Nethergoat
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Posts
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I'd feed it to the Inf-Cinerator in the Crazy 88's base!
Oh wait....you're talking about real munnies.
nevermind. -
Okay, moved on to King's Row.
Much more familiar environment, and the police scanner welcomed me back to reality by sticking all my mission doors as far away from wherever I was as it possibly could.
Yay!
Also made my first "paragon market" purchases- picked up the Zone pack suggested above, along with the Barbarian & Animal costume packs. -
Ok, killing two birds with one stone- made a new account & rolled up a villian (with a little help from my son)- THE RUST BUNNY, a broadsword/DA brute, will soon be terrorizing Mercy.
Differences so far, really miss all the costume bits I picked up over the years, and also TWO SLOTS TOTAL? Yikes! -
Quote:Proofreading is a tricky and expensive proposition even for publishers, I imagine its a fairly low priority for an MMO developer on a budget.Originally Posted by Nalrok_AthZim
I thought the exact same thing. I don't know if it's just me but Issue 22 has really taken the cake for showing just how little the writing team cares.
I mean sure, they ought to do a better job of it.
But honestly, how many of their players engage game text in any but the most cursory manner?
That other huge fantasy MMO had a funny storyline poking fun an players who barrel through content, clicking through everything madly in their eagerness to start bashing stuff only to become enraged when they couldn't finish quests because they had no idea what they were supposed to be doing.
That's probably applicable to most players of any MMO, who want to get to THE REWARD as efficiently as possible- dialogue windows just slow things down.
Not excusing their demonstrably lax attitude toward proofreading and editing, but I can see how it would be a low-ish priority on the totem pole of smallish MMO dev team. -
Quote:Originally Posted by gameboy1234
Yes, it's the Tier 9. If you aren't at least Tier 3 (I think, off the top of my head) you're kinda boned. Real free players don't get quite the experience you are getting.
But since it's free, you can just make a second account and run around as a complete newbie for a while. You don't even have to download the client again, just use a different username and password.
that's a good idea- I'll roll up a whole new account and do a compare/contrast between Tier 9 Cool Guy and Tier Bupkis Schlub. -
Quote:I suspect you're right- I was caught in a cascade of spawns, if I hadn't been a scrapper with a tray full of inspirations it would have been a mess. As it was, it surprised me and I lived- fun instead of annoying. If I'd been a blaster I'd have a different opinion...Originally Posted by Roderick
That mission doesn't have an ambush. What I suspect happened was a side-effect of phasing (not the power, the zone effect).
Certain areas of Praetoria, Atlas Park and Mercy Island are affected by "Combat Phasing". What appears in those areas varies, depending on what missions you've completed. For example, if you return to the site of your first mission, you'll find that it's no longer overrun by Hellions.
The border of the Vahzilok area for that second hunt mission is wonky though. You have to get fairly close to the waypoint before it registers that you're in that phase, and when the zombies phase in, you're well into their area. There's even a couple spawns outside the area; trying to melee them will cause them to phase out before you get there.
Because of the oddness of this area, I suspect that you phased into that area right beside a spawn, causing them to aggro on you by surprise.
!!!Quote:Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
Check your Reward Tokens, and place any you haven't yet.
Why do I say this?
Because if you have a high enough tier opened up......you can use the /auctionhouse command to access the market interface from ANYWHERE.
Poked around my Reward Tokens (6 unspent) and sure enough, right there below the repeatable tier 9 stuff was REMOTE AH.
Wow....that's gonna make life easier.
Quote:Originally Posted by Void_Huntress
On the topic of the Twinshot arc...
I seem to be a very particular minority that I loved all of the Twinshot arc except for Dillo.
I dunno. I kind of see what Sam's saying.. I felt like whoever was writing for Dillo was trying too hard. That character is more of a cutout than the rest, to me.Well, everyone in the arc was a cutout/stereotype- I liked Dillow about the same as I liked the self important Twinshot, the chatty, annoying Flambeaux & the obscure, mysterious Grym- Proton was the only one who felt a bit 'flat' to me. Rather than calling it into question Dillow's extreme dialogue reinforced his 'alien origin' for me. He's a weird alien in a robotic containment suit, why *should* I feel any 'reality' or sense of human connection with him?Quote:Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
Exactly. It feels like he was written with the intention to be a joke and nothing more. If he had some actual depth or if we learned more of his backstory so we could see him as a real person with quirks, rather than quirks masquerading as a real person, I wouldn't have nearly as much of a problem with him.
But they were all written in a very over the top way, and I can see not digging the story if that kind of thing bugs you.
I thought it was fun & nicely addressed the necessity of the go here, look at this important game feature, now go there and look at this OTHER important game feature mission.
Will wonders never cease!Quote:Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
Specifically, you'll be surprised that previously unlockable contacts can now be accessed without unlocking them and show up in your Contact Finder when you're of the appropriate level to work with them.
It never made sense to me in a game so starving for content to have some of the better stuff hidden away and gated off.
Thanks for all the tips, everyone.
I'm having a great time rediscovering CoH. I have to say, for just making a character and playing the game I haven't felt *any* constraints being a Free Player. Some of that is my Tier 9-ness, but it's still kind of amazes me that I can log in and pretty much play the game how I always did without spending a cent.
Viva capitalism! -
Okay, got in a pretty good run tonight.
Did Aaron Thiery's arc before going for Twinshot, as suggested- wisely as it turns out, I'm leveling like a demon.
The action was fairly generic, but the story was interesting and the dialog well written. The final mission was in one of those multi-level Arachnos maps I hate, and also a stealth 'kill all' that frustrated me for a minute before I remembered about that 'feature'. Where's this guy I'm supposed to talk to, grrrrr....oh wait, I skipped past that one spawn. Bleh!
But the story had a fun twist, and the writing was a huge improvement over the old days. And, got some merits...almost forgot about those!
Then off to the polarizing Twinshot.
Swimming against the tide a bit here, I really liked the first arc. It wasn't anything epic or heart rending, but it was a light, fun arc filled with engaging characters. It was like one of the good MA arcs got loose in the 'real' game. I doubt I'll run it again any time soon, not because it isn't good but because it's like a book I've just read. The entertainment (or lack thereof) is in the writing and I'm not one to finish a story then flip back to the front and start reading again.
The second arc was a fun take on introducing a new player to various zone features, a HUGE improvement over the old "run all over the city talking to different security chiefs" routine. The dialogue entertained, and the finale in Manticore's mansion was fresh and entertaining.
*SPOILER*
I especially liked the denouement, as I was thinking "Really, they want me to buy that Manticore's being held hostage by some Arachnos minions?" The "I was testing you all along!" twist short circuited my budding annoyance with the plot and triggered a rueful laugh.
Fun arc, I'm looking forward to reconnecting with the characters in King's Row when I hit level 10. -
Quote:I like this idea a lot!Originally Posted by Aggelakis
I think the easiest way around this is to create a little kiosk you can buy with prestige or make with salvage, which you can place in any room in the base (including entry way), where you can pay rent. Leave the SG registrar alone, don't implement silly licenses. That way preemies are still restricted from creating SGs/granting bases to SGs who don't have them, but existing supergroups are not required to look outside their ranks for a veep to keep the power on.
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Quote:EXCELLENT!Originally Posted by Creole Ned
Nethergoat, since you mentioned that Dark Astoria was your favorite zone you might like to know that the original version of it has been preserved as Echo: Dark Astoria. It can be accessed through an SG base with the old DA teleporter beacon or through a portal in Ouroboros (that also gives you the option to go to Echo: Galaxy City).
Since DA never originally had any story arcs in it, you will find the Echo version exactly as you remembered it.
Heck, some missions will still try to send you to the old version of the zone, so it's important to know how to get there! (this is probably unintended and may be fixed at some point)
I'll go farm some zombies with my fire/ice blaster for ol' times sake. -
okay had a few minutes so I headed to Wentworth's for my first drop off.
Sold my junk salvage & enhancements at the vendor, which gave me enough bankroll to list that sweet, fat green Heal inspiration for 59,000.
It insta-sold for 300k, and there's my lowbie bankroll. =D
While I'm at it I think I'll swing by the new Atlas tailor and get a screenshot to spice up this thread with....
(that's me enjoying a hot beverage...) -
Quote:Thanks for the tip!Originally Posted by Golden_Avariel
I suggest you go on to the 3rd contact and finish the AP arc next. Twinshot is cool, but the range for her first arc is 5-9 while the range for all 3 in the AP arc is 1-7. Running Twinshot's full first arc could easily level you beyond the satisfying end of the story you are already in.
In that case I'll do the 'regular' contact first...outlevelling stuff in the middle of the storyline has always been a pet peeve of mine.
!!!Quote:I'm a fan of the new low level content but the abnormal level range really caught me by surprise. I ended up having to do the first two contacts again in Ouroboros just to run through the 3rd's arc. Which brings up another point - O portal works at 14th level now.
NICE!
I'm thinking I'll also poke my head into MA and run a few arcs- I'm sure some good new stuff has been added since my last venture into those hallowed virtual halls. -
I suspend my disbelief at the door- everything about every MMO out there is ridiculous on some level, either you get on board with the specific flavor of silly of the game you're currently playing, or why bother?
I indulge in the cool stuff, engage the goofy stuff on whatever level it inspires my interest (as in the case of the market, very deeply indeed) and mostly blow off anything that doesn't otherwise 'work' for me. -
Quote:well, when marketing presents something as SPECIAL or COLLECTORS or whatever they are making a promise of exclusivity, usually to justify a higher price or encourage extra purchases.Originally Posted by Runo
If someone is going to pay that much for a badge and an extra power, that was of their own accord and they were fully aware of this -- it's also terrible reasoning not to make them available on the market. Following that logic, no game developer should ever make a game's special/collectors edition items available outside of actually buying the CE because people are still out there buying collectibles from those editions for hundreds of dollars. It's a fallible proposition, at best.
The kind of players those sorts of sales pitches are aimed at are *exactly* the sort who are liable to flip right out if this thing they purchased with an expectation of limited availability is suddenly everywhere.
And the DVD edition did make a point of its 'exclusive' content.
While I wouldn't much care if they sold the stuff ala carte, I can see why some folk would be upset and I can understand why you'd let that sleeping dog lie from a dev POV. -
Quote:Mon pleasure, new community manager!Originally Posted by Zwillinger
Hey Nethergoat,
Thanks for sharing your experiences with all of us. I look forward to reading more about your continuing adventures
.
and note to all, I made a twitter account for the goat-
@n3therg0at
is there a thread somewhere collecting the twitter handles of forumgoers?
I tracked down a few people with their search function, but it was sorta slim pickin's. -
Quote:I was going to pop in with someone level-approriate, but now I might just wait until LIZARDROID is ready for it...I'm approaching it with trepidation, as the 'old' DA was far and away my favorite zone & the one I spent the most time in.Originally Posted by Abigail Frost
Welcome back Nethergoat!
Glad to hear that the family is doing well.
When you get the chance, take a stroll through Dark Astoria. Its... different now.
I was around for the fitness change and the attendant forum drama.Quote:Originally Posted by Father Xmas
Yes they moved the power pools to level 4, overhauled the order of powers in the travel power pools (also added one more power in each) and they also lowered the level for APP/PPP to 35 from 41. They did this when Issue 21/Freedom was released.
Also were you around for the Fitness for All change back in Issue 19? All four Fitness powers are now available as inherent at Level 2. Old characters that took some will need to respec to get them all.
The power pool switcheroo really threw me for a loop tho.
I'LL BE THE JUDGE OF THAT, my dear Sam! =PQuote:Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
That's the problem I have with newer content - the sum total of its selling points are "it's not horrible and it's worth running once." Sometimes.
We should know tonight....
Parenting an irascible 3 year old does things to your tolerance levels...Quote:Originally Posted by Bionic_Flea
Welcome back, Goat!
It's nice to see you looking at COH through fresh eyes, but I am also waiting for you to return to your old, grizzled self.
Icon in a starting zone? Will wonders never cease!Quote:Originally Posted by Asgardian_Blade
Don't know if you've noticed or not, but on top of adding tailoring to each trainer, they added a full-blown ICON store in Atlas Park between the hospital and train.
And Welcome to Infinity!
Inifinity is reminding me a lot of Triumph, my longtime home server. -
Hi Four, hiya Chase, hey Organica!
Good to see y'all still hanging around these parts! -
Okay, time to get in a mission or two before bed.
Hit level 4 & checked out Lady Liberty's dialogue box as suggested.
HOLY WOW, tailor options? Hallelujah!
No more taking your lowbie life in your hands doing the Steel Canyon Run to fix this or that detail that doesn't look quite right in game. Well played, Paragon Studios.
And since when do pool powers open up at level 4?
And since when do SJ, SS, TP and Fly open up at level 4?
0.0
So far this is all pretty weird, seeing all this stuff we complained about for YEARS suddenly showing up in game.
Not bad, mind you, just disorienting.
Also, I forgot how much I love Ninja Run.
So much I'll skip taking a travel power at 4, even though INHERENT STAMINA (which I also forgot about) means I have so many discretionary choices I could make without messing up 'my build' I'm a little giddy with choice....
So I finish up my Hellion arc, and it's pretty cool- custom map with flaming pentagrams all over. Neat dialogue boxes when I chat with the computer at the end- solid first set of missions.
My next step along the contact tree, I choose Officer Fields because his murder investigation sounds more interesting than the other choices unspecified 'problems'.
Foolish me, now I'm knee deep in sewage staring down the barrel of a 'defeat 10 Vahzilok'. =/
Oh well, let's see if they still devestate lowbies with massive volleys of toxic damage, shall we?
Okay, not as awful as expected- the spawns are small and there's someone else in here with me so we're sort of tag-teaming them. Plus, plenty of inspirations dropping so they're going down pretty efficiently.
On to the next mission!
Run and talk, off to the ex-hero...nice theater she's hanging around.
And.....another 'defeat 10 Vahzilok'. Bleh.
Over to the hunting ground, engage a spawn...and here comes the ambush of course! You know I've been gone for a while when an ambush actually surprises me. Touch a go for a while there, but scrapper toughness combined with a few more timely inspiration drops got me through.
Enjoying the new liberality with cell phones- call in the mish, get the next one and it's pretty close.
Another sewer, rescuing some actors & looking for this Botte guy.
Things went pretty smooth, thanks to a mid-mish levelling and more helpful insp drops. The customized room and dialogue for the boss battle was neat and a couple of acc's made the Eidolon go down easy.
My guy booted me off to another contact- as I'm now level 5 I think I'll check out GG's suggested contact instead.
Time for bed, more later! -
Quote:Oh yeah, forgot about that detail- still, not a big hurdle for anyone who can type "hey, can someone help me start a SG base?"Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
You needed two accounts to do it if you wanted to invite your own alts into the SG's. Either two of your own accounts or you and another player.
Even the new, improved kinder & gentler me has little patience for a logic chain that starts with we must help those who are too petrified of human contact to ask for help in a help-rich environment!Quote:Now while you and I may not be bothered by the hurdles we have to go thru, other people are more sensitive about it, and/or they don't like asking for help.
=P -
from the perspective of a Katana player who started his character when the set was still using borrowed animations from Broadsword let me emphatically vote for ANIMATIONS.
And I picked up my long abandoned ma/sr character when MA got its animation revamp and had a great time with him.
Great new animations completely rejuvenate the way characters play.
I like new powersets too, but don't underestimate the rejuvenating power of fresh animations. -
Quote:When wing recipes were genuinely rare I think the recipe mechanism worked fine- the process of gathering salvage and crafting the recipe then equipping them was more one of anticipation than irritation.Originally Posted by SlickRiptide
It was a good idea in theory but an annoyance in practice. Take the fairy and bug wings, for instance. Those are things that you want to have in your costume creator when you create the character. Speaking from personal experience, It just felt wrong to make a bug and then have to acquire the wings recipe and the salvage and then earn my way up to level 10 (trivial these days, I know) and then craft the wings AND then go to a tailor to equip them.
I'd rather see new sets as merit vendor purchases if earning them through gameplay is a desired goal.
But when they occur frequently enough to become junk drops the uniqueness is gone and the process of constructing and equipping them becomes pointless tedium. Then they ought to just be added to the tailor, or made a merit purchase or whatever- some kind of direct, convenient transaction. -
Quote:Unless they changed things pretty drastically I was able to get solo bases up and running for both factions without much trouble....converting inf to prestige, even with the hilarious exchange rate, is the path to success.Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
Regardless of what our personal opinions are about the OP's suggestion the devs have gone on record several times that they will not in any way do anything to make it easier for players to create solo SG/Bases. The devs are adamant that SG's/bases and everything in them are multi-player oriented content and will remain so.
I am mildly annoyed that as a 'freebie' I can't pay the rent on my existing bases....but I've already had several VIP's offer to help me out if I don't end up re-subbing.
Over they years, I've found the game presents very few obstacles that asking around for help can't conquer... -
Hiya!
Tried both the 'other' games and they failed spectacularly to meet my (extremely subdued) expectations.
As a fellow returnee, I can say the water hereabouts is just fine- welcome back! -
JB and Arcana going at it somehow puts me in mind of The Odd Couple...the excellent film, not the mediocre teevee show.
I'll let you guess which role is assumed by Jack Lemmon in my little fantasia... -
Quote:speaking of silly animations, my first ever character was ma/sr (back when SR pretty much made you easier to hit, and MA was out-damaged by power pool attacks) and I took Flurry over Hasten on my way to Super Speed because I thought Hasten sounded boring.Originally Posted by DMystic
Also find a way to get Old Storm Kick back in the game some how silly as the animation was.
The one/two combo of Storm Kick/Flurry was tremendously entertaining for my teammates.... -
Quote:Good to hear!Originally Posted by DMystic
Since you're enjoying the new Atlas Park so much, when you get around to it, or find another available slot check out the Villain Side, as Mercy Island received a similar revamp though it's not as drastic as the one Atlas got.
Although they'd learned a lot by the time they rolled out CoV- the Rogue Isles early game never drove me crazy the way the idiotic crazy-quilt of pointless contacts did in Paragon. Well, aside from crushing repetition due to alt-o-holicness and that one stupid mission that reliably sent you aaaaaaaall the way across the map (TY, Self Destruct, for the quick return trip!)
Still, looking forward to their improvements.