Lothic

That's funny that you would bring code into this given that I've been a software engineer IRL for most of the last 20 years.

Since I didn't bother to approach my post from a strict software point of view I obviously glossed over the ramifications of what it would have actually taken to retain the previous animation in favor of a more general point about how there are multiple examples where the Devs have chosen to replace options instead of add new ones. While SIMPLY adding a second thigh-hi boot option in the costume editor menus may have been relatively easier to implement than a third power animation, I still think the general philosophical point of "not cheesing off customers regardless of the code involved" still applies regardless.

It's likely the limitation of the software that you assumed exists kept them from retaining the third animation. But that doesn't address the larger issue at hand: if there is such a limitation then that needs to be tackled eventually, or at least before they start swapping one animation for another in other cases.

There might be a "standard code rant applies" here. But I think the Devs were also in a position where they made, potentially, the lesser of two choices and continued the precedent of making shortcut decisions in these cases instead of fixing the core problems involved.

I think you answered your own question about why they opted to go for TOS Trek instead of JJTrek.

I'm glad you do because really have no idea what you're getting at here.
Hopefully it was unconsciously witty or insightful. *shrugs*

Yeah, but clearly he's working in a "secret/hidden/remote" location buried deep in the jungle. Not really sure what that has to do with getting reliable commuter transport to a wilderness area.

As I implied earlier the trope of these kinds of "three faction" relationships in stories is hardly new. Heck you could probably shoehorn the Elves/Orcs/Humans from LotR into that dynamic if you really wanted to.

A ferry doesn't really make any sense for the north end of Nerva. Ferries run between established civilized areas - the north end of Nerva is anything but an "established civilized" area.

It might make sense for one of the black helicopters to run up to the south end of Primeva as an Arachnos beachhead, but anything much farther north than that doesn't fit for what's meant to be an "outback" area.

Thankfully we do at least have this cumbersome save/load workaround.
There were many years there when we didn't even have that.

But I openly call it a "cumbersome" workaround to having more costume slots because it can be a complete pain to have to go to a tailor just to "access" your extended wardrobe when you want to do something like take a helmet off or toggle an aura.

There is a prime example of another superhero MMO out there that supports both saving/loading costumes AND the ability to purchase extra costume slots for characters. There's really no justifiable reason why this game couldn't implement both features as well.

Yeah I can accept that blanket generic excuse for many NPC costume items (like the sybils' dresses) because of the limitations of the "cape" animation attachment points and whatnot.

But when it comes to the superhero "fashion model" and her unique belt and boots I think that excuse breaks down and becomes very close to just being typical Dev BS. There's nothing overtly special about the shape/texture of those items as compared to anything we already have in the costume editor. In the case of these items we aren't prevented from having them because of limitations in the character models - we aren't able to use them simply because the Devs have arbitrarily said so.

I know the Devs like to keep many items as "NPC only" just to keep them unique. But the irony of this case with the "fashion model" is that her purpose in the game was to be a FASHION MODEL, someone who supposedly was modeling clothing that the public (in this case player character superheroes) were meant to get access to. The fact that the Devs have specifically kept the items from this one NPC restricted is almost laughable when you realize that.

You did a great job with these pics. You've really captured their "comic book assets" quite well.
You could probably get a job creating comic book cover art with these.

I've been jonesing for those boots for years now. The rest of her outfit is cool but I'd probably use those boots on at least a half-a-dozen alts if I could.

Based on this new data point (Spring Fling starting the 10th) I've already amended my original prediction of when Issue 19.5 is launching (which was either the 1st, 8th or 15th) back to now either the 1st or the 8th. Given that they might decide to open up the current 19.5 closed beta to be open for a bit the 8th is now looking like the most likely date.

This for me mostly.

I'm probably just going to run TF/SFs for Incarnate shards and turn off XP for those alts that I don't want to outlevel content for.

Congrats Snow.

Based on what they said about Issue 19.5 it looks like we're going to have new WST badges to earn in just a couple of weeks.

The Devs seem to have a bad habit of REPLACING previous options instead of simply ADDING new options to the game. I'm looking at you female thigh-hi boots that were changed several years after the game went live. It's not that I hate the new version - I just think it would've been so much cooler if we had access to BOTH versions so that we could choose which ones we liked better.

Considering that drug smugglers have used pretty much every type of machine capable of carrying drugs up to and including unmanned long-ranged submarines the idea that they'd try catapults doesn't really surprise me all that much. I'll bet at some point they'll even try to use short or intermediate ranged ballistic missiles to toss drugs over the border and we'll overreact by nuking Mexico in response.

And with that I'll say BINGO! and bid you all a fond farewell.

And you guys have been accusing ME of not having a valid defense for my position here. Sorry I upset you. Take care.

Yes I actually have been playing Devs' Devil's Advocate in this thread to encourage you to come up with better ways to support your relatively flimsy position. I'm glad you finally realized that.

I never claimed to be a Dev (and as you say thank god for that).

But I'm willing to consider myself self-important enough to speculate that since you've failed to convince me of the necessity of your suggestions here I'm more than positive you will fail to convince any Dev either. If anything please grant my many years of "persistently condescending attitude" on these forums that much respect.

Your position on this subject doesn't upset me. I don't really care if you think there's a problem to be fixed here or not. My main concern is the potential waste of Dev time to "tweak" a situation that has no game effect on you, me or the moon just to get an abstract playerbase ratio from something like 70/30 to 60/40. If you can honestly tell me how that much of a slight change would radically improve anyone's personal enjoyment of this game I'd be more that perfectly willing to hear it and even lead the charge to suggest to the Devs that they waste valuable time on it.

Those numbers do show an unequal distribution of players relative to alignments. That much is true. What you've failed to do so far is explain to me why that is a problem to be solved. Why must it be more equal? What benefit as a player would you directly gain from that? Please, all joking aside, I want you to explain it to me. I really do. Because if you can actually explain it to me then you might have a snowball's chance in hell of explaining it to the Devs.

I understand that you "consider" what we've been talking about here as a problem to be fixed. Points of view are funny like that.

I have simply being trying to get you to understand that if you seriously want to get the Devs to listen to you you're going to have to do a whole lot better job stating your case. You can barely get past me by being semi-insulting to me personally as someone you don't want to take "seriously" anymore. If you can't even get past me and my mediocre defense of the Devs' system how would you ever convince a Dev?

I find the fact that the alignment spread in the game is 77/23 as a mere bit in interesting trivia. I don't see it as a "problem" to be solved and I dare say the Devs are busy enough with other things that they aren't going to be treating as a game-breaking problem either. Mountain, meet molehill.

I've been trying to divine a justification from you other than "I want it" and I haven't seen it yet in this thread. If you want to have any chance to make your case to the Devs over this you're going to have to do a whole lot better than that. Just trying to be helpful here.