Megajoule

It was my pleasure and honor to take part in this. Thank you for the excellent background story and all of the hard work in actually making it happen.

Utilitarion.

As others have said, thank you for being you.

You have enriched this game immeasurably, and I've always valued and enjoyed your posts.

(( As DB said, right in the feels. ))

I was on that Numina with you, as the Watchmaker - the last one he needed for Task Force Commander. It was a pleasure (and pure luck, that I logged in just as you were forming). And then the redside CoP as Max Thunder.

I remain unconvinced that they care about the Western market, or how they are perceived in it, at this point. Their native market has always been much, much more profitable for them (by literal orders of magnitude). I expect support for Guild Wars 2 (over here, that is) to last precisely as long as it continues to make lots of money, and not a day longer. WildStar will be lucky to launch at all.

I loved Pigskin 621 A.D. It was my favorite computer-football-type game ever. I especially liked the Brian Colin art - see also Rampage, Xenophobe and Blasted - and how if your ball-carrier was tackled while carrying a weapon, there would be a brief scuffle and the tackler ended up with, e.g., a mace in his face.

This is my only comment on this thread.

Better, perhaps, than the analogy that keeps coming to mind for me: sitting by the bedside of a terminally ill friend or relative. (As I did in RL earlier this year.)
Some people are up for that, in varying amounts. Others aren't.

aaaand I'm crying again.
Thanks.

Your attitude is commendable, and I've found it to be one of many bright lights in these final days. Thank you.

Dev Sighting!

I'm pleased to report that the good Doctor has found a new position with Cryptic, working on STO in some capacity (hopefully involving the Foundry, their version of the Architect, and/or new and desperately needed story arcs for the game itself) under the alias of "Commander Ander".

Though I wish that CoH was going forward and that Paragon Studios was able to stay together, I'm glad whenever I see someone has managed to land on their feet somewhere else in the industry.

(STO forum thread is here.)

Pretty good story, well-told through the clues and briefings. The penultimate mission seemed to be setting me up for a Heroic Sacrifice, and I would have been fine with that... but instead, it ended in a way that was really heartwarming. It made me smile even as I blinked away tears. I really did want to team with those guys, and the one who said I inspired him was particularly touching (especially since, by pure coincidence, he had one of my powersets - see below).

Thank you.

(As a side note, the Batallion lived up to their rep. They seemed to take forever to put down, and the final boss put me down a couple of times before I finally turned the tables (emptying my insp tray in the process, and even pulling some from email storage). How much of that was resistance to energy, I wonder? [I was playing an FF/EnB 'fender.] Still, they're supposed to be really tough, so it works.)

Well done, heroes.

Vaya con dios.

If anyone knows how I might get in touch with the Elysienne, I'd be grateful for the information.

Top Dog: Yes, everyone has this one. That's the point. It's iconic, just like the globe and statue and City Hall. And it captures, in my mind, one of the big breakout features of this game (especially back in '04): you can fly. (Or leap, or teleport, or run really fast.) You can step out of the tutorial, look up and think, "I want to be up there someday, on top of the world." And this game will let you.

Old Fashioned: "Sir, I'm gonna have to ask you to exit the doughnut!" (Also, honestly, a lot of my characters are. Old-fashioned, I mean.)

Conjunction Junction: "Conjunction Junction, what's your function?" "Hookin' up cars and makin' 'em function." The only badge my character VERB has ever worn - and if you recognize him, you know why.

Last Line of Defense: I love this badge because it acknowledges the players. We inspired this one, by always gathering on that hill when the Rikti (and zombies too) invaded Talos.

Castaway: One of several badges in the Shadow Shard that describe your character being affected by some strong emotion, this one has taken on special significance for many players since the announcement of the game's imminent end.

Triumphant and Weapon of Mass Destruction: Back in the days when people actually went to Warburg, getting these two meant painting a target on your back. Now, not so much.

Ambitious: the Praetorian equivalent of Top Dog, in a sense. It takes a certain sort to look up at Emperor Cole's massive shining p-- *cough* tower and think "I'm gonna go stand on top of that."


Honorable mention to this plaque for the history badge "Intellectual", which is a nod to an early bug in the game which I witnessed on many occasions. Rescued civilians are supposed to exit the game world through the closest available door; this particular sewer access (across the street from the train station) was flagged as such, but couldn't be opened. The result was that one would often see multiple civilians running in circles up and over the little bunker, in what became known as the "Kings Row hamster wheel."

Rularuu. My first two characters, who were the only ones in range when the Shard first came out, were both defense-based. Rularuu completely ignore defense with their never-miss acc, their psi, their toxic, etc etc.

Malta. Not just for the Sappers, which were the priority target, or the Gunslingers, which hit hard and ported in and out. Because they also had the Engineers, who spawned those damn Turrets, which gave no xp and were just annoying.

CoT, especially in the early/mid-game (spectrals flooring your acc, then turning invis and flying away when you're about to beat them) and, formerly, the spawns of Earth Thorns that would drop multiple Quicksands on you and floor your recharge.

Nemesis, who like to stack Vengeance to the rafters and have snipers in most spawns, forcing you to engage entire rooms at once. They also love AoE, so say goodbye to your pets.

Longbow Nullifiers. Honorable mention to Spines Wardens, who can kill you just by being in your vicinity, unless you put them down quick.

Romans would probably be worse, but I never went against them solo with any of my defense characters, only as part of an ITF team (which tend to steamroll them).

PPD SWAT, Ghosts, etc. Nuff said.

Pretty much everything in Ambushtoria (it's been 30 seconds? Have another spawn wave!), with special mention to the Ghouls.

Clockwork and Carnies both had a tendency to leave you short on end and/or asleep, and there wasn't one particular enemy (like Malta Sappers) you could target to stop this; it was just something that happened when fighting them.

As I've said before:
That assumes that they actually want any of us as customers, when their other customers (in their home country/market) make them so much more money.

I've heard this referred to as "Hellion golf" (FORE!) and can confirm that it is excellent for (as one forum poster once put it) industrial-level stress relief.

I have a big long post elsewhere, the gist of which is that I've always been very ambivalent about many commonly accepted aspects of MMOs, and have enjoyed City of Heroes and a few others in large part because they do not follow that template. The continued dominance of the fantasy genre and focus on endgame and raiding is particularly discouraging.

So, yeah. I love this game, and a few others. I do not like, uncritically, as a category, "MMOs."