beast Mastery
Secondary Power Set: Traps
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Leviathan Mastery
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Summon Wolves -- BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), S'bndAl-Dmg(3), S'bndAl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), S'bndAl-Build%(7), Achilles-ResDeb%(7), LdyGrey-%Dam(9)
Level 1: Web Grenade -- Enf'dOp-Acc/Rchg(A)
Level 2: Call Hawk -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(5), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(21), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(21), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40)
Level 4: Caltrops -- TmpRdns-EndRdx/Rchg/Slow(A)
Level 6: Train Beasts -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(33)
Level 8: Call Ravens -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(9), Posi-Dmg/Rng(11), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(25), Posi-Dam%(25), UndDef-DefDeb/Rchg/EndRdx(45)
Level 10: Acid Mortar -- ShldBrk-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(A), ShldBrk-Acc/DefDeb(11), ShldBrk-Acc/Rchg(23), ShldBrk-DefDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(23), ShldBrk-%Dam(31), ShldBrk-DefDeb(43)
Level 12: Summon Lions -- SCotMastermind-Acc/Dmg(A), SCotMastermind-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13), SCotMastermind-Dmg/EndRdx(13), SCotMastermind-Rchg/PetAoEDef(15), LkGmblr-Rchg+(15), BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(34)
Level 14: Fly -- Zephyr-ResKB(A)
Level 16: Force Field Generator -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(17), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(17)
Level 18: Fortify Pack -- Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(19), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(31), Dct'dW-Heal(33), Dct'dW-Rchg(34)
Level 20: Hover -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(50)
Level 22: Poison Trap -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(46), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(46), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(50)
Level 24: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(34), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(39)
Level 26: Summon Dire Wolf -- HO:Nucle(A), CotMastermind-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(27), SCotMastermind-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(27), EdctM'r-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(29), EdctM'r-PetDef(29), SvgnRt-PetResDam(31)
Level 28: Tactics -- GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(A), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(37), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(37)
Level 30: Triage Beacon -- Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(36), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(36), Dct'dW-Heal(36), Dct'dW-Rchg(37)
Level 32: Tame Beasts -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(33)
Level 35: Trip Mine -- Erad-Dmg(A), Erad-Acc/Rchg(40), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(40), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(43)
Level 38: Detonator -- Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx(A), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg(39), AirB'st-Dmg/Rchg(39)
Level 41: School of Sharks -- OvForce-End/Rech(A), OvForce-Dam/KB(42), OvForce-Acc/Dmg/End(42), OvForce-Dmg/End/Rech(42), OvForce-Acc/Dmg/End/Rech(43)
Level 44: Shark Skin -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(45), RctvArm-EndRdx(45), RctvArm-ResDam(46), GA-3defTpProc(50)
Level 47: Spirit Shark Jaws -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(48), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(48), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(48)
Level 49: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%(A), P'Shift-EndMod(19)
Level 50: Musculature Total Radial Revamp
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Set Bonus Totals:- 7% DamageBuff(Smashing)
- 7% DamageBuff(Lethal)
- 7% DamageBuff(Fire)
- 7% DamageBuff(Cold)
- 7% DamageBuff(Energy)
- 7% DamageBuff(Negative)
- 7% DamageBuff(Toxic)
- 7% DamageBuff(Psionic)
- 5% Defense
- 7.56% Defense(Smashing)
- 7.56% Defense(Lethal)
- 7.25% Defense(Fire)
- 7.25% Defense(Cold)
- 21.63% Defense(Energy)
- 21.63% Defense(Negative)
- 6% Defense(Psionic)
- 9.13% Defense(Melee)
- 15.69% Defense(Ranged)
- 23.5% Defense(AoE)
- 1.8% Max End
- 78.75% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
- 8% Enhancement(Heal)
- 27% Enhancement(Accuracy)
- 14% SpeedFlying
- 111.4 HP (13.88%) HitPoints
- 18% JumpHeight
- 18% SpeedJumping
- Knockback (Mag -4)
- Knockup (Mag -4)
- MezResist(Confused) 2.5%
- MezResist(Held) 2.5%
- MezResist(Immobilized) 3.6%
- MezResist(Sleep) 4.15%
- MezResist(Stunned) 2.5%
- MezResist(Terrorized) 6.9%
- 11% (0.18 End/sec) Recovery
- 48% (1.61 HP/sec) Regeneration
- 10% Resistance(Smashing)
- 10% Resistance(Lethal)
- 14.1% Resistance(Fire)
- 14.1% Resistance(Cold)
- 10% Resistance(Energy)
- 10% Resistance(Negative)
- 10% Resistance(Toxic)
- 10% Resistance(Psionic)
- 14% SpeedRunning
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Quote:A sizeable chunk of my alts have gotten hit with the hours played decimal shift bug. I guess you being you, you probably check regularly and would notice.Originally Posted by Arcanaville
A few here and there for me also.
It's the one bug I've filed regularly over the years that has never even gotten fixed - I've probably still got a few emails telling me there is no bug. Snicker.
Sorry. Tangent. Big #s from the m-pcs trigger it. Can't. Resist. I have a problem with (inaccurate) numbers.