Lothic
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Quote:Congrats - this is first "pro-Coffee-Talk-once-a-week" argument that almost makes some sense to me. Still I question the general idea of having any given Dev come in during any given week and effectively say very little more than, "Hi, I'm so-and-so" and "Sorry, I can't talk about that".Originally Posted by Zortel
I think what they mean is that we tend to get a different dev every week dropping by to give information, answer questions or just talk about some of what they do. If the coffee talks were done once a month, we'd have less variety as there'd be a limit of how long these things can go on for and how many people can be seated there.
Shooting the "S" is fine if that's the main thing you're looking for from these things. Perhaps my expectations here are just a notch or two too high for my own good. *shrugs* -
Quote:Originally Posted by Dink
As promised pics of Huge and Female ports ^_^ sorry for taking so long been busy working on my next project
But you know us players will only be happy with you as long as you're posting updated information every 5 minutes or so. j/k
These new pics look great. Keep up the good work.
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Quote:To be perfectly clear I actually favor the idea that they only do this once or twice a month. I'm simply suggesting that trying to host this Coffee Talk thing once a week is maybe bordering on a bit of over-saturation that dilutes the relevance of it.Originally Posted by ryu_planeswalker
Eh I would rather have developers that try and interact with the community, and they did do a short Q&A at the end which basically said Scythes for TW are not in work at all atm so nothing for Halloween.
Honestly taking half an hour out of their time once a month or so is much better than what certain MMO Developers do, such as certain games that ignore their player base completely.
It's an opinion... take it or leave it.
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Quote:I guess it's just a matter of defining the scale/scope of the case at hand. Yes $300+ million domestic gross for a movie is a lot of money regardless of context. But for an Indiana Jones movie it was still arguably the weakest and most overly hyped installment of the franchise.Originally Posted by Ironik
It pretty much did burn out. It earned 60% of its money opening weekend. Attendance went from more than 34,000 per theatre its first weekend to 13,000 its second one. In week two it was beaten by Sex and the City. That's bad word of mouth in action.
$317 million domestic sounds like a lot of money, but it's not for an Indiana Jones movie. There are few characters or franchises as beloved as that one, and the hype for it was huge. Maybe you've forgotten the raucous cheers that broke out when that first trailer was released. Anticipation was huge. And then once people saw it, word of mouth caused it to fizzle. If they had delivered another Raiders or Last Crusade instead of another Temple of Doom, Crystal Skull would've earned more money than Dark Knight. Adjusted for inflation, Raiders earned $700 million domestic, Temple made $430 million and Last Crusade made $400 million. Anticipation for Indy 4 was huge, but it sold less than half the number of tickets Last Crusade did.
The story was the same for DVD: it made $117 million, but all of that was front-loaded. It quickly fell off. Contrast it with Iron Man, which earned $200 million less globally that same year but slightly more domestically, selling $173 million on DVD its first month, and continues to sell at four times the rate of Indy 4. Those are legs. -
Quote:Yeah as I said the choice/decision to work with Fox on that show was probably not completely up to Whedon regardless.Originally Posted by Chyll
Keep in mind it was designed specifically as a Dushku vehicle to provide her a contractually obligated series for Fox. There was never really another option.
Hollywood works in mysterious ways...
The idea of Dollhouse done as a HBO/Showtime show was just one of those "What if?" scenarios that's fun to consider.
Yes I'll be giving this show a try for sure.Quote:Originally Posted by Chyll
And, on topic, I am enthused about the possiblities of the SHIELD show. -
Quote:I still contend that the "revision" of the show that Fox dictated doomed the entire endeavor to failure. I'll meet you halfway by saying that Whedon was probably foolish/stubborn in thinking that he could shoehorn his idea into the restrictive sandbox Fox offered.Originally Posted by BrandX
Still comes down to the writers not being able to adjust.
Whedon gave the premise. Fox gave the guidelines. Writers failed.
Basically I think the premise of Dollhouse could have only worked in a R-rated setting, or at least a setting that would have allowed it more "adult content" latitude. The Fox-ified show we got was indeed awkward and lackluster because of the repressed nature of it. -
Quote:Hey if it's more job security for Zwill then more power to it.Originally Posted by BrandX
You could. But for every player who agrees with you, there's another player who enjoys the weekly coffee talk, knowing it may or may not lead to the info they want.
Doesn't mean I'll -have- to watch it all the time.
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Quote:These are all valid points. Again I'm just saying that seeing Devs on a chat screen is ultimately not why I'm playing this game or paying for it. I think it's cool they do these coffee talks, but I could probably live if they only did them half as often as they do now and save up some meaningful content to share with the community.Originally Posted by Chase_Arcanum
Given the brief time that devs drop by to chat, it isn't much productivity lost. If anything, an argument can be made that this improves your experience in-game:
1) maintaining a connection to the clients helps developers keep a grasp on what participating players see as important and get immediate feedback on processes under development. This can lead to a product that better fits the players' needs.
2) this can serve as a useful and necessary break from the grind. Programmers and artists often encounter things similar to "writer's block" where simply sitting at a desk and staring at a screen isn't going to help them create good material in a timely manner. Several studies have shown that these professionals feel free to get up, walk around, have a change of venue, even play a few rounds of ping-pong, and return to code often have fewer errors introduced into their code while still meeting deadlines as well as those forced to sit and stare at the screen.
In fact, these employees also rate their job satisfaction as higher and their stress levels lower... contributing to less overall costs in the workplace. Attrition is lower in places where job satisfaction is high (recruitment costs money) and the use of unscheduled leave (sickdays) is greater in workplaces that report high stress levels, leading to lost productivity.
3) One frequent point of dissatisfaction that MMO players often have is that the "devs don't listen to us" or "devs don't communicate enough." Novel methods of communication, like a video chat, give visible evidence to players of other dev-silent MMO's that things are different here. This positive value can contribute to a new player's decision to try this game or for a "free" player to convert to a "paying" one. Video is especially valuable for this, as it gives a face and personality much better than a webpage post does- retail companies have known for decades that people are more willing to part with their money when they can relate to the salesperson, and in many ways, the dev & community managers serve that role in the chats. -
Quote:I don't really care if Zwill talks to us all day long. I suppose I was referring more to the other Devs who, more often than not, just drop in just to eventually say things like "Sorry, I can't talk about that". Sure some of them are cute to look at and all but I don't really need to see Devs in general sitting in front of a camera like that shooting-the-breeze telling me they can't tell me anything.Originally Posted by MentalMaden
Zwill doesn't work on the game though. He's doing what he's supposed to be doing. If he pulls someone away from a cubicle to talk for a few minutes it isn't going to keep anything from happening development-wise. They are keeping a line of communication with the players. Good news, great news or worthless tangeants.....who cares? They are reaching out to the playerbase in ways most games don't. We're pretty lucky.
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It's going to be a Tier 9 VIP costume set. As for pics I'm sure there's something on youtube or somesuch by now. Since it's technically in beta I'm not sure the Mods would like people to post pics here directly.
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Quote:Originally Posted by BrandX
I don't know if "just a horrible show" that Dollhouse was, is the networks fault.I sort of think Dollhouse might have been doomed to failure from the beginning not because Whedon willingly made it a "bad" show but because he was too restricted by the network he was on. I'm not sure he really had a choice between making his show on "family friendly" Fox or "adult content" HBO - sometimes you have to work with what you get stuck with.Quote:Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU
Shouldn't he just work for networks which support high concept though, like HBO or BBC4? Everyone knows Fox makes programs aimed at dummies, so it's a bit dumb to give them a show that requires a brain.Quote:Originally Posted by Father Xmas
Dollhouse was high concept science fiction. It probably would have made a decent multibook series.
As you might remember Dollhouse suffered from "creative differences" from Fox from the very beginning over the controversy about whether or not the whole premise was that of having "brainwashed hookers" play out clients' twisted fantasies. Obviously the show evolved beyond that initial concept, but Fox was too nervous to understand where it was going. It was basically clear that what Whedon wanted to do (a high concept adult oriented sci-fi show) was really never going to fly on Fox.
So yes I still think Dollhouse's failure was mostly Fox's fault, even if you account for the idea that Dollhouse probably never should have been attempted on Fox in the first place. -
Quote:I totally get that there are some people here who like the idea of "getting to know and spend time with the Devs". I've watched plenty of these "Dev interaction" videos/chats over the years and I do think they are pretty cool people for the most part. I genuinely like the idea that the Devs of this game desire to share "facetime" with the community in general.Originally Posted by peterpeter
Well, it depends on the purpose. I think their goal is to let the community get to know them, as people. To make more of a personal connection with the players. I won't judge how well they succeed, but I think that's a big part of the purpose of these talks, and I don't think frequency defeats that purpose. If anything, the fewer people who bother to show up, the more personal the connection is for those who do.
I never watch them myself. Forming personal connections ain't how I roll.
I suppose I just sometimes find myself wondering that if they only did these things like 75% as much as they do now that we might get 25% more improvements on the game. I realize there's no way to quantify that kind of trade-off, but ultimately I'm paying these people for access to a game that I enjoy playing, not because I want to be their "friend" directly.
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Quote:If what it promised was "20 minutes worth of several random MTV videos of cute girls Gun-Fuing with CGI" then I guess it delivered. Unfortunately I was dumb enough to hope there was going to be an actual -movie- there that I could care about to string all of that randomness together. Frankly I would've liked it better had it just been the 20 minutes worth of CGI and not even wasted my time trying to be a full-length movie. *shrugs*Originally Posted by Mental_Giant
I agree. Sucker Punch delivered what it promised, and nothing more.
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Quote:Just suggesting that maybe doing it too often defeats the purpose, whatever that is.Originally Posted by Aura_Familia
Except that from what I understood the point of these is NOT ONLY to share NEW info.
Sometimes things like this are actually cooler and more relevant when they -don't- happen all the time. *shrugs* -
Quote:I favor the compromise idea that they can sell a "version" of the portable workbench on the market as long as the badge-based version is somehow superior to it. For instance make the market version have the current hour recharge where the badge-based one could have a better 15 min recharge.Originally Posted by Xzero45
No. It's not a slap in the face at all. You could either do some hard work in game to earn the power absolutely free with no charge to your bank account whatsoever, or you can pay a little cash if you don't have the time and/or patience and get the power via the market.
Plus they've done the same thing with the Roman and Vanguard costume sets, and that decision was pretty well accepted among players, anyway.
I understand that selling things like the Roman and Vanguard costume sets were generally accepted by the playerbase. But as a badge-collector I just can't support fully trivializing badge oriented rewards like this by selling exact equivalents on the Market - the time it takes to run the ITF is just not equal to the time it takes to earn the Field Crafter badge. *shrugs* -
I'd bet they could probably make some good money if they sold a "dance pack" that provided a collection of say 6 or 8 new dance emotes. In fact if the Devs were really smart they would make it a customer feedback effort (like the retro sci-fi costume pack was) where people could submit their ideas for what dances they wanted and the Devs would go off and develop the top choices as a finished product.
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I'm all for the Devs having their "coffee talks" to help spread useful information to the playerbase. But if they don't have enough information (that can be publicly released) to cover having one of these things every... single... week... then I don't see the need for them to go through the motions. Maybe they could switch to having coffee talks only when they've saved up enough new info to make each one of them that much more useful/interesting. *shrugs*
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Quote:And eventually they might even realize that these powers are probably -too- good for their own good. I've seen many lesser useful things than this be nerfed in the past. *shrugs*Originally Posted by Stone Daemon
It's not exploiting if they knowingly gave it the same recharge and strength that Eclipse has had, for years. Unless you're trying to say that they don't know about Eclipse? Because I can guarantee you a lot more people have been perma-ing that for a lot longer than Light Form.
Did I say it was? Because I don't recall that I did, so I'm not sure why you are arguing this point.
Yes. And they made it better.
PBs were -designed- to be primarily team oriented. Cosmic Balance only works with teams. If I'm not using Dwarf Form then why on earth would I be the main team member taking Alphas and/or Tanking for the team? Was this question about PBs and Mezs really -that- much a mystery to you?Quote:Originally Posted by Stone Daemon
And there you go. Unless you're taking alphas and tanking for the team in human form, of course you're not getting mezzed.
And there's -my- point about this. I never said I NEVER use Light Form. I simply said I only use it when I NEED it.Quote:Originally Posted by Stone Daemon
Again, I'm not quite sure why you're putting words in my mouth, but if you are that desperate to argue with someone, you might want to check what the other person is actually saying. Regardless of what you believe me to be saying, I don't actually disagree with anything you've said about Light Form so far. What I have said is that has aspects to it that make it more useful than the shields in many ways. Enough to make the shields redundant, but again, not on a SO build.
I don't know how to say this without offending you, and saying "No offense" usually implies the opposite, so I'll just have to say it with this warning label so you know I'm trying to couch my words.
Your main point seems to be that you have a chip in your shoulder about Light Form, and you want everyone else to know that you are uber enough to never need it. That's great. Nobody NEEDS light form. Nobody needs hasten, for that matter. There are a lot of things people don't need, but are still useful. My main point, on the other hand, is that it is a useful power, and the OP should take another look at it to make sure he knows what it does before dismissing it.
I'm simply poking fun at the uber min/maxers who love to "perma" things that don't actually need to be "perma". I understand the idea that it might be a challenge to build a build that can do these things, but just because they can be done doesn't mean it's absolutely necessary.
Too many people like the OP get discouraged when they think they MUST spend billions on builds because otherwise they'd be gimp. Bottomline (to make it perfectly clear to everyone here) it's actually much CHEAPER to make a PB build that relies on the Human shields as its PRIMARY defense than to try to go for perma-Light Form. Your main argument has been "Light Form makes Human shields redundant". That may be true, but NOT if its NOT perma, which probably would not be the case in the OP's SO build. You actually mentioned that this is not possible with a SO build yet you kept stressing the "wonderfulness" of Light Form like it was anything -other- than a crutch power that's only truly useful during AV fights.
You talk of people swinging out on tangents to confuse the OP - I'd argue you were trying to sell a vision of Light Form (a perma'd vision) that unfortuantely had no place in this discussion. -
I got lucky enough to get one of these codes during the Shark Week event on Virtue. But I would agree that I don't like how the Devs seem to be treating this aura as a very limited "permanent" exclusive.
Any exclusive that remains PERMANENTLY exclusive is always a bad idea (I'm looking at you Prestige Power Slide). I hope and would have absolutely no problem with the Devs eventually selling this aura in the Paragon Market at some point. -
Quote:For what it's worth I'm not sure everyone looks as Whedon as "some kind of failure" for what happened to Firefly and Dollhouse. I don't consider those cancellations as negatives that were his fault as much as mistakes the network perpetrated -against- him. The stigma, if any, is Fox's burden to carry here, not Whedon's.Originally Posted by Starflier
My point was that despite two of his four shows being very successful, the failure of Firefly, and to a lesser extent Dollhouse, has stuck Whedon with this premature cancellation stigma that everyone seems to focus on.
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Quote:Sure but anytime "virtually everyone" semi-exploits a power like this for an AT it does raise red flags for the Devs. I'm not assuming perma-Light Form is doomed for unavoidable nerfage quite yet, but I will stand by my experience that using perma-Light Form is not -absolutely- necessary for a good Human-form PB build either. If by some circumstance Light Form does get itself nerfed it won't be the end of the world for me - I'm simply reminding you the Devs have already tinkered with it once...Originally Posted by Stone Daemon
Eclipse seems to have survived long enough, and it's virtually the same (except better, since it covers the psi hole).
As I implied most of the time I team with my PB, and we usually have the Diff cranked up pretty high. Between the Cosmic Balance and buffs from other teamates MEZs are an incredible rarity, as to be expected. Sure as an Incarnate my PB does have a T4 Clarion, but I hardly rely on it like some kind of "must-have" crutch power. Most of the time I actually have other Destiny powers switched in.Quote:Originally Posted by Stone Daemon
Stacking mezz will do it, but it's frequency will depend on what difficulty you run at and your playstyle. I can think of a few reasons why your PB wouldn't get mezzed;
Dwarf Form, which defeats the purpose of this whole argument, because your shield toggles will drop. (Light Form will still be active, though.)
Clarion, which doesn't matter because the OP won't have access to incarnates.
A conservative playstyle and/or low difficulty, where you won't run into the risk of getting mezzed as often.
Also the few times I solo with this PB I keep things set above the "standard fight as 1/1 hero " settings. Mezzing for a level 50 PB should never be a serious problem for any competent build regardless of Light Form usage. Sorry to hear you seem to think that you must have perma-Light Form to save you from all that.
My main point directly applies to the OP as far as Light Form goes. Not only can you "suffer" with not having Light Form perma'd but it's actually quite easy to live without it because again it's not actually -necessary- to be perma. I'm simply concluding that people sometimes get obsessed with things like perma-doms and perma-Light Form when in reality those things can, at the very least, be wasted overkill.Quote:Originally Posted by Stone Daemon
Well, that's nice for you. Doesn't help the OP much, though. You'll have to remember the build he's dealing with won't be the same as your "AV munching billion influence build."
I believe we've derailed this long enough for the OP to get an idea of what Light Form does, though. WanderingAries, you may want to look at the kheldian section of the forums, there is currently a thread up going over an SO-only build for peacebringers. It's not exactly what you're looking for (to your specifications for this build), but perhaps it will help you get an idea until someone else posts something to help you here? Just, uh, ignore the tangents and trolling over there, eh? -
Quote:That's fine. I would still have reasonable faith in these Whedon-related folks to give this new show a chance. Maybe they could include a self-important egotist like Captain Hammer as a recurring nemesis/annoyance to the show's main cast.Originally Posted by Father Xmas
Turns out that Joss is only going to be involved with the penning and directing the pilot. If the show is picked up his brother Jed and sister-in-law Maurissa Tancharoen (duo who helped with Doctor Horrible) will be the showrunners.
Yeah sadly there are several vaguely non-PC lines that are probably questionable enough to get nerfed.Quote:Originally Posted by Tenzhi
It's been awhile since I've seen it, but the only one that comes immediately to mind that might need to be altered is where Captain Hammer defines what the Hammer is.
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Quote:Then of course there's the other related argument I've seen that goes something like "If you guys sold such-n-such for half the price then I'd bet twice as many people would buy it". Assuming they could even rely on getting twice the sales how exactly would making a price reduction like that benefit Paragon Studios?Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
I can't decide which argument is more ridiculous. That one or the one that goes, "I'd spend more money on the game if you gave me the stuff I want for free." As if they think the devs are stupid enough to believe that if these clowns are getting everything they want for free they'll turn around and spend money on stuff they don't want.
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Quote:This is exactly why I fear that sooner or later it will be nerfed. Let's just say I'm a little bit reticent to rely on that one "miracle" power for everything. Just seems like the Devs let the current version of that power be a little too good for its own good.Originally Posted by Stone Daemon
Light Form alone lets you easily hit the resist caps when slotted right, so yeah, I imagine having the shields on top of that would make it there too..
My PB almost never get mezzed so this is a wash...Quote:Originally Posted by Stone Daemon
They do get suppressed, though.
Obviously it's useful. But I still usually only really need it when I'm facing AVs solo though. With the Human shields up I rarely need it any other time.Quote:Originally Posted by Stone Daemon
In the end, all of this is moot because the OP will not be able to perma it. I think you agree with me that the power itself is useful, though, yes?
P.S. Just to be clear my PB is a fully level shifted level 50 incarnate who's fully loaded with ATO/PVP IOs. Let's just say it's having -no- problem not using perma Light Form. -
Quote:Yes I'm very happy with that change. Never quite liked the "puffball" myself.Originally Posted by Stone Daemon
Well, he may also be confusing it with the way it used to work, which essentially trapped you in the puffball of energy until it wore off. It no longer works that way, thank goodness.
Thing is that with both Light Form -and- the Human shields you can easily hit the RES caps. So what I've found is that I can keep the Human shields up all the time (BTW they don't detoggle when MEZed) and for the relatively few times I actually need a bit more protection I can kick in the Light Form. I understand a lot of people like to try to keep Light Form perma, but to be honest there really is no need for that, especially if you normally run your PB in teams which (let's face it) is what their Cosmic Balance was designed for.Quote:Originally Posted by Stone Daemon
It's quite the opposite for me, though. I find that Light Form makes the human shields redundant to the point where there is no need to take them. It's better than them in just about every way. It can't be detoggled/supressed, it provides higher resistance, and it boosts your recovery. Granted, on an SO only build it will be more of a panic button, since you can't perma it. But it is still a great power to have, and still useful on an SO build. Perhaps arguably more useful, actually, since the OP seems to be premium and wouldn't have access to the padded mitigation that bonus sets provide or incarnate powers.