Olantern

I had been wondering whether we'd see a new set of Super Packs. This suggests the answer is "yes." Perhaps the real question shouldn't be about the new ATO's, but about what the new SuperPack2-only costume set will be, as well as how loud the teeth-gnashing when it's announced will be.

Magic predominates, with something over half of my sixty-some characters using it.

Next is Natural, just slightly edging out Technology. I have used Science and Mutation each a total of three times on characters who aren't Warshades or "throwaways." Due to a couple of Warshades, Science edges out Mutation. But that's compared to dozens of Magic characters and ten or so Natural and Technology ones.

From the name, it sounds as if we might be finishing or close to finishing the "fight Praeotrians" portion of the endgame. If you're not a huge Praetorian fan, this is good news. And, of course, if you are a huge Praetorian fan, you're probably happy to see a trial that advances that series of events.

One thing that I think would figure nicely in a trial about destroying the heart of an organization, like the Magisterium, would be to have some buildings collapse. Not have them destroyed in the trial and as they are now in the game world, but to have them fall over within the trial. I mention this not because I expect to see it here, but because it might inspire some developer who happens to read this thread (or an OCR person summarizing it for them) for purposes of future content.

While I'd love to have Staff Fighting out soon, I don't really understand the obsessive craving for it, the perception that there's too much use of the four-legged rigs after years of player demands for them every other day, or any of the other fixations the fora get. Heck, a couple of years back, we had mass (a small mass, but still a group) ragequitting over a change to an IO set bonus (Blessing of the Zephyr, if I recall right).

I don't understand why people think they have some right to control the decisions of a business with which they have no relationship other than buying its products, nor do I understand how or why people feel they're being victimized or served a shoddy product, even after reading most of this thread and reading these fora a great deal in general.

All I can say is that I continue to be impressed with the community team's, and through them the studio's, forbearance. If my supposedly "fantastic" community treated me this way, I would've packed up my toys and gone home by now.

You know what I liked about the SSA as a whole? We saw all kinds of "incidental" use of existing characters. (Dark Astoria, by the way, does this too.)

What do I mean? Normally, you don't have much interaction with existing characters except when playing content designed around them. Contacts appear in their own arcs, and that's about it. You go steal some stuff for Mr. Bocor, fight some Legacy Chain, focusing on them to the exclusion of all else, then you finish, and both Bocor and Chain are forgotten. That's fine to an extent, but at some point, it makes it seem that each NPC is off in his own, entirely separate, continuity.

In the SSA, we have Luddites mentioned outside Cap au Diable, Penelope Yin making an appearance unrelated to Faultline or the Clockwork King, a villainous contact actually being villainous, and Manticore actually acting like a crazed vigilante rather than just being pointed at and called "crazed vigilante." The SSA was the first content that gave me some sense that the game world's different parts actually interacted with each other. It was the first "CoH Universe" arc.

Dark Astoria, which was presumably written up a bit later than the SSA, did the same thing, only much more impressively, so hopefully we will see a bit more of this in future "special" storylines.

It could probably cover a Batman, but that Batman might not look much like the one who immediately springs to mind.

It would pay for a fair amount of existing gear, one time, even after taxes. This includes things like Toughbook computers or band-aids for after a fight, not Batman's more fanciful gadgets, let alone his advanced laboratory and its seemingly endless equipment. In many portrayals I've seen, the Batcave essentially contains both a hospital and a beyond state of the art crime lab, neither of which come cheap. (Note how in the real world, both things are generally operated by institutions, not even very wealthy individuals.) And, as others have already noted, if we're dealing with a world realistic enough for the costs of Bat-tech to be calculated, we're also probably dealing with one too realistic for much of it to exist.

Much of the remaining funds would be eaten up by the services of the Bat Support Network. Consider the costs of bribing informants or enemies, paying the people hired to develop the Bat-tech, paying the attorneys and accountants who hide the financial and business operations from law enforcement and criminals, and paying people to train the Batmen in criminology and advanced combat. This will probably runs into the cost of hiring several such professionals full-time. Even with lots of people volunteering their time, this quickly becomes so time-consuming that some of the people you'll need must be paid in order to survive while they complete their Batwork. Services, even more than goods, are not cheap; ask anyone who's ever had to hire an attorney for even a short time.

The trainers bring up a final but critical issue: the Batmen themselves. Physician and martial artist E. Paul Zehr addresses these issues in his book, Becoming Batman. While he spends much of the book reviewing relatively straightforward concepts of growth and genetics, he also devotes some time to Batman's combat training. For purposes of this discussion, let it suffice to say that his training is "extensive." There very few people in the world with the physical qualifications and background even to become a Batman, even before the training begins. You are probably looking at a lead time of at least a couple of years before you have any Batmen on the streets. (Note how this is true to the source material, too.)

Zehr's most original and interesting point, however, is that it's very, very hard to maintain that physical edge for more than a few years. Being Batman puts a tremendous strain on the body. A Batman in a world realistic enough to calculate how much he costs will not continue working to The Dark Knight Returns age. He will physically give out long before that point. And, of course, all of this isn't even beginning to consider potential psychological trauma. All of this means high turnover among the Bat-Corps, requiring even more training and candidate selection costs.

All in all, assuming we have the $476 million in a lump sum and needn't worry about taxes (NOT the conditions of the original question), I'd estimate that could finance about one Bat-franchise, for a single city, for about two years of preparation time and about two to three years of Bat-operations, which probably means two to three individual Batmen playing the role, hundreds of support personnel (many volunteers), and a decent gear package, though little or nothing that has to be newly developed for the project. By the end of year three, defending against criminal investigations and, more costly, private lawsuits will eat into the money so significantly that it outstrips the return on any invested assets.

The Batman of fiction doesn't need to worry about money, by definition. Bruce Wayne doesn't have "$500 million" or "$50 billion"; he has "as much money and as many friends and incidents of good luck as he needs to support being Batman." Batman stories are not generally about the monetary costs and mechanics of being Batman, because those issues generally aren't very interesting. The wealth is a MacGuffin trotted out whenever it's needed to explain something, then put away. A Batman in a fairly realistic world wouldn't have this luxury, no matter how large his bank account.

Neat. Reminds me of the Fleischer Superman cartoons, the '90's Batman: the Animated Series, and, of course, the various magazines and whatnot they're based on. I'd love to see this artist do an entire comic, either with one of those existing characters or with original ones.

If you think you won't like something, don't do it. This is a game, not trying the green eggs and ham. No one will think less of you, and if you don't care about the rewards, the story, or the gameplay, there is nothing for you to miss.

Of all the things that irritate me about complaints, the one that irritates me the most is that people seem to enjoy putting themselves in situations where they're driven to do it.

Every time I do that hero morality mission in the 30's with Doc Quantum's base, I mention to my channel-mates that I'd like to see a radio mission to "Defeat Firebase and his Turrets crew." Apparently, the game was listening! At least no one has yet seen "Defeat Bang-o and his Explosives crew."

And I, too, once got a paper mission filled with Paragon Protectors on a level 24 character. This was back when they were very hard for villains to find, too, so I regretted having to get a GM to complete it (this was long before the "complete mission" option, too).

Here are some ideas, some of which have been mentioned already, others of which are new.

1) The "team of bosses." I use "boss" in the generic games sense here, meaning "a unique and powerful enemy," rather than the specific CoH rank "Boss." As Dr. Aeon's OP pointed out, a team of unique opponents is potentially challenging as well as interesting. One thing I particularly like about such setups is that they remind the player that this game is a world not just of enemy factions, but of individual heroes and villains, even when those characters aren't necessarily the centerpieces of the story.

Examples of this kind of setup that work fairly well include the Civic Squad mission from Westin Phipps, the first mission of Episode Five of "Who Will Die," and the multi-arc finale of "Shining Stars," with the Shining Stars and Hearts of Darkness all facing off against each other. The "Who Will Die" episode shows that this can work with even fairly powerful enemies, so long as the player has some backup, whether teammate or NPC. The Shining Stars fight demonstrates an interesting gameplay aspect of such fights: it's possible to have a debuff or buff-oriented character in the enemy group, which is a significant change from much of the rest of the game.

2) The "support" boss. Here, while the boss is the main "bag of hit points" in the fight, it isn't a direct threat. The boss may not even attack at all. Rather, it is accompanied by or summons help, probably lower-ranked, and may buff them or debuff the player character. I've been told in the AE forum that such setups can't work in this game (though, unfortunately, not in such polite terms) because, essentially, "enemies are too easy to defeat." I think the point here is meant to be that the minions can too easily be picked off. In any case, as that negative feedback should indicate, this is a delicate balance, but it potentially allows for interesting variety in gameplay.

The only example of a fight like this that I can think of in official content is the confrontation with Harbinger in the task force featuring her. For those unfamiliar with it, Harbinger constantly summons exploding Ghouls while emitting a powerful slow aura. For a mission that is not designed exclusively for a team, things like the damage dealt by the exploding Ghouls and the power of Harbinger's slowing aura would need to be toned down drastically, but it gives some idea of how a fight like this might be set up.

For a more elaborate example, I'll describe the AE arc where I first attempted something like this. I had an Archvillain with much of the debuff-heavy Trick Arrow powerset, as well as some Archery attacks surrounded by a group of Lieutenant enemies, all with Phalanx Fighting and Against All Odds from Shield Defense. The idea here was that the overlapping Phalanx Fighting of the Lieutenants would provide defense to the otherwise unshielded AV while weakening characters in melee range. There were meant to be several ways players could complete the encounter: simply fight the AV, brute-forcing through the debuffs and defense (the option most took); use holds or stuns to shut down the Lieutenants' support/debuff powers; separate the AV from the Lieutenants, etc. While this example was hampered by the limitations of AE (notably the fact that Custom Critters apparently do not use the Phalanx Fighting power), it provides some indication of the potential variety in scripted leader/support fights.

3) Alterable environments. Here, the emphasis is on the conditions of the fight. Players may choose to do things "the hard way" or "the easy way." Examples existing in the game usually involve things like an option to bring along an ally (as in numerous missions with straightforward allies or the more nuanced version seen in Max's Dark Astoria arc) or to take control of turrets (as in the ITF). In my experience, players tend to ignore the option for help and simply rush the enemies. And, of course, let's not forget the so-called "gadget fight" with Reichsman in the Kahn and Barracuda task forces, one of the most-hated encounters among players, bar none. All this suggests more thought is required when placing aspects of the fight's dynamics within the player's control.

A better comparison here might be the fight against the Giant Shivan in the new tutorial. While villains are slightly buffed during this encounter, heroes are slightly weakened, based on the earlier choice to save or kill Blue Spectrum. Perhaps an earlier step in a mission could give the player an option of "buff my defense, weaken the boss's damage, or grant me three allies." Rather than requiring the player to play within certain mechanics, which the Reichsman experience suggests is a source of frustration, this allows players a choice, as well as encouraging them to know their characters' weaknesses and compensate for them.

4) Choice of missions. The earlier suggestion about an "archvillain version" of missions got me to thinking about an idea I'd had a while back. While it sounds as if such seemingly identical missions cannot be made to work, there are still some interesting uses for mission choices. Notably, they can provide for additional story options and the possibilty, again, of playing to a character's strengths, or even a player's interest, through offering two different options with similar endpoints. This idea isn't strictly limited to "Challenge in Missions," but it has its applications there.

An example might prove useful. Imagine that the player character has just completed a mission that has left him with a clue pointing to either the Freakshow or Nemesis as the culprits in a robbery. When the character returns to the contact, the contact says, "All right, $name. We need to investigate both these leads right away! Which one do you want to take?" The player then receives the options, "I'll investigate the Freakshow" and "I'll investigate Nemesis," with the contact investigating the other lead. Once the selected mission is complete, the two branches of the story merge again.

With regard to the subject of this thread specifically, a contact could offer a choice to "clear out the enemy base" or "defeat the enemy leader." From a story perspective, these could have similar impact, but one is more challenging from a gameplay point of view. Don't discount the possibilty, too, of a choice like, "I'll capture Reichsman" (a tough boss) versus "I'll capture Hopkins" (a weaker one). Finally, one of the very differently-titled missions might feature a complex boss fight, while the other might feature a simple one. In conclusion, there are plenty of options offered by the potential for selecting one of two missions that I don't think are being exercised at the moment.

That's all for now.

That's neat.

It's been about fifteen years since I followed Warhammer 40,000; who are those winged guys fighting off what I assume is a Bloodthirster (the big, demonic thing) on the walls?

I went to the midnight showing last week, partly because I was up anyway. It wasn't the book, which is one of my favorites. I went in knowing it could never live up to that, and so I wasn't disappointed. Indeed, I found it very entertaining.

The high point for me was the portrayal of the Green Men, almost exactly as I had imagined them. I understand the director was primarily an animation guy, so I suppose this makes sense.

The low point was the performance of the actor who portrayed John Carter. Aside from his just being rather wooden, you know something's off when a character who proclaims himself a Virginian at every possible opportunity is the only character in a scene without a Southern accent. Again, with a director unused to working with live actors, this, too, makes sense.

A disappointing but extremely necessary point to make the movie work were the changes to the villains, Carter's transportation to Mars, and even Carter's backstory. I can't imagine a film audience, or even a literary audience, for that matter, accepting these things in the form Burroughs wrote them originally (villains as almost unnoticeable characters, totally unexplained, and being a mysteriously ageless soldier, respectively, for those who don't know the novels). Story conventions have just changed too much over the past century. I was disappointed to lose the original version here, but I thought the changes were handled well.

On the last point, (the literary) Carter's unexplained agelessness, my personal pet theory has always been that Carter is, in fact, the basis for the legends of the god Mars himself. Burroughs never gives any hint of having even thought of this, let alone written it into a story, but I still enjoy the idea. What do you think?

While I'm not a roleplayer, I do have a number of such "supporting" characters. In the following list, I'm including only characters who appear in more than one bio or AE arc and whose appearances in each one of those can be understood without knowing about the rest of my "player cannon." All the following characters appear only in bio text or, in a couple cases, in AE missions, either by mention or appearance as a contact or other NPC.

Radiant Aurelius, a Legacy Chain Radiant of Light, is the uncle of Zachary Aurelius, a.k.a. my hero, Sidereal Knight. The Radiant appears in both Sidereal Knight's bio and an AE arc. Sidereal Knight is a reluctant mage (he's an astronomer by profession) and reluctant hero, and since his parents are both deceased, his uncle is described as his mentor in the mystic arts. Aurelius was officially assigned by the Legacy Chain to monitor problems related to Dark Astoria. (For use of him in this role, see the AE arc, "The Key and Chain.") Given the current upheaval there, I imagine he's gone missing, and Sidereal Knight is probably looking for him while working on those difficult DA incarnate missions.

Eros, Psyche, and Aphrodite, the god and goddesses from Greco-Roman myth and Apuelius's writings, are the father, mother, and adoptive grandmother of my hero, Kid Eros, and his older sister, the rogue Maiden Bliss. They are mentioned in the appropriate bios.

The Agitator is a nineteenth century villain mentioned in the biographies of several of my Victorian-themed characters. Rather than a frontline fighter, like a player Mastermind, he is a "mastermind" in the more traditional sense of a manipulator behind the scenes. He can apparently create seemingly impossible technology, such as the steam-powered battle suits worn by my villain, Industrial Revolt, and my hero, Particular Lad, and he has some kind of power related to time travel. Not only has he sent at least one character through time; he has already successfully altered history by such deeds as doing away with the existence of Paragon City's original age of heroes in the 1800's, the Constitutional Tsardom of All the Russias, and possibly other historical developments. While his goals remain somewhat mysterious, they appear to involve promoting Communism and eliminating warfare entirely. (My characters have yet to discover his shocking identity; can you guess it, reader?)

Zoetrope, who appears in some AE arcs, is a refugee from Praetoria who leads the only known Crusader cell on Primal Earth, seeking to wipe out Longbow, the hero registration system, any number of villain groups, any Praetorian Loyalist emigres, and anyone who isn't willing to join her cause.

Jordan DeVai is the father of Oliver DeVai, who is also my heroic necromancy mastermind, Citizen Zombie. Jordan is an activist and attorney whose main goal in life is to see the Citizen Crime Fighting Act declared unconstitutional, thus putting an end to "hero violence." When Oliver's ability to communicate with the dead manifested and Oliver chose to use it as a hero, Jordan cut off all contact with him. Jordan appears in Citizen Zombie's bio and in an AE arc.

The Portal Corporation program to investigate Praetoria, while not a "character," is mentioned in several of my characters' biographies to explain the fact that they are Primal Earth characters whom I began playing in Praetoria. It seems likely that Primal Earth would send undercover agents to investigate the situation in a hostile dimension, and I decided that Portal Corp. made a less obtrusive patron than, say, Longbow or Vanguard. I also threw in a mention of this program as a minor clue in an AE arc once.

That's all I can think of offhand.

Any subculture, whether it's an interest-based group like internet forumites, a professional group like doctors, lawyers, or airline pilots, or even a segment of an industry, in this example, develops its own definitions of the thing it does. Sometimes, that includes arbitrary restrictions or attitudes that have nothing to do with its core mission or organizing principles.

"MMO's must force people to team" is one of those things. As Arcanaville notes, nothing in the nature of a multiplayer, online game requires forcing people to operate in groups, but that is the way the genre has evolved and probably the way its producers think without even noticing they're doing so. It doesn't make sense, but it seems unlikely that it'll change any time soon.

Both are fairly short. Both contacts are located in Steel Canyon and can be begun as early as level 15, though a character must be at least 20 to access them via Ouroboros (c.f. Mercedes Sheldon and Darrin Wade's arcs).

I enjoyed both, though I found Graham's (Tsoo) arc a bit quicker and easier than Laura's (5th Column/Council) arc. Laura's arc is very similar in theme and tone to quite a few we've seen recently, notably in Praetoria, but I still enjoyed it. Graham's is less thematically "heavy," being a more action-oriented tale, but also quite enjoyable.

I assumed he kept this stuff in hammerspace ... a term that takes on a whole other set of connotations if you go by the Cracked.com image there.