Mekkanos
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:You need to go through the rock door that's lit by the green crystal that you see to your right when you first enter the mission. After that, you just need to navigate through some halls and then you'll find your way to the real exit.Originally Posted by Seschat
Ok, tried on redside and blueside. Still can't find the official exit to the first map.
Anyway, I enjoyed the story arc quite a bit. It was interesting seeing the return of a rather obscure villain group while also getting some interesting story developments.
*SPOILERS BELOW*
Hero side, it was particularly interesting to see that some members of the Lost are having a major crisis of faith regarding their rules and even though Theoden is a villain, I still felt sorry for him in the end upon seeing how resigned he was to his fate now that he believes he has betrayed his masters.
Villain side, Alastor made for an interesting contact but it was the finale that was truly glorious. I hope we'll get to do something similar in the future.
I wonder who the mysterious mastermind is here. You can see the tip of the person's shoe in the cutscene but that's about it. I'm looking forward to seeing who it is that is apparently manipulating other groups to destroy the Freedom Phalanx and why. -
Quote:First of all, I believe this is indeed part of the updating process. The maintenance is not supposed to end until about 1 PM PST, so it makes sense that the servers are not accessible yet. Even if the servers themselves are up, I imagine the Devs are testing them to make sure that they're stable before opening up access to the public.Originally Posted by ChrisMoses
So... They're not up yet, are they?
I can log in and accept the new EULA now, which is further than I could get before. I can even get to the server listing, and I can see Exalted, but there is this weird issue where the server scroll bar won't let me scroll down to it. I can grab it and scroll it down, but as soon as I release the button it snaps back up. I got this message on a couple of the usual servers: Account is not allowed on this server. reason: Public access to this server has been disabled.
So. Hopefully that's just a part of the update process...
Also, I'm having the scrolling issue as well. It just snap back up to the top of the list after I scroll down and since Exalted appears to always be on the bottom of the list, it has basically become inaccessible for me. -
Quote:This is pretty much how it will be for me as well. I'm staying on Justice and don't particularly plan on transferring any characters over, though I may make a few (Including a remake of my main character) on Exalted.Originally Posted by Maribelle
I'll make a few characters on the new server, but I do not see myself playing seriously there.
I think I will pop over for events, but I really see no reason to spend a lot of time away from Justice. -
Quote:Hm, that's true. I actually forgot about that possibility. I wonder what part his skull would play in this if that's true...Originally Posted by Golden Girl
As it's Numina holding it, and the Midnighters are invovled, it's very likely to be the skull of her father, Tommy, which is currently lying on the front desk of the club.
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I'm personally indifferent on the Barbarian pack (Though I do agree that the thigh high stilettos on the female costume look rather silly and would be better replaced with regular boots) and look forward to the Haunted House and the signature story arc (Though if I must nitpick, the organization is called the Midnight Squad. The Midnight Club is just their hideout). Both of those look like a lot of fun! I wonder if the skull is supposed to be important because it will be the skull of the member of the Surviving Eight, sent back in time somehow to bring up the question of whose skull it is. In addition, I had a lot of fun with the Praetorian Invasion when it last occurred so I'm looking forward to the next one, especially seeing how it ties into First Ward, which I am also strongly looking forward to.
I do hope that the Devs realize that they shouldn't take the biggest purchases from beta at face value. In particular, I suspect the reason why Enhancement Boosters were so popular is because a lot of people wanted to see if they really would make much of a difference. Though I suspect a lot of the most popular purchases will be similar (I'm seeing Beam Rifle and the Rocket Board selling like hotcakes), people will experiment less when their real money is on the line. Considering the Boosters don't make quite as much of a difference as one would think, I suspect that they won't be quite as popular on Live.
Finally, did anyone actually get a picture of Lord Recluse at this panel? I'd definitely like to see what he looked like. -
For the most part, I like Keyes. I think it's a challenging trial that requires a bit more coordination than the others at the moment. However, I realize there are a lot of people who dislike the trial or otherwise refuse to run it. Considering Lambda used to get a similar reaction but became fairly accepted (To the point of being almost as regularly run as the BAF despite generally being harder) by the time Keyes came out, it's a bit concerning that Keyes hasn't become similarly accepted now that a fourth trial is on the way. Thus, I think that the trial does, in fact, need a little adjustment in order to make it more appealing. Increasing the reward is certainly a step in the right direction, but there are some things that I think would make it more fun while still, for the most part, retaining the difficulty that made it worth two Empyrean merits instead of just one.
I think the most important thing to do (Because I think it may be the chief reason people seem to hate the trial) is to cut the anti-matter pulse's damage considerably. Players with low health and without self heals have a lot of trouble staying alive with the pulse going even if Anti-Matter is relatively uninjured. I haven't tried going for Anti-Anti-Matter, but considering it essentially involves keeping him at 10% health for most of the trial, I imagine that means that it'll come close to one-shotting characters constantly. Considering the damage is unresistable, impossible to dodge, and continuously happens throughout the trial, this means that only a select few characters will not be dying constantly. Personally, I would make the current starting strength of the pulse (lose 50% of your health every time it goes off) be the strongest the pulse can be. Perhaps it could start at 25% instead, which is generally easier to recover from even if your character is not set up for quickly recovering health. Heavy damage that cannot be avoided or resisted in any way is not fun, in my opinion. Looking aside from individual abilities to handle the pulse, it also limits the use of characters that provide resistance or defense to their league mates and puts a lot of pressure on characters with healing abilities that now have to run around and heal their league mates, who may be on a completely different level of the reactor.
I also agree that Bunker Buster and Anti-Anti-Matter probably shouldn't wait to be awarded until the end of the trial. It keeps the players wondering if they did it right throughout the last two phases for no particular reason.
I already like the fight with Anti-Matter himself, but I will say that Time Stop should phase the players as well as hold them. Otherwise, getting the "Avoids the Green Stuff" badge can end up being luck based as the Obliteration cannon hits players even as they're helpless due to Time Stop's effect. As for Disintegration, I think it's something that perhaps could use a better indicator but as it is now, it encourages a little awareness on the part of the person that's being disintegrated while encouraging the league to communicate. The fact that everyone is in the same area makes it fairly easy to reach the person to help them out, even if it's just passing them green inspirations. I'm fine whether they change it or not, really. -
It's really not surprising that someone hasn't gotten the Gear badge by the time they're level 50, for all the reasons Lemur Lad mentioned, plus the fact that if someone prefers to team up with higher leveled friends, they'll pretty quickly level past the Clockwork's rather short level range. I know a few of my level 50 characters either don't have the badge or only got it when I decided to run Synapse later. Since I tend to either solo or run on small teams as opposed to running task forces often, it's pretty easy to see why.
To answer the OP's question, I would recommend either checking out Perez Park by the boathouse (As previously mentioned) or the northern part of Boomtown. I would say the boathouse is probably the most reliable location, though. -
These are much, MUCH better than the initial version of the revamped outfits. It's great that you listened to our concerns regarding the revamp and changed them appropriately. I can definitely picture these guys as the Circle of Thorns, as they have the faceless aspect of the minions (Now added to the bosses, even!), the flowing garments, and, of course, the "pope hats". As easy as those hats are to make fun of, they are iconic of the bosses and Thorn Casters and I'm glad to see them retain them. The hats look retextured too, so they don't even look as ridiculous as they used to. I also love the fact that the color on the ice casters actually indicates ice, when the current ice casters look a little strange with their purple and red robes.
The colors on the Madness Mage look a little odd but other than that, these are definitely excellent and I am looking forward to fighting these guys for real! -
I believe I have a few emotionally engaging arcs I can name.
For instance, The Terra Conspiracy on the hero side. Though it suffers from the same slow pacing as much of the early content, it's still quite effective. Not only is it something of a tragic origin story for Hamidon, it also involves a moment where no matter what your hero does, the villain wins. Other missions can fail due to other factors but there is literally nothing you can do to stop Hamidon from transforming Tanya. I imagine that it is quite the blow to many players to have to put down the monster that was once the woman you were trying to protect.
For the villain side, "Oh, Wretched Man!" is a pretty good example of this. Again, it's a tragic origin story (For Ghost Widow and Wretch this time) but it's also noteworthy that it's quite satisfying to finally take down Huntsman Ohanko and Mu'Rakir after they stabbed you in the back. I also second Slot Machine for the same reasons Lemur Lad pointed out as well as all four patron arcs when you see exactly what the future looks like...
Also of note is Dark Watcher's "The Horrors of War" from the Rikti War Zone. It seems Dark Watcher has a tendency to be involved in the most emotional arcs. Finding out the truth behind the Rikti War and desperately trying to spread the news make this quite the effective arc along with a satisfying beatdown on the two villains most responsible for the war. And let's not forget what happened to Sefu either...
As for Praetorians, aside from the Dark Watcher arc, Penelope Yin's arc "My Best Friend, Rusty" is definitely very emotionally involved. Metronome's relationship with Praetorian Yin is perhaps even creepier than the relationship between their Primal counterparts but you still do get the impression that Yin cares for Metronome even though he has gone insane.
The final mission from Anti-Matter "No Survivors" is also quite the shock to most Responsibility Loyalists and Kang's speech if you choose the Loyalist ending to that mission is particularly tragic, showing that he has finally seen what kind of government he's been serving.
Though it's not a particular story arc that highlights it, the Nova Praetoria and Imperial City parts of the Power storyline do a really good job at making you hate Reese, making your final battle with him in Transmuter's arc "Letting Go" quite satisfying.
There's certainly more than that but those are all I can recall at the moment. I like what I've seen from everyone else so far too!
EDIT: I second all of Golden Avariel's suggestions as well. I can't believe I forgot about the conclusion of Jenni Adair's arc! -
I'm really glad to hear that the Devs are starting a regular event involving Mission Architect and I'm also glad to hear that this will result in more Dev's Choice arcs further down the line. The Architect could always use some more love, so I hope this will bring a bit more needed attention to the system. As for some suggestions for the community team to run, there's been many good suggestions here and I would also suggest checking out PW's contact tree for numerous arcs that have been generally agreed to be good quality. As for my personal suggestions(Bear in mind that I've played relatively few of the more famous arcs)...
#384775: Made to Wave the Flag by @LaserJesus (Already suggested but it bears repeating)
#118690: Sibling Rivalry by @Sister Flame (Sister Flame has become kind of an icon in the community and her arc is both cute and fun)
#2260: The Burning of Hearts by @TheDeepBlue (Very villainous. I felt dirty working for this contact)
#5073: The Bravuran Jobs by @GlaziusF (Fun little arc with an interesting custom group and some proactive villainy)
#298290: Papers and Paychecks by @PW (A definitely humorous arc showing both the funny and evil sides of Crey)
#380417: The Star-Dwellers by @K'aji (An interesting look at an incident in the Midnight Squad's past.)
There's plenty more I like beyond those ones but many were already listed here or are in the contact tree thread I posted. I haven't tested to see if these ones are still working after the profanity/copyright issues but I certainly hope they are.
I'm looking forward to seeing which arcs you play and which ones you decide to make into Dev's Choice arcs! -
Two of my arcs are currently invalidated due to the filter at the moment. The words in question for my arc "Blitzkrieg" would be the name Blitzkrieg itself and the name of a hero that appears in there, Fallout. The exclusion of Fallout is particularly odd considering we have a power in the game with that exact name.
Probably the most bizarre example of this overzealous copyright/profanity protection is in my other arc, "The Rikti Accession" where apparently, the word "Access" is copyrighted or profane. It's not even the whole word "accession" but part of it that invalidates the arc. Oddly, the arc is still technically playable but its name shows up as "Invalid String Replacement" and I cannot republish it without changing its name.
I'm glad Dr. Aeon at least acknowledges that there's a problem and I hope that this is fixed soon. I've wanted to work on my arcs again but it is difficult when I don't know which names I can or can't use. -
Quote:I'm of the opinion that it's not a bug at all. These spawns occur almost exclusively in Dark Watcher's arc, though they appear once in Serpent Drummer's arc as well. They all have dialogue that suggests that everyone in the spawn is supposed to be a Fake Nemesis (Although there's always a single Lieutenant in the center as well). Solo, these spawns are made up of two Fakes and the Lieutenant. It makes sense that their numbers would increase to 8 plus the Lieutenant if you have a larger team or are set for a larger team.Originally Posted by Zombie Man
Well, then, I'm genuinely surprised that we don't get regular posts of doom from players complaining about this.
When the all-lieutenant bug was happening, there were regular posts about it.
It could be an intermittent bug. Or a one-time bug that has resurfaced.
As for why we haven't heard much about them, here are some possible reasons:
- Two (Out of three) missions they appear in can fail if certain NPCs (Which tend to have very little survival instinct) are killed. It's entirely possible that they are killed before the players see the spawns, which is especially likely on large teams, where this would occur.
- People could be running these on slightly lower difficulty levels most of the time. Thus, they'd probably see 2 or 3 Fakes in a group, which probably would seem odd but not register as something TOO out of the ordinary. The fact that we can now set ourselves to be equal to larger teams when we're soloing increases the likelihood of smaller teams seeing these spawns, which is probably why we're noticing it now.
- These start appearing relatively far in the RWZ contact chain. Though they appear in Serpent Drummer's arc, General Aarons' suicidal tendencies make it less likely that players will see them before he dies. After that, they appear exclusively in Dark Watcher's arc, who is the last contact in the chain. Considering the fact that Gaussian's arc is very difficult, it makes sense that a lot of people didn't get all the way to Dark Watcher to see these spawns.
- As shown in this thread, some people simply don't notice it or actually love it. When people are in steamroller mode, something like this might not register and when it does, some people just view it as an interesting challenge. Considering the OP was on a smaller team (With what appears to be high enough difficulty settings to spawn bosses in normal spawns), it makes sense that it would be much more noticeable to them.
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For the most part, I'm quite happy with this particular announcement. The Incarnate trials seem to be quite accessible and the fact that there's a solo option means people should be happy. However, I AM a little concerned about this part.
Quote:I hope that this uses a different participation system than the one that's currently in place for Praetoria's events, since that system seems to discriminate against Masterminds because kills that pets make aren't attributed to their owner (though this might have changed since I last did them). Considering my main character is a Mastermind and I've been robbed of the Praetorian participation badges numerous times despite being an active participant, I don't want something even more important, like Incarnate progress, to be taken away because my pets provide most of my damage while I utilize my traps (Which may also count as pets) to assist them.Rewarding
We also want you to feel rewarded for participation, and want everyone to have an equal chance at getting a reward, whether you are healing or buffing or debuffing or using pointy things to make moving things fall down. We also dont want to heavily reward people who dont contribute to the team effort. So when you help your team, you will get the good stuff. The more you help, the cooler the stuff will be, and/or the faster you will climb the Incarnate Abilities tree. But we also know everyone has a different level of investment, and persistence will pay off in the long run.
Other than that concern, the future for Incarnates looks great! I'm looking forward to what's to come! -
Wow, I managed to get one of these (The pink one, specifically). I've been entering in the codes whenever I thought I had a slight chance just to see if they would work but I've always been beaten by faster people. I expected the same to happen here, so imagine my surprise when the pink one actually worked!
I love these costume codes, so getting one when I fully expected not to certainly made me happy. -
Quote:In the 40-50 range, this is correct. However, in the 20-30 level range, she appears in blue side tips because she is still a villain during that time. I'm not certain if or when she appears in the 30-40 range but by the time we get to the 40-50 range, she has become a full hero (Albeit one people don't seem to fully trust).Originally Posted by Mylia
Desdemona is in Red side only tips afaik.
This plays into the aspect I like the most of the various tip missions: As you level up and choose your alignment, so do these other characters. Some, like Overdrive and Mangle, stay fairly consistent with their alignment (Although a certain morality mission has you attempt to change this for one of them), but many others shift alignments throughout the various level ranges.
For instance, Frostfire and Miss Thystle start out as villains in the level 20-30 range, with Frostfire attempting to regain his villainous credibility after so many defeats and Miss Thystle simply caring for no one but herself. However, in the 30-40 range, both are still self-interested but decide that sometimes it isn't always about the money. By the time we see them in the 40-50 range, they're both full-fledged heroes. For those who were already 50 by the time tip missions came out, this progression is sadly skipped, so Frostfire's redemption seems to come out of the blue. Still, with the history many of us have with that character, it's nice to see his character gaining some development.
Doc Quantum is certainly an interesting case of the exact opposite progression. In the level 20-30 range, he's the typical Lawful Good type of hero, dedicated to the law and making sure no one is above it. The level 30-40 range has him becoming a bit more of a vigilante, running cruel psychological experiments on the criminals he has apprehended to try to understand them. This eventually leads to him making the next logical step to testing the morality of heroes and then, eventually, anyone he finds fascinating, becoming a Jigsaw-esque psychological villain for the 40-50 range. It's a little ironic that once he attempted to understand the criminal mind, it didn't seem to require much pushing before he became one himself.
Basically, I just liked how these characters feel like they have a story completely independent of you and they can become your allies or enemies depending on what alignment you favor and when. The spotlight is always on your character, of course, but these other characters have their own stories to tell.
As for individual tip missions I enjoyed, I have to say that the "Bring Doc Quantum to True Justice" hero morality mission in the level 30-40 range was quite enjoyable, as was the "Easy Job, Easy Money!" rogue morality mission in the level 40-50 range. In addition, I enjoyed the "Ether Plane" villain tip mission in the 30-40 range. Really, I enjoyed a lot of them (With the exception of some relatively silly vigilante missions and the HORRIBLE original level 40-50 hero morality mission) but those ones definitely stood out. -
Quote:In the briefing of the mission, you're told that you'll want to go into the correct portals as dictated in a clue dropped by the boss (Well, Lieutenant but he's spawned like one) you fight towards the entrance. Otherwise, you'll end up in the cave room like you did. With the first two portal sets, the clue pretty much outright says whether you should go into a portal with a red color or not. With the last one, the portal that looks different is the one you want, but the difference is sort of subtle. If you want a hint, look at them from the side. If that's not enough, look at the way the torches are arranged in front of each one.Originally Posted by Blood_Beret
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Find Bolt mission.
First room has 2 potals. One portal leads to the next section of the map(like elevators/lifts). The other teleports you to a cave room full of Spectal Lts(lots like 2 spawns of 10 for me they were +1). The portal out is on the other side of the room.
The end of the second section is 3 portals. 1 allows you to continue, the other 2 are to another Cave room.
The end of the Third Section there were 6 portals. I did not check one of them, but 1 went to the next section and the other 4 was the cave room.
When exiting the cave room, you back at the begining of the mission.
EDIT: Curses, beaten by Samuraiko!
I personally thought having a little puzzle mission was a nice touch but I imagine not everyone agrees.
It seems that how fun this mission is depends on whether you're AoE or single target oriented. My bots/traps had a lot of fun with it due to his plentiful AoEs but single target oriented characters will probably find it to be a slog. Maybe the buff you get with the mission should give you a damaging aura so those who don't have as much AoE potential can decimate the army in short order. Both AoE and single target oriented characters, though, can probably agree that having to defeat each ambush entirely before the next ones come was probably not a very good idea since the survivors love to run all over the map.Quote:Fight the Legacy Chain Army.
Similar to the first mission of the Alpha Slot arc, you are buffed. I quit counting the waves of massive ambushes. 4 boss(LT scaled with stone pet) 2 oe 3 Lts, and 6 or so minions. You only get xp for minions. On a Bots FF it took forever to kill all these masses.
Overall I felt that the mission was so monotonous that it took the fun out of the mission. Anyone else get that feeling.
As for the XP issues, I thought we were lucky to get any XP at all in that mission, since nothing in the mission posed even the slightest threat thanks to the buff we had. I suspect the Devs probably didn't want people to farm the mission but didn't want it to be a total waste of time either, hence why we got some XP but not a whole lot. -
Quote:I'm hoping this is not the case. Those two were already rather popular, so I don't think they really needed the boost. The only boosters I'm missing are the Wedding pack and Party pack because they didn't seem worth the price to me but if they go on sale, I will definitely grab them. It seems like a lot of other people here are of the same mind about the Party pack in particular so I hope that one does indeed go on sale.Originally Posted by Marcian Tobay
... it just occured to me that Cyber Monday may well indicate that only the Tech/Science packs are getting discounted.
wow. That took me way too long to consider. -
Quote:Since I was there, I can confirm that it's not made up. Everything Equation said was true (Although it should be noted that everyone in that room shares the blame. After all, it WAS a community mission). I personally suggested Aeon as the contact (I was hoping for something hilariously meta before it evolved into its eventual final form) and the Atlas Park fashion show as the map, which Arbiter Fabulous' presence helped to encourage.Originally Posted by Soul Storm
Honestly I have no idea if that stuff about Doc Aeon Arc is made up or not so I dont know whether to put it in the OP
It was a lot of fun to work on but don't expect literary brilliance.
Also, I've never heard anything about Issue 20 being a major graphics update aside from the fact that it's a popular theory among the community. -
Since I live in the Bay Area (Near a BART station, no less, making it easy to get into and out of the San Francisco area) and have nothing on my agenda that day, I should have very little trouble making it to this! A late lunch somewhere would certainly work for me as well, although I imagine it would help to have a meeting place in mind so that I know which BART stop to get off at.
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Oooh! Nice to see that there still will be a Meet and Greet in the Bay Area, even if it isn't Hero-Con. The costume code is also quite awesome, although I personally would have preferred the Rikti. I'll definitely do what I can to make it to this one.
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I'm a little late to the party here, but I'd still like to welcome you to Justice, Callie! It's always great to have more people around and from what I've seen, you seem like a great addition to our fold. As for me, I'm more a lurker on the forums than an actual poster, but I'm in-game fairly often. Maybe I'll see you there sometime!
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Quote:They're still referenced in the new Tina arc, so it seems they're still around but are just not mentioned anywhere else.Originally Posted by TrueMetal
Since DeVore is part of the Resistance I think they got retconned.
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A Rikti costume? Awesome! I've been really looking forward to having one of those forever, since I love the Rikti. It's a shame that it's going to be at something I don't have any chance of going to, though... Well, I hope that we'll get a chance at this some other time, because I really want this costume.
Hope the attendees enjoy it and the Going Rogue panel, anyway! -
An all /devices and /traps ITF? Considering how my main character is a bots/traps mastermind, I really cannot pass this up. I should be available that day, barring unusual circumstances. Sign me up!
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Quote:I'm getting something similar to this myself. Although I'm not getting very abnormal lag in-game (Occasional pauses, I suppose), pretty much all music and sounds I play from a source outside the game seem to have this stuttering problem. This is noticeable in Skype, as people have said earlier in the thread, but it even happens with audio files that I already have downloaded on my computer. I don't think that this sound issue is bandwidth related, then, but bandwidth does indeed appear to be an issue for some people.Originally Posted by Gaderath
I think this *might* be related... I'm not real sure, but I /always/ stream music when I play, typically from Pandora, but also often enough from Youtube playlists. As of i17, things are.... weird. Spikes and lags and weird pauses and jitters. The game itself has been pretty laggy, 500-1500 ping very regularly, from what was rarely over 150 before, maybe the game's spikes are affecting BW usage elsewhere as well?
EDIT: and come to think of it, it might be more than just internet bandwidth, because even if I preload the song on youtube, play it through, and then load the game, I can still run into audio jitters and pauses if I replay it, though, a lot fewer of them.
Oddly, this issue only seems to come up on my weaker computer (Which I generally run at the Recommended graphics level), while my other one (Which can run Ultra Mode without a problem) does not experience any stuttering at all.
I'm also experiencing the same random disconnects from Skype along with the stuttering issues in the same program that were mentioned earlier in the thread.