Melancton

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Go to Menu then click ID. You can also click Personal Info and see it that way.

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I prefer to use Menu/Personal Info because at the moment, ID is a bit borked. If you access ID currently, then all of the carriage returns get deleted, and your character bio turns into a Wall of Text in One Big Paragraph. I was checking how much Influ a hero and via ID and then POW! Wall of Text for the bio.

Hope they fix it soon.

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Oh, Alty!

*swoons*



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Wootage and Huzzahs for Alty. That is what heroes do!

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Not just that, but it also included text you might have typed up to that point. It wasn't uncommon to see people saying "wwwwwwweeeeeqqqqeqwesssssdsdadddHi" in globals.

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This still happens.

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True, but usually when I say that, I am falling over dead as I say it. Having it happen and I am still alive is a relief! I actually get a little jazzed when I say it and am not dead!

Yeah, I keep encountering nigh-well unbeatable baddie types in MA missions. I am not here to complain that my TA/Arch Defender can't solo any mission he desires. I DO get a bit non-plussed when NONE of my slows and holds have any effect, even when I hit Aim, Power Boost, EMP Arrow and Ice Arrow and the baddie is not even slowed down (and one-shots me with a kick), or when the first baddie I encounter can spam Web Grenade and Caltrops AND Blind me, so that FOUR Breakfrees cannot get me loose and a medium Accuracy (all I had at the time) does no good... I get the idea that this is not going to be my mission, and I vamoose. I think it is well-established that if you are putting mega-killer baddie types in a mission, your mission description should alert folks to that. And that is for a select target audience that wants such a challenge.

The question I am posing here is what sort of general target audience SHOULD we be designing for?

Teams? Of what size, then? What composition?

How powerful should the baddies be? So powerful that the minions require Boss-level holds and debuffs, or is that too powerful?

Should it generally be possible to solo a mission for many or most players?

The purple IO'd-out Scrapper is a specialty audience, clearly. But if you are shooting for a "general" audience, who are you thinking ought to be able to typically complete your mission(s)?

The Bronze Monitor pulled the fallen Troll partway from the floor and leaned his metallic face close to the snappy yellow hat brim of his captive.

"Chompy is getting hungry," he said, cocking his head toward his huge Venus Flytrap, "so I will only ask once. WHERE IS SISTER FLAME?"

"Hah! You hero!" said the fallen Troll, "You bluff! Me no talk!"

He was pretty smart for a Troll. But after a quick application of Seeds of Confusion, he was singing like a canary...

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The Bronze Monitor indeed succeeded in freeing Sister Flame and helping her take down the mastermind behind the plot. What a fascinating look at CoH through eight year old eyes. Speaking as one who likewise had to interpret his kids' storylines into various media (I often had to take dictation to provide the written captions for the pictures they had drawn for their "books"), I for one feel the anticipation for this particular arc was well-deserved.

Woot for Disco Trolls! Sidestep's costume was another highlight.

It is interesting to me that all of the minor plot threads were resolved along with the main story.

Bravo to Sister Flame and her Faithful Scribe!

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That said, players need to make some adjustments too. Take a step back and realize that the custom mobs ARE more challenging by their very nature. If you were just cruising through packs of mobs routinely in dev created content, you might not be able to do the same with custom critter packs. Take a step back.

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There have been many, many surprises due to Custom Critters.

In one mission, I never got 50 feet from the front door when the Completely Invisible Foes hit me twice and I was on the floor. I tried again, and only got 30 feet from the door. This had little to no description or dialogue. Not good.

I have run into baddies who laugh off mez, slows, immobs, holds, confuses and/or a lot of damage. And down I went. In most situations, I was able to figure out a way to come back and defeat them, though it was a bit hairy.

Some of the maps pose problems with camera angles. There was an EB type guy at the bottom of some stairs, and due to the camera issues with stairs, it was tough to see who was coming from where, and down I went.

And ambushes. Those can get tough when 1) They arrive from behind without any warning (ie, they don't shout) 2) They are a different character group with a new set of surprising powersets and 3) They are keyed to the defeat of a pretty tough baddie, leaving you in or near the red with most inspirs burned. Still, I was able to come back and defeat these sorts of challenges as well.

A good plot and tight writing cover a multitude of "sins." I take dying in stride in an arc with an interesting angle, a character who invokes empathy and/or some well-worded intros and dialogue. I prefer NOT to die, but I am pretty blase given how tame debt has gotten. I do get quite irritated when there is little to no work given to the writing, the groups or anything else. If your intro consists solely of (and I may get this exact quote wrong, but here goes "LOLZ Cat peeple r scary", you have a one-way ticket to a low rating with your killer custom critters in my book.

I think the overall point is valid: Often some tough MA critters simply present a fresh challenge. I did not take Nosferatu down the first time, and there were other baddies that initially ate my lunch. I treat most adversity in MA as a challenge, but junky writing will lead me to conclude it is merely a death trap and nothing more.

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Sometimes after zoning, I'll see my auto-fire power sitting there recharged with that loverly green circle around it and it won't activate.

If I manually hit the button it will fire, and the auto-fire will work properly until I zone. Then there is a small chance that auto-fire will freeze again until manually re-started.

Is this what you are seeing Sharker?

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That is what I am seeing for sure.

I think it is related to the fact that the Positron contact icon in MA goes to an all-fours stance after the first mission in an arc.

Very odd bugs showing up lately, indeed.

She CAN be fickle in her responses... Anyways, linked to the prior, so that is that.

My perusal missed the fact that this idea got posted already.

El Linko

Move along, nothing to see here.

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In closing, Maybe I'll shoot for a April 20th publish date for Sister Flame's arc. I think we're going to call it "Sibling Rivalry".

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*Starts the queue for the arc. Pitches tent, breaks out ice chest*

QR

How about the game checks your hero and if you are lvl 50, it substitutes the image of YOUR hero for a statue in Atlas Park, say? Or they could add a place in Peregrine Island, or use the statue behind Maria Jenkins.

I would think that the game engine could interpret the image of your costume as it appears in the Costume Creator and substitute the stone-like colors and textures for the colors of your hero and add the image in an appropriate size.

The image of the statue could be client-side, like the objects in Propel--- it would only show up for YOU. After all, YOU are about the only one that will be thrilled, and EVERYBODY would get "their own" statue!

Let's face it, trying to pick out player characters to honor would raise all sorts of problems. But if you saw YOUR OWN hero once they reached 50... EVERYONE would like THAT!

QR:

I have read the entire thread thus far and many other (now locked) threads. My understanding of some matters has thus changed from the first I heard of this.

What I am inferring from the vast number of posts here and elsewhere is that some folks (using Purple Sets, etc) could routinely summon multiple (3? more?) Lightning Storms and that they would fire VERY rapidly. Is this the case? If it is, then Castle's comments about explicitly aiming at LS with the "fix" at least makes sense. (Why Sparky or Gun Drone therefore does not, but I digress.)

I also infer that the initial "LS inherits the Hasten buff" boost to LS' firing rate was known about, but not considered in need of fixing, so it was left alone. (for 7 issues, ie, i7 to now?) Is this the case?

What got me so up in arms is that a drastic "fix" was applied out of the blue and Castle said it was a done deal, not gonna discuss it, because it was "Never Intended" for LS, VS and GD to fire faster than their original "unbuffed" rate.

So I have been in the position of wanting the "Hasten rate" of fire made the norm. If I understand correctly, this was not considered "game-breaking" enough to warrant a fix anyway.

Castle & friends, in fixing the "Purple/RIP rate" of fire, set the rate back to the original, slow, "unbuffed" rate and said that is how it was always intended to fire, so that is where it stays. No, we won't consider upping it to fire any faster, period, much less as fast as it fires with Hasten. And no, we won't discuss it.

I am seeking to make sure I have understood all facets, since I was a Hasten Buff guy, not a Multiple Gatling Storms guy and never knew such was possible, much less acheived.

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Normally I would let this kind of thing go but this is setting a precedent, at any given moment in time they can always say something was never intended just so they can nerf with not justifiable reason. At this point their word is meaningless because we were encouraged to use recharge,damage, accuracy buffs since issue 7 since that part of the technology was added to psuedo pets.

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I cannot say I am one who reads everything in the forums, but I read a great deal. I have been playing since March 2005, and it took me almost a year to think I had anything useful to offer posting on the forums (hence my reg date.)

Until Castle's post yesterday, I had never heard that Lightning Storm inheriting the Hasten buff was "never intended." Until the recent patch went to Test, I had never known it was even contemplated that it be changed. So I never knew to toss in my two cents worth while it was being contemplated.

And with the assertion of "This was never intended," the discussion is over before it started for me, because the Devs said that the matter was therefore closed and would be implemented.

At first, I thought that the nerf to Lightning Storm and the others was an unforeseen consequence of fixing Pet AI, and so I was hoping the Devs might compensate by increasing Lightning Storm's base striking frequency. Then came Castle's post. So while this may be therapeutic to post, it will have zero effect on anything.

When big changes came in 2005, I did not think it too unreasonable on the whole that it might take a year or so to fix "unintended" results, like being able to cast so many multiples of pets. Now since the pets had a finite life, and you could six-slot recharge, I was skeptical that this was unforeseen, much less unintended, but okay, the pets are single and perma now, and I moved along.

But when "never intended" things go on for YEARS and YEARS, have they not passed from "bugs" to "features"? Well, the answer is No, and pronouncing something "Never intended" also ends all discussion on the matter. (see last year's "fix" to Hover, which had been "bugged" for four years.)

Let me be clear: I greatly dislike the change to Lightning Storm and the rest. That is my major beef.

But the manner in which this has been done, out of the blue with "Never intended" ending all discussion, simply is the icing to the aggro cake. There is nothing more to be added to the matter, as all discussion is DOA.

But it is a valid point to be concerned, as quoted above, that "Never intended" will be used as the magic talisman that likewise ends all discussion in the future.

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Now, you combine the two things...and suddenly, pet powers which were never meant to have recharge be altered (Lightning Storm is a great example here) are firing off much faster than intended. For a long time, we didn't notice,

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Well, here we go again with an aspect of the game roundly known, indeed lauded in the Forums, and suddenly "ZOMG This was never intended!" from the Devs.

The fact that Lightning Storm inherited Hasten and fired faster has been discussed and encouraged for as long as I can remember since I started in March, 2005.

So why not leave it alone?

Several days after the deed is done, it is NOW explicitly stated that "We're shocked, shocked to find Lightning Storm is firing faster! WE JUST NEVER NOTICED BEFORE! This was never intended!" and the discussion is now over, Game, Set, Match.

I appreciate the thread, but then again, here is the criteria for commentary, in essence:

"Comment all you want, it won't change our minds an iota, we COULD exempt it but we won't, because as it turns out, we never wanted Lightning Storm to be other than the thud you are now left with. For a long time, we didn't notice..."

EDIT: Quoting Strong Bad by saying "Holy [censored]" a couple of times is overkill in a rant. And a rant, alas, it pretty much is. So I took it out.

As someone else has said, I wish this discussion could have been had back when it might have had an effect on the outcome.

*Heavy sigh*

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Thanks for the update! I get a smile whenever I see this thread in my "unread" listing.

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Well, that is a QFT if I ever saw one!

Judging by the commentary, there are battalions of heroes waiting for the hologram of Sister Flame to invite them to a dance contest in MA. From my own experience, however, these things cannot be rushed, so I hope we all can wait patiently and politely for the Muse to visit Sister Flame.

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My son (6) has watched me play various characters over the years.

His favorite powerset to watch is mind control. I explained Mesmerize as making the enemy fall alseep, and Dominate as giving the bad guy a nasty headache. Now, whenever he sees me use the powers, he yells "Go to sleep!", "Get a headache!", "Attack your friends!"

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I wish I could yell at people, "Get a headache!" and have it actually work.

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Are you sure that doesn't work... all the time... regardless of what you say?



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*channels energy at Zombie_Man*

"... get a headache! Go to sleep! Attack your friends!"

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*Zombie Assault Is Triggered In Zone*

NOW you've done it!

Now, now, folks, let us not get into an arcane discussion of SF writers in this thread...

All I can say is that if there is a mission in which Sister Flame is in danger and must be rescued, only about 700,000 heroes would immediately respond.

George Lucas at the top of his game never came up with anything as winning as Clickey Clacks or as wise as letting smiling monsters be in peace. Adults can rarely come up with anything that good, and THAT is why there will be a line stretching several city blocks for the Sister Flame Story Arc on the day Mission Architect opens. Heck yeah I am up for a dance contest!

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I guess my next goal is to get her within Lusca level range and surprise her with that.

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You should be good there. I for one have never seen Lusca smile.

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Back when I was in high school and playing Dungeons and Dragons as a DM fairly regularly I had created a problem for the players that required the services of a wise man who specialized in plant lore. They searched far and wide for a person to help them.

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Well, if they had looked better, they likely would have found a Shrubber and spared themselves, so they brought it upon themselves fair and square.

*tossing roses onto stage*

That is a work of "Ascendant Phone Call" quality! Brilliant.

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She is still deciding if she wants it to be a "Sister Flame has been kidnapped by Clockworks and you have to rescue her so she'll fight with you" arc or "Sister Flame needs help to find her missing friends.". We've even tossed the idea of a Clockworks Civil War where a rival power has taken control of some of them and is going up against the Clockwork King. I think she's leaning toward the first one because she thinks a lot of people want to play with her (so she says ).

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I had not kept up with the thread in a while. Still great.

SIGN SEEN AT MISSION DISPATCH ON OPENING DAY OF i14:

"Your wait time for the Sister Flame Clicky-Clack Mission Arc is Two Hours from this point."

The heroes will be stretched around the building to help Sister Flame, dance contest or no. Wait and see.

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Just saw this from a thread on Ascendant-O's. Deserves to be kept alive (so to speak).

Awesome.

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Likewise, I stumbled on this via another thread with the brilliant phone call to Saul the agent.

The season is appropriate, so I think calling it again to everyone's attention is likewise appropriate. Brilliant writing job.

Dark Astoria has a lot of interest because of the sketchy details of its backstory. As best as I can determine, Astoria was overwhelmed and went "dark," was restored by the Freedom Phalanx and other heroes in the latter 1950s, remained a nice place due to the presence of Paragon City's hero populace but once the intial Rikti invasion occurred in 2002 and killed most of the heroes, the forces of darkness returned and Astoria went "dark" again. I pieced this together from the various historic plaques, the memorial to the heroes killed in the Rikti invasion that was built in Astoria and the Crey and Vanguard signage that you see there.

I have a few heroes who hail from Baumton, and their stories emerge from the fact that the Rikti apparently decided to utterly devastate that area (in part, it seems, due to the presence of the Freedom Phalanx's HQ there.) But I have one other hero who was a resident of Astoria who has determined that he will return to Astoria and dispel the Darkness. Either of those hazard zones would be an interesting project to reclaim.

EDIT: I did not think to look for it, but did anyone see any Jeter Clutch signage in Dark Astoria during its in-game ad run? If that happened, wow, that would seriously mess with the storyline, barring some insane ad exec ("Zombies LOVE those shoes! Get in there and put up some bill boards! We will get TONS of orders from the BP! Heck, the orders from the Storm Shamans alone will pay us back double!" )

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You bet. You can even do boxes and L-shapes (when you push them to the edge of the screen).

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You just have to love our Devs. Not only do they respond, but they frequently are LOL funny. Posi had me at "All that crap is grey to me."

The upcoming features are full of Win. Though I never go redside, I am happy that the Villain EATs are appearing for those so inclined.

I also have to say that the Devs are not only funny and good-natured, but they really seem to know their audience and respond accordingly. I am very, very happy to see Cyrus Thompson's statue in Kings Row, and to see Troy Hickman authoring the Smoke and Mirrors arc. That was a major hat tip to Noble Heroes.

So I reiterate the desire, expressed by many others, to see the Cyrus Thompson Center show up in KR as well. I realize that may be very tough to pull off, given the rezoning fight that it took to get Wentworth's there.

So what if the signage on one of the buildings facing Cyrus' statue were to be tweaked oh-so-slightly? It could look like the signage on the next to last panel (p. 24) of Issue 6. We would dearly love to see the famous Jamaican coffeeshop, "MON GROUNDS," make its appearance in Kings Row.

In any event, many thanks for prior favors, including the current Rikti Encore.

*laying on floor, waiting patiently for rez*

*looks to side and is startled to see Lighthouse, covered by a throw rug*

I will say one thing, the devs feel our pain!