Malcolm_McCallum

Detailed design document for Mission Crafting System with much player content.

http://murat.ca/rules/missioncrafting.htm

Thanks but yes, reinstalled drivers, reinstalled CCC, set to operate as 2000 SP2. Its done that way for primary user and all other admins. THinking about it now, maybe its something as silly as running CCC and installing drivers on Admin account (even though primary account has admin rights)

A new old problem that is driving me nuts. When I first got Vista I went through all the growing pains and founds ways to get it working. I'm using an ATI Radeon 9800 and was running fine at some of the highest game settings.

I made some changes to my graphics (adding a TV tuner) that necessitated reinstalling my cards (and catalyst control center) and now I am back to the original graphics problems:

Bleached out graphics, seeing through walls and floors when mousing over them, and my cursor is being corrupted after a period of time playing. Oh, and I get crashes too due to memory which suggests that there is a configurations problem where CoH isn't reading my card's memory properly.

The most annoying this is that I know that it can run smoothly since I had it that way with all the same gear. Yes, I'm in administrator mode and have followed all the posted solutions that I can find but something else, something small still needs doing.

Grrr

Empire in Arms and University.

Empire in Arms is a board game of Napoleonic Grand Strategy and Diplomacy that covers a 10 year period and it may be that a play session covers but a single month at a time.

Well, while going to University there was about 10 (or more) of us that had been playing one game for the past several months and we would hold court in the cafetaria of the Student Union building. Though we only played once a week all day everyday in one booth, the players would sit and talk about the game, making devious, subtle, or grandiloquent diplomatic deals and blusters. You could show up there first thing in the morning, go for three hours of class, and return there and find the same conversation still going on.

Insane. Intense. Intriguing. In amongst my fondest gaming memories.

Well, I'm officially pissed.
I own a registered copy of Comic Book Creator but I upgraded to Vista so it refuses to work for me. I cannot print it or pubish it to another PDF and it will not upload to the site. It goes through all the motions and then gives a vague error message. I've gotten no responses to my emails to Planetwide.

I'm going to go ahead and mail in an entry regardless giving a link to the comic otherwise hosted. It won't be accepted but its done so to Heck with 'em.

http://www.victors.ca/comics/scar/issue3/index.php

My local SG mates and I have been with COX from the beginning and though we all migrated to WoW, SWG, Vanguard, and now LOTR briefly, we always came running back to CoX.

Fun is the big difference.

No game comes close to matching CoX in its combat engine and I bang my head against the keyboard when I see how new MMOs just continue to not get it and there seems no attempt to learn from CoH.

In CoH, combat is where the fun is, especially grouped combat. In all the other MMOs, combat is designed to be a tool, a chore, as a means of advancement. It really isn't fun. I dread a fight in the other games and look forward to them in CoX.

Yes, I long for that other thing that will give us something to do in CoX other than combat for when we want to be in that universe without requiring full attention and energy and that is why we keep looking elsewhere.

As good as CoX is, I can't play it for long periods anymore. The gameplay flips from frentic fun to monotony surprisingly quickly but that is because there is little new to see and do.

One more thing makes this game stand head and shoulders above the others: It feels like the Devs play it. There is no hint of that in any other MMOs that I've explored.

Issue #1 of S.C.A.R. (A Victors Comic Book)

http://www.victors.ca/comics/scar/issue1/index.php

I may have posted it once upon a time but for those pondering the contest, its a good sampler, I think. Now how to condense that to 8 pages. :/

The bigger problem with this contest and the timing of it is that currently Comic Book Creator is not compatible with Vista and they are saying another month or two until it will be.

It doesn't accept registration of the product so therefore one cannot publish COmic Book Creator products to PDF or JPG format. I'm working around it by taking screenshots and merging them together into a JPG but its clunky and there are other issues.

This is my first pic. Its my first try with a WACOM tablet and I'm impressed just how much it feels like drawing with a pencil. Of course, the next step is learning how to draw using the tools provided rather than treating it exactly like pencil on paper.

http://www.murat.ca/backgrounds/maso3.jpg

CCGs CAN incorporate and encourage storytelling. They don't have to be Magic the Gathering type competitions.

The B5 CCG and the original Middle Earth CCG did allow for some narrative, roleplaying, and fun teamwork and even *gasp* roleplaying.

Even Shadowfist (Which is fast paced action) was more about story than it was about just beating up opponents.

I've picked up a reasonable selection of cards and have yet to play a game. I'm frustrated though by the collectible nature of it.

For example, I want to play my CoH character in the game: Invul/SS Tanker. Well, I can't yet. Each power is represented by a card that you need to randomly find. So after buying 3 starters and 15 boosters I have 3 invulnerable cards and 2 Super Strength cards.

Yes, you can get a starter and will get a good amount of cards tied to the powers of the selected hero (Stupid Manticore deck gives me enough to do basic Archery and Trick Arrow characters) but these are random. its not a CCG that is at all condusive to building decks around a concept. Instead it is building decks around what cards you happen to have found.

Also, as a CCG, the rules appear very sparse and non-specific. No deck building rules, for example.

I'm also a tad bit underwhelmed by the basic gameplay where one hero fights another hero and 'missions' appear as events that damage both heroes in some way. Fundamanetally it appears to be exactly what CoH is: Combat sim. I was hoping it would be more of a comic book sim.

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Yes, that is a reason for the 75 limit. However, in my opinion, it's not a good reason. That implies that SG size is being limited purely for PvP reasons; only a minority of the game's players care about PvP, and I refuse to believe that it is impossible to limit the size of SG battles without limiting the size of the SG itself. It may be easier and more convenient to do it that way, but that doesn't mean it must be so.


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Another perfectly valid reason for capping SG sizes is to crush Uberguilds. Remove any incentive for a guild to try to get so large that it dominates a server.

Also, by limiting SG sizes to 75 they can scale the base expansion speed. They can base Base prices/maintenance on what they believe a reasonable cost would be for 75 active characters. So there doesn't have to be wailing and gnashing of teeth about a supergroup not being big enough to get a good base even when it has 75 members. What you'd have is definitively enough.

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I'm always teaming with my SG. But that's not really a SG as strictly defined by CoH...it's defined by the Private Global Channel and our website if anything. We always team with characters both who are members of our 4 main supergroups, characters who've not signed up yet because we've not enough space for everyone's alts - even with 4 sgs!, etc, etc.

We were very much looking forward to being able to create a big SG base.....but, now it seems we won't have prestige despite being a SG since CoH beta just because we're split over multiple groups and don't use the terrible terrible SG mode system?


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Again, you are leaping to conclusions. You have enough people to form 4 75 person SGs. One of those will become your main SG and will have MAXIMUM BASE SIZE. 75 pers is the biggest that you can have. Its the fastest way to get prestige. Your base will be built as fast and as completely as the developers think any base should be able to be put together.

Yet you want more without even knowing if that will be big and fast enough for your liking.

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SG need more room. LOTS more room. Yes, the majority of SGs may be smaller, but some of the most loyal groups in this game are simply too big to fit in one SG. Our alts should all be contributing to the same base, not 4 different bases because of the arbitrarily low limit of 75 per SG. Never have I seen a good technical (or any other) reason why 75 must be the limit. Raise the limit, preferably by a factor of at least 5, or even abolish it altogether. This is major obstacle to Prestige being a workable system.


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Don't SG size caps actually help us get a better system for base purchasing? It means that being in an uber guild doesn't get you a bigger base. It means that they can have a frame of reference for the fastest (75 active level 50s) they want bases built and the slowest (1 active guild member). I think having a size cap on Supergroups is as wise as having a level cap on characters.

That said, if we do have to start worrying about every SG slot being 'efficient' we have a problem. Maybe the solution is that every Supergroup can have 'reserve' team of 300 or so. Commanders can promote and demote to the reserve team but there would be limits on how often this can be done.
If you are on the reserve team, you talk on alliance chat, can't go into SG mode, can't gain prestige for the group, can't particpate in raids, and can't certain parts of the base.

The reserve team is where you put inactive characters.

We don't know that what you suggest won't be happening.

If it were me, I'd say you got no influence when in SG mode but instead it all went into the SG fund as prestige.

Then I'd make it so that one of the things that a base can offer is to give non-sellable enhancements to its members for free (with some limiters). That way the lower level characters can get a benefit from being in a SG and can pay the SG back by wearing team colours. or something

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Hmm. Here's a question:

If being in SG mode and Doing Things earns you Prestige, then what the hell is the point of ever being OUT of SG mode?

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Aesthetics. This is going to be a very tough decision for me on most of my characters and there'll be times when I say 'To Hell with the Base' and put on my old comfortable fighting tights.

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Out of interest, does ANYONE think datamining this is a good idea?

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This leads back to the informal poll I tried to run on this topic. For all the ranting and gnashing of teeth, I believe this all boils down to a fundamental issue:

Some people want their complete uber base on the first day they are available. Their main complaint about this system really is that it means that they are losing out any advantage they thought they had in dropping a base on day one.

Some people want bases to be something that they build over time. These people will cheerfully, I think, start with a clean slate and embrace the idea of making a point of wearing Supergroup colours (yes, colours not just logos) when they adventure in a concious decision to either look different or look uniform. Building a base and what your costumes look like because of this becomes a mini-game.

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I don't consider it great. Why?

There is a 75 character limit in a SG. That means there is:

Legion of Freedom (limit one player, for mains)
The Legion of Freedom (limit one player, for mains, overflow)
Legion of Freedom - HotC (for 50's)
Legion of Freedom - Reserves (alts)
Legion of Freedom - SpecOps (themed)


You'll notice that the first 3 are for current mains. Until they increase the amount of toons you can have in a single SG, then this system that is being talked of sucks hairy monkey nuts. All members should have access to SG items that are being purchased in the game, SG bases not being a currency sink means that enhancements will rise to compensate (hurting the newer players), and my personal favorite...it's another in a long line of ham fisted attempts to encourage players to do something they don't want to; whether that be because it's unfun, or just a stupid schtick. The developers can't seem to make SG mode remotely appealing by any other means, and while it may seem novel at first, the wider vision of this craptastic idea isn't hard to grasp.


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You have 5 SGs worth of alts and characters that are regularly played. You'll be getting 5 various bases. A full 75 main SG is as big as they can get. You'll be at the top end of what a SG can get in Bases by design. You don't know what that top end is but you already want more than that.

Your argument about influence is confusing. On the one hand you complain that influence is useless now and then on the other hand you complain that this will mean raising the price of enhancements. Influence is not part of an economy. It IS useless after a certain level. How is that a bad thing? Are you asking them to put in some hamfisted method of forcing us to spend Influence and farm it? There is no reason to believe that they are going to increase the cost of enhancements. This is wild speculation used to fuel doom-mongers.

You say they are hamfistedly trying to encourage you to do something that you don't want to. If they said SG colours gave you 10% bonus xp or damage, you'd be in SG colours in a shot. People are whining that they have to wear SG colours now and don't get more uber because of it.

This approach gives us a great option: We either look cool and play the non-conformist rogue or we look less cool and help our team get its base. Its a roleplaying/fluff solution and that's commendable. We have enough powergaming/farming solutions to problems.

There ought to be an incentive to wear those less cool SG uniforms and it should be one that is all about fluff and SG bases are, IMO, all about fluff.

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Just because you're in SG mode doesn't mean you automatically get Prestige. You still have to do things.

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So if I enter SG mode with some other members of my SG, I then break out the boombox and dance a jig for 12 hours, I get prestige for "doing something?" BRILLIANT! You sir, are SUPER DESIGNER!

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You know that half full glass in front of you? Its not actually empty.

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Just because you're in SG mode doesn't mean you automatically get Prestige. You still have to do things.

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If this is a confirmation that you must be in SG Mode to earn prestige, let me add my voice to those saying "That sucks"

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So I try desperately to drown you out saying 'That's great!'

....as long as there is no datamining and no mass grandfathering of prestige.

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So basicly all this means is that my chest symbol will always be my SG's and I can say good bye to my straps and bandoliers....


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No, it means you have a bit more of an opportunity to roleplay. Do you wear the gimpy Supergroup colours and add to the fame and prestige of the team or at this time do you feel more like an individual who wants to look cool and dress as you like. Conform and benefit the team or go rogue and look cool.

I think it is a brilliant and very cool idea. It will force me, at least, to actively think about my priorities of team over being a rogue individual.

I wish they wouldn't grandfather prestige though. I would much rather that we all start with a level playing field of zero and can work over time to buy our bases. I'd much prefer to slowly build our base over time and make it bigger and badder than dropping down a huge and complete base on day 1.

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What I'm sayin is those of us that have had to take out 10K of monkeys getting something is fine, but now that's it's been reduced to 1K, 9K of our effort in time was wasted. It would be nice to recognize the time and effort spent b4 nerfs. Like with all the Hami-Os that were nerfed and all the hours people spent on getting them. The Hive is now a dead zone.


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First point: all time playing an MMO is wasted time so let's throw out that idea. You were having fun, right? Because if you were spending hours doing something that wasn't fun of your own free will then you should be asking yourself some serious questions.

You got to 10K. You had your moment of "Whoopie!". That's it. that's what you wanted, right?

Look, just put "I killed 10, 000 monkeys" in your sig file and we'll all go 'ooh' and 'awww' and ponder how wonderful a human being you are and think the appropriately good things about you.

That's what you want, right?

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Same goes for Hami-Os. If you were farming Hami-Os and doing it while not enjoying it then I say 'shake your head' and if you did enjoy it then nothing can take those memories away from you. Check pace and carry on.

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Malcom, see you in Pvp. Seriously

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Not solo, you won't. The game is not designed to support solo ATs vs solo ATs. Characters are most interesting and balanced in groups and a SS Tanker, doing his job in a group, does not need as much damage as he does now even.

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This game is still focused on damage = experience = leveling, until that changes reducing the damage on SS Tanks in this manner is obscene.

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Maybe that is what you decided that the game is focussed on.

For a great many of us the game is still about teamwork, wildly fun fights, interesting and diverse characters, costumes, adventures, and background.

If, indeed, you have decided that the game's primary focus is xp per second, then .... bugger off and stop trying to warp the game to suit your needs.

Get yourself to level 50 on some speed levelling toon and go away. Seriously.

If you think that a Tanker needs to compete in xp per second with a Scrapper then you simply don't appreciate the game for what it really is.