Nethergoat
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Posts
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Joined
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yeah...if you want to know what's really genuinely commercialized, it's having to pay $14.99 a month or THEY DON'T LET YOU LOG IN.
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As my masochism apparently knows no bounds, tonight I signed up for yet another OLDSKOOL TF, the turgidly monotonous Moonfire. No, not Hess, which is entertaining despite its age and featuring one of the best custom maps in the game, but MOONFIRE, which is little but an endless parade of cave maps filled with vampires & wolves.
Plus side: got THE SILVER BULLET badge, about thisclose to the vamp badge, plus picked up a couple of levels.
Minus side: EVERYTHING ELSE. =P
Really, I'm going to play through all these shabby old relics just so I can rank them all on an axis of lameness/ancientness. I'm thinking of using a star ranking system, each star being the icon of a Lethargic Repose IO. Points will be awarded for each Kill All, ridiculous street hunt, or other outmoded mission type, egregious zoning, and all the other delights to which older content is prone.
Like, say an 'escort hostage' mission. And just adding insult to injury, the gal we rescued SPEED BOOSTED me, but then of course walked along at a snails pace aaaaaaaaaall the way to the door, about a thousand miles away through a Council tunnel map full of delightful geometry to get stuck on.
Oh yes Moonfire.....you'll be getting a bonus star for that one.
Anyway, it basically stunk, but as always seems to be the case I liked my team and we had a good time anyway. On this particular run I met my Old West doppleganger in the team leader, Toxic Tex, a beam rifle/poison corrupter.
Here we are in action, showing off his impeccable taste in weapon model:
And, after years of happy use, my Mutation power hit me with the monkey AGAIN. Twice in two days!
We lost a couple of folk on our winding way to the end, but eventually made it....
So, another triumph of players over content- a fun evening of gaming in spite of missions that were aggressively monotonous & generic.
Fun parts of this one were targeting through Tex for extra Disintegrate action- if I threw down an Enervating Field, things died FAST. We also had *two* Dual Pistol types, along with our bow/bow defender. We had a controller for about the first 2/3rds of the run, but lost her for the last few missions. Our scrappers were a matched paid of DB's who said they've been playing together for 4-5 years. They were great for damage, not so great for holding aggro. It was a messy run, especially once we lost the controller, but we mostly muddled through without any serious disasters. When all our stuff was up at the same time it was a fine sight- Oil Slick, ignited by Incendiary Ammo, Enervated enemies, Lingering Radiation + Glue Arrow...oh, it was lovely.
When they weren't, well it could get a little touch and go.
Okay, so Synapse one night, Moonfire the next...what should I use for a chaser, Bastion & his endless caves full of nazis? =P -
Quote:the team I was on last night mowed Babbage without much trouble- my /rad + all our DPS did him in posthaste.Originally Posted by SerialBeggar
I wasn't clear. I was talking about beating up the Clockwork King without the special hold power.
The King is a relative push over as a low level AV and frankly, I feel that he must have been nerfed a bit at some point. The King just seem too easy nowadays. Babbage, on the other hand, is really tough without a kinetics and several dps-ers. An additional debuffer helps too. If your team makeup includes these, then you could take Babbage down without a call out for help. I've been on a couple teams that have done it.
The king seemed a bit wimpy based on memory, but my memory was of a three person team trying to whittle him down so I'm willing to adjust for nostalgia. That team was about as close to a pure steamroller as you're liable to get on a random PUG- if we'd had a kin instead of a second emp it would've been katie bar the door! -
Quote:Originally Posted by halfthief
I have been with COH for a long time and I am becoming more and more frustrated at the commercialization of COH. Now, only the wealthy and insanely rich can enjoy the game fully.
Pfffffft to that nonsense.
I am neither wealthy nor insanely rich & yet had a terrific time playing as a Freemium leech for a couple of months before subbing back up. The only major change for me was getting back all of my character slots.
Again, PFFFFFFFFFFFFT.Quote:If you are on a limited income you can only use basics and not look as nice or fight with as much style as a rich person.
You can make amazing, cool, enviable costumes with nothing but the stuff the game shipped with 8 years ago, let alone access to all of the treasures of CoV and the various other additons to the 'free' costume editor over the years.
Gratz on your overwhelming sense of entitlement!Quote:IT sucks and is about to drive me from the game. I am sure most of you do not care but I had to say my piece.
I'm sure it will serve you well on the next game you play, where you will also expect to get everything for free and be inevitably disappointed. -
Quote:This is what happened the first time I ran this one, by the final mission 4 hours had passed and it was down to my emp/elec & my two pals, a claws/regen (and remember how awful /regen used to be before you got IH?) and an eng/dev.Originally Posted by SerialBeggar
After the second warehouse mission, you get a fedex mission to Positron to get the special hold temp power to use on the King. Babbage is the ambush for it. You don't really need to use the temp power, though, especially if you have a full team beating on him. The last time the King proved to be difficult for me was way back in the old days when the Synapse TF could take 3-4 hours and the team might be down to 3 members, including myself, by the time we got to him.
We fought Babbage to a standstill- he couldn't kill us because of my emp, but we couldn't out-damage his regen. Ended up yelling in /b for help, and a bunch of folks stormed over to help out. That was nearly the only fun we had on that entire run.
I remember Catwhoorg posting a screen from some SG celebration that had a totally ridiculous number of Babbages all rampaging in a fairly small area. Kudos to anyone who puts in that sort of work- personally, I'll never be setting foot in this TF again. =PQuote:Originally Posted by Organica
Think about this for a minute:
1. Babbage spawns before the final mission of a fairly long Task Force.
2. The Kronos Titan spawns about 9 missions into Crimson's Project: World Wide Red arc. Which is full of Malta, of course.
3. These ambushes will spawn on the first person to exit the mission, or otherwise appear somewhere outside the mission.
4. If you have someone on the task force or World Wide Red ouro arc log out at some other place in the game, then have everyone else quit the team instead of leaving the mission just before the ambush (it's hard to get people to remember to do this, mind you) then when that last other person logs in, the ambush spawns on them wherever they are.
I had a friend who spent a couple of weeks setting up massive Kronos Titan/Babbage multiple-spawn ambushes. This meant he and several of us were running most of a Synapse Task Force or a Malta-filled World Wide Red ouroboros arc, over and over, and then quitting without any reward.
Now don't you appreciate your own Synapse experience more?
Granted, multiple Kronos Titans and Babbages at once is pretty neat. But man is that a lot of work to set up. -
It was by far the funniest thing that happened last night, so I didn't mind much.
Actually had a good time jumping all around the king while making screeching noises in team chat... -
I come not to praise the Synapse TF, but to bury it...
You think I'd know better, as this is the TF that confirmed my opinion that they stunk back in the day. And having run it last night with all of today's modern conveniences in our arsenal (Mission TP, Gather the Team, inherent stamina, combined train lines, etc etc) I'm actually unsure of how & why I finished it back in the day- maybe it was just a hallucination?
I should check that characters badges and make sure it actually happened.
Anyway, last night.
I had some time in the evening and logged in Cathode Ray, intent on running a TF. Not much happening in LFG, so I fiddled with slotting while I waited. Finally someone advertised a Synapse, and while I didn't have fond memories I thought "why not, at least I'll get a few levels!" and said OK.
Silly me, because of *course* right after I joined several more appealing TFs started forming. Oh well....you make your bed, you sleep in it.
So it didn't take long to fill out the team, in spite of the powerful suckitude of the TF. We ended up with not one but two emp defenders- a /water and another one, along with a water corrupter, a claws scrapper, a dark/time controller, a widow, a demon MM and me.
After we'd all gathered in Skyway the leader suggested we turn up the difficulty "for more XP", an idea instantly shot down by no less than four of us. As our "speed" run took longer than two hours, I say THANK GOODNESS. If he'd decided to turn it up anyway I probably would have bailed.
So, off we go.
I don't remember exactly how many DEFEAT ALL CLOCKWORK IN BUILDING missions we ran in a row, but I did at one point say "if we get another 'defeat all clockwork' mish I may upchuck", followed almost immediately by the leader setting the next mish- DEFEAT ALL CLOCKWORK IN BUILDING. It gave my teammates a good laugh, but rest assured I was crying inside. =P
But in defense of this TF, it did occasionally break up the monotony of DEFEAT ALL CLOCKWORK with such fun, entertaining missions as....PATROL missions? Really, game? PATROL? Good lord, I hadn't seen one of those since they launched PVP. And this thing had TWO of 'em!
To be fair, there were also a few 'defeat XXX and guards' we were able to "stealth", although it was a Pyrrhic stealth at best since they were in giant rooms and it was the flavor of 'defeat xxxx' that requires clearing the room.
So, it was basically a marathon of unrelieved clockwork destruction. Thankfully, between two Recovery Auras + my Accelerated Metabolism we didn't want for endurance, and at base difficulty everything went down like wheat before the scythe. We didn't have any amazing AoEs so sometimes cleaning up the 10,000 gears left after defeating a spawn took nearly as long as the spawn itself, but there wasn't any danger. Our single casualty came when one of the emps tried to "stealth" a mission and got Tesla'ed & demolished.
So, after an amazingly long journey through what seemed like an endless field of Clockwork, we reached the final mission.
Which was actually cool and fun, and on a really neat map which elicited several comments of startled admiration from a couple of other longtime vets who'd never seen it before. The King was cool, as always, but didn't present much of a challenge.
While preparing to face him down we were all reading each other's fortunes and applying buffs, and I hit my Mutation power.....which turned me into a rikti monkey? I've been using this power constantly on all of my characters since buying the super booster and *never* had this happen.
I got a screen of my monkey self attempting to bite the King:
Anyway, he went down plenty fast without me.
An oddity of the run, for some reason Babbage was up *before* the mission?
So we all mugged him.
But I thought he showed up after? Or maybe some other unlucky bunch of folk had just finished a run and we stole their monster.
So, having run this thing I now understand why people describe Manticore as a "good" TF. In comparison, I guess it is.... =P -
Gratz!
/edit
oh c'mon, forum software, this deserves all caps! -
okay early returns on screenshots are promising- here's the bio of a DFB teammate from last night:
Ha! -
happy birthday Zek!
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Quote:ok, sent!Originally Posted by Miss Ozarks
Thanks again for the care package, I told Marsha that you be mailing it to her global handle. @Marsha Smile
She said she will keep an eye open for it. -
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Okay, bit of a different report today.
Didn't get much gaming in because I took the plunge and decided to install my 'new to me' video card, a PNY GeForce 8800 GTS 320 DDR 3. One of my gaming buddies upgraded & put it up for grabs, and did I ever grab.
Not state of the art, but a massive upgrade over the one I've been using, a BFG 7950 GT OC.
Had some trouble getting it to fit- it's one of those extra long double-decker cards, and describing my case as a 'mini tower' requires some imagination. I ended up having to dig a longer power cable for my HD out of a bits box and take a roundabout way to the MB plug, which is now partially covered. But got it eventually.
Booted it up, and worst nightmare time- it didn't find the hard drive and wanted to boot from CD. Stuff like this is why I hate hate HATE opening my case. Dug around and found my install cd, booted & somewhat pessimistically ran the "fix install" utility. Was giddily surprised when it found my hard drive & asked if I had any "cameras or external memory" plugged in, and if so to un-plug it and try again.
So I unplugged my USB storage drive, hit the button and VOILA! back up and running.
WHEW!
Now I know Vista gets a lot of flack from people, but for me it's been terrific- four years, zero problems. And this is the first time I've ever changed a video card so smoothly on the software side. I literally just pulled up the control panel, uninstalled the old driver, then installed the new one and re-started after I stuck it in.
For someone who vividly remembers having to install a 2D daughter board with his first video card because it could *only* render games, this was revelation.
I've lived long enough to see THE FUTURE...hurrah!
So, now the moment of truth.
My old card had reached the point where I couldn't really play "modern" games with it- a pal sent me the latest CoD to try and get me on-line to hang out, but it wouldn't run.
Fired up CoH.
Got a pop up- "this video card can support ULTRA graphic settings. Would you like to apply them?"
OH YES.
YES I WOULD.
Headed in to a BRAVE NEW WORLD.
First impression, WOW Atlas Park looks beautiful.
Second impression, holy LAG, batman!
I guess Atlas plus about 40 characters clustered under the globe was more than the new hardware could digest. Pulled up the options and dialed down a few usual suspects- shadows, particle count, FSAA, popped world textures down from ULTRA to HIGH quality.
Applied, and voila, back to smooth.
Well, a tiny bit jerky, but no worse than my old card ran at much lower settings, so I'll take it.
Biggest difference:
infinite draw distance. No more 'fog of war' hiding most of the zone as I zip around. Plus, everything in the distance has a delightful haze around it, as if viewed through the golden lens of nostalgic reminiscence. Lovely!
Second biggest difference:
OMG THE SEWERS!
Ran a mission on SilverRage and it was down in a sewer. Wow! Drips from the ceiling, moody lighting, CRAZY REFLECTIVE WATER, sewer churn around those big spinning things, etc etc.
It was like finding a new map, except I've played it like 10,000 times.
I'll take some screens tonight and see if it's solved my compression problem.
I also may have to do some substantial costume fiddling, as pretty much *everything* looks a lot different than I'm used to.... -
Sure, no problem!
Sleep time here, I'll forward it to your friend in the morning.
=D -
Okay, sent off a care package- let me know if it got through okay.
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Quote:that'll teach 'em!Originally Posted by TheDevian
From what I have seen lately my points will be 'safe' for a long time, may never get used...
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I'm sort of impressed a bad comic book story is enough to trigger a one hour rage-gasm in this guy.
If only we could harness the energy nerds waste on this kind of pointless nonsense to some constructive end!
What's that?
Oh, you're curious about my post count?
I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW GAME FORUMS ARE A TOTALLY DIFFERENT THING, MMMK?!?!
=P -
Quote:Bravo, sir, bravo!Originally Posted by Venture
You can pretend your character is a magical pony who solves problems not with violence but by winning over the hearts of evildoers with his unique blend of family-oriented humor too, but gluing feathers on a rat doesn't make it a swan.
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Quote:That was during my hiatus, and I regret missing it every time I see one of those great costume pieces in the "post your best costume design" thread. >:eOriginally Posted by Canine
I don't recall, were you around for the Hallowe'en event, or did you read anything about it?
Looking forward to this year's iteration! -
Quote:Not seeing how facing fewer minions is an *advantage* so much as an xp nerf, but maybe that's why I'm not a game designer. =POriginally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood
Screwing up the technical sections has two effects. First you have to fight more minions before the AV shows up after that section. Secondly if your combined score drops below a certain threshold then the final AV won't show up.
This is a problem I also had running the first SSA- in a mission, I generally don't read any text, or just brush over it. I've been conditioned to do this by years and years of running missions in this game and its a habit I haven't broken.Quote:Originally Posted by Canine
I quite like it, but you do need to be paying attention to *all* the cutscene text, like the one where is tells the Hacker to go to the generator roon in the third phase. The number of people who didn't read that, or didn't notice it, or didn't pay attention if they did notice it was moderate IME of running the event.
Even so, I think it's the sort of story filigree that'd work better in a story arc you may run solo.
Well, having no exposure to the beta version of the set I had no expectations to disappoint- two solid AoEs by level 20 is aces in my book.Quote:Originally Posted by Organica
It's just fine at later levels. The big hubub about it on the forums is that they lowered the radius of the main AoE attack before it went live, and people flipped out. But it's still fine. It's also Targeted AoE which probably annoys some people.
=)
Well, that makes sense.Quote:Crowd approval goes down the longer you take, and goes up with every kill you make. I think it goes down every time someone on your team dies too. There are, I think, 2 or 3 times in the even where, after you've defeated a specific opponent, you can incite the crowd, which increases the crowd approval. At 500 the crowd is permanently on your side, at 0 the crowd is permanently against you. I think you need to hit 500 to get a chance to face the God Boss.
Last night's team was mowing down bosses like ripe stalks of wheat, and our only fatality came toward end when the God Boss summons all his pals.
My nit-picking aside, it was a fun event, I liked the small team size because as you noted in some other thread it made LFG worth using and the rewards were great. I'd have run more of them except for the DFB fueled ALT BINGE I've been on the past few weeks. -
DIG DEEP, soldier!
You can do this! -
Quote:A nifty change indeed, combined with the instant cast time change a while back it's *almost* an actually good power.Originally Posted by Sailboat
Epically, Devices just got buffed this morning, while she was writing that.
Blasters
- Devices - Gun Drone's AI has been modified. It now strongly prefers attacking at long range rather than in melee range, and it will no longer seem to "stick" to the floor when trying to path to its owner.
A bit more buffing and I'll be a wholehearted supporter. -
Quote:I'll send some along when I get home tonight!Originally Posted by Miss Ozarks
Hi, sorry since i am free to play, at the moment, i cannot send PM's so decided to just post to you in case you did not see my other post reply asking for help.
I found out my friend has decided he is not coming back. if your offer is still good, my global name is @Lady on Fire
I appreciate the help, thanks -
=) -
Quote:Yes, they botched Staff Fighting so badly that over half the brutes & scrappers I've teamed with this past month have been Staff.Originally Posted by EvilRyu
Thats going to run your business into the ground. You remember all the nerd raging we did about Staff weapons. Its the samething. You guy sit on something so long the hype goes away and we not even thinking about it anymore.
The shareholders would be throwing Paragon a block party if only all powersets could fail as badly as Staff. -
the only stuff on sale I want, I already have.
Ah well, since I dropped 800 points on a Beam Rifle impulse buy last week holding off this time around will help even things out... -
Quote:
Blasters
Devices - Gun Drone's AI has been modified. It now strongly prefers attacking at long range rather than in melee range, and it will no longer seem to "stick" to the floor when trying to path to its owner.
YESSSSSSssssssssssss!
It still needs further buffing, but this + instant cast time has Gun Drone inching slowly toward being something besides a set mule.