Paladin_Musashi
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:I pretty much ignore the setting blue side and red side. I think the storylines in this game are pretty thin, bordering on pathetic. The amount of input we have into those storylines in terms of what our actions actually affect is nil. It's not fun. If that was all there was to the game I'd hang up my cape and quit. Seriously.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
See, this I can roll with, but it still leaves me wondering about one particular detail. Yes, if you view the entire game as little more than a backdrop, then I can see putting heroes in the Isles as a possibility, but then wouldn't it make sense to pick the most appropriate backdrop? Yes, I realise some heroes need to exist among villainy and scum, but the backdrop in question is less "location" and more "intent." If the game actually accounted for people being heroes in the isles and had actual heroic, or even semi-heroic missions available there (Hardcase notwithstanding, one contact does not a game make), then I could easily see that. But it doesn't provide anything of the sort.
City of Villains' entire narrative is geared towards villains. And it's not just the grandstanding storyline or the specific mission goals. All the little flavour text exudes this. Every little detail paints our characters as callous, sycophantic, violent slime whose only goal in life is to get "brownie points with the Spiders" as a common paper mission puts it. I can kind of see a villain who goes along with this but has an agenda. But once you start putting a hero through this, either you have to basically ignore the entire settings, which makes me ask why not just go hero-side in this case (Kings Row, Independence Port, Brickstown and others are as crime-ridden as the Isles), or you end up with something skirting the line in a BIG way.
Luckily, I find the actual smashing of the bad guys entertaining. So I pretty much don't even read the text the contacts give. When I'm scanning the paper or the radio I pretty much automatically see nothing but objective and enemy group. After that I make up my own story. The game is vastly more fun that way.
But also, I hardly ever do missions from the static contacts anymore. My blue side characters do the sewers and then run radio missions and AE missions until 50, unless I feel like doing Task Forces. Red side, I pretty much run nothing but paper and AE missions, and hang out in RWZ and Cim where I can team up with other heroes a lot. I make a lot of my own little story arcs in the AE and play them out.
I honestly don't see the point in subjecting myself to substandard, completely non-interactive storytelling. But that's just me. -
Quote:Why go against the grain? I think the problem we have in communicating here is that there are two fundamentally different paradigms for how to view a game like this. Camp A will feel that a game is a story being told by a third person storyteller, that everyone should play by the rules and go along with that.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
I'm not trying to criticise other people's characters, even if I don't happen to agree with the general idea behind some. I'm just more curious why people consistently go against the grain of the game, as while there aren't any stated rules, the design behind the systems isn't hard to see. If you have your reasons, then that's just fine. I have no problem with that. I wouldn't quite run things the same as you do, but then I don't pay your subscription
Camp B sees the game as a backdrop, ATs and powersets and such merely colors in their paintbox, and their fun is to make up their own story.
I know which camp I'm in personally. Without an actual live game master, you can't have anything even remotely approaching the interactivity of a true tabletop RPG session. As such, I feel we are each our own game master in our own solo campaigns. Other people obviously feel the devs are the game masters and we should follow their campaign. But honestly, I'd have put the game down years ago if that were all there were to do with it. -
Quote:What server are you playing on that you're having trouble putting an ITF together?Originally Posted by Scarlet Shocker
Let's try a different scenario:
The OP is trying to form an ITF team but is struggling to fill the slots.
FF Defender says "I'll join"
OP forms team, TF starts.
Build: Irrelevant -
Quote:It's the ATs. Most of my redside characters are years old. I built them before there was any statement that we'd definitely be getting to switch sides. And well, there's still no side switching yet. If I want to play with the redside ATs I have to do it redside. And I'll keep doing so until GR goes live and then they'll all go vigilante.
Pissing contests aside, I really have to ask this question, and please give me an honest answer: When there is a City of Heroes as part of the same game, why insist on making heroes in the City of Villains where they don't go by design? The narrative just doesn't support it as well as it does in City of Heroes.
Is it the ATs? Those will cross over soon. Is it the settings? City of Heroes has plenty of run-down slims, too. What can you get in City of Villains that you can't get in City of Heroes that a hero would need?
I'm not some kind of prude who insists that people should play how I say they should play, but it just seems to make sense to do this. Why hammer a square peg in a round hole? Why take an AT and try to make it do something it's not supposed to do when there's an AT designed to do what you want? Why order an item off the menu, but request so many changes that you end up describing another item in the same menu? Why go out of your way to cheat the system when you're doing something the system actually permits and even encourages you to do, anyway?
The ATs are just numbers and powers to me. The concept is something entirely mine, and I'll bend whatever I need to to make it work. -
See, some of us believe game mechanics are just game mechanics, and (should) have nothing to do with roleplay. It's easy to play a hero red side. Most of the missions you're given are to beat up bad guys, after all. It's easy to skip the ones that aren't, and ignore contacts like Phipps.
It's extra-trivial for my zombie mastermind, since he can even do things like mayhems... "Drea the Hook sent me to take the money the bad people have in the vault here. Drea's nice to me, so I know he wouldn't send me to do something bad. He told me these guys cheated lots of people out of their money and got rich doing it, and it's only right that we take it away and give it to the people who really need it!"
I've never had a team that didn't find this hilarious and play along
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I'm with the OP. If I'd been team leader I'd have given her the boot immediately (At least, as soon as I was able to /info her and see her gimpy build). Sure, the ITF is easy, but if people are forming a team to run it then they're after exp/inf/merits/whatever and nobody wants to have to do it slower because the team's only defender can't pull his/her weight.
If the difference is doing the thing in 30-45 minutes, or taking an hour or more, I'm gonna boot the sucker and get us someone who's more likely to let us destroy everything faster. If I just wanted to chat with fun people I'd hang out in Pocket D or something.
I don't care what you want to build. But if you're joining my team you'd better have a build that's not skipping powers that are extremely beneficial to the team.
If I'd been team leader and the defender had made that "Oh, but I tank so well when I'm solo with this build!" remark, I'd have said "Fine, go solo then" and booted her. Not like it's ever hard to find a replacement player for an ITF. -
My SG on redside (I have my own personal one-man SGs on both sides) is called something like "Rogue Isles Heroes". I just like the redside ATs, I have little or no interest in playing a "bad guy".
Most of my redside toons are openly heroes in RP. One of them is just a kid, raised by zombies, ghouls, and ghosts, who is so innocent and naive he thinks everyone he teams with over there is a hero. That one's fun to play
I have one toon who's actually trying to take over the world, but even he's not really cruel or mean or nasty in any way. He's honestly trying to make the world a better place... He just thinks he needs to run it to fix it
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Quote:See, I always take that as a sign that a movie might actually be worth watching. It's not 100% reliable, some movies have the shock value and nothing else... But movies that don't make anyone rant and denounce them are almost always not worth the time it takes to watch themOriginally Posted by dbuter
Believe me, I've already heard some minor rumblings. When this comes out, especially if it does well, all kinds of pundits will be wringing their hands and crying about "the children"
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Wow. I have to admit, I had no idea what this thread was about when I read it. Tonight I went to see Shutter Island, which was pretty good, downer ending, some really overdramatic music in inappropriate places, but otherwise good... Anyway that's beside the point. Before the movie, there was a preview for Kick-*** the movie. I only caught a little glimpse of the end of the preview really, and thought "Hey, that looks fun/cute". It was not the red band trailer.
I got home, did a search for upcoming movies, figured out what it was (I hadn't caught the name from the preview) and did a search for "kick-***". I got the wikipedia article about the comic book. My eyebrows went through the ceiling. I have to admit I haven't been following comic books in years, so I'd not seen or heard about this.
I watched the trailer online. I watched the red band trailer. I went out and got the comic. I'm stunned that it got published, and even more stunned that it got picked up as a movie. Stunned in a good way, because usually I'd expect knee-jerk reaction from the public, or anticipation of such by the movie studios to prevent it from ever being greenlighted.
I've made a note on my calendar and I intend to see it on opening day. -
Erm... Nerd raging? I'm not even a little upset. You're the one who's being emotional. Hence "cry moar".
I like how you snipped the substance of the post so you wouldn't have to address actual numbers though.
Tell me again, who's tacitly admitting they're wrong? -
Quote:Cry moar. Seriously, if you could 6 stack the -dmg in chem rounds it would be seriously overpowered. A Defender would be able to stack 75%(!) -dmg debuff on a target. A Corruptor would be able to put 60% on. Not counting stacking with 'Fender primaries or Corr secondaries.Originally Posted by Silverado
Triple stacking, while good, is still comparatively crappy when you have sets such as Ice Blast (as I mentioned earlier) that can stack their secondary effects up to 6x (using all 3 ST blasts) and Sonic Attacks (using the first two blasts), which when paired with a set like Cold, Rad or Traps is *MUCH* more effective. It's not a matter of building your toon right (as there are no enhancements that reduce animation time), it's a matter of DP being a comparatively crappy set with crappy damage and crappy secondary effects; crappiness accentuated by the long animations.
A DP/Dark Corr would be able to apply 90% dmg debuff. A Dark/DP Defender could floor a character's dmg by himself. That's way, way too powerful. The effect would have to be nerfed.
As it stands, a Dark/DP 'fender can slap a target with a -75% damage debuff. If that's too weak for you, then I just can't help you.
In short, get over it... The animations are long. If you don't like it, play a different set, end of story. -
Quote:Seriously. The only reason a guy would take that stance would be that he clearly can't prevent himself from hitting on females otherwise. Personally I'm going to treat you like your character's gender because I don't care what your real life gender is. It's likely never going to matter to me in any way.Originally Posted by NekoNeko
You know what's easier on my time? Treating what looks like a girl like a girl and what looks like a guy like a guy.
I've heard this LAME concept before ("I'll just assume everyone is a guy"), and it makes me wonder if the person spouting it has other issues that generally make him uncomfortable around females or is more comfortable with his own gender, and THAT's why he'd rather treat everyone as a guy, so he could avoid interacting in any way with females ("gasp!").
I'm sorry, but I'm female (I only have ONE male character out of dozens), and I'd like to be treated that way. If that bothers you sooooo much, you're welcome to stay far away from me.
And people that go "lol I'm a guy" when I call them she/her/ma'am/whatever I just ignore and go on calling them by their character's gender, because I'm here to interact with your character, not with you. -
Quote:Oh please. If all you care about is shutting down their damage, sure. But Stun does not immobilize, while Hold does. This is a very important and not at all insignificant distinction, particularly since the issue with enemies staggering away at light speed is still around.
Both incapacitate the enemy and prevent them from retaliating, saying one is inferior to the other is simply absurd.
If you built your toon right, you should be able to triple stack it consistently, which is quite a significant debuff from a Defender or Corruptor. Paired with a set like Dark or Rad, well, it's very, very good.Quote:That's about the only advantage it has as a Blast set. Still, the set doesn't allow you to stack too much -dmg because of the long animations (compared to say, Ice Blast whose secondary effect can be stacked relavitely high) -
Stun != Hold. The former is significantly inferior to the latter.
And the debuffs are amazing because of the fact that you can choose which to use. And stackable -dmg is not something that is available from most anywhere else. -
The numbers are all that really matter. Also, DP has a ton of utility. The debuffs are amazing for both Corruptors and Defenders, and help a little for Blasters. And it has a hold, which is pretty rare on a blast set, actually.
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Yes they are. We've already established that DP isn't the weakest set. As long as it's neither the weakest nor the strongest, it's fine. Even if it's the second weakest.
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Quote:Why not?Originally Posted by Silverado
Nobody's saying it should be, but I also don't think the set should be so near the bottom (or right at the bottom).
Yes, I am serious.
The sets will never be perfectly balanced. Given that the existing sets are (IMO) balanced well enough to be getting on with, any new set should fall in the middle somewhere, and not be worse than the weakest or better than the strongest.
As long as those qualifications are met, it's fine.
For Aim to provide a 30% overall DPS boost, with a 30% uptime, it would have to give a 100% damage buff, which it doesn't.Quote:Originally Posted by Silverado
Swap Ammo can raise damage potential up to 30%, while Aim has an uptime of about 30% on a modest recharge build, so it kinda evens out. -
Meh. Don't really care. It works fine for me, solo, in groups, no problems anywhere. I kept hearing all this wailing and gnashing of teeth from the Blaster players, and I was a bit apprehensive to try an actual DP blaster as opposed to my Corruptors who were just sick and wrong (But that could always be down to the fact that /dark and /rad make anything awesome), but honestly he's one of the best performing blasters I've rolled.
Not that I roll many blasters. I can't stand the Aim+BU+NUKEITDIEDIEDIE! playstyle. I almost always take /devices on a blaster for that reason, and I did so with my pistols blaster, and he's more than fine.
On par with my Archery/Devices blaster, maybe slightly less damage, but more utility so... -
Meh. I don't get the complaints, really. I find it's a good AoE set, with ok single target capability, plus a hold (Or stun, if you use the sad lethal ammo). It has utility, and the AoE damage has been pretty good for me so far with my Blaster (I only ran Corrs in beta).
Ran two TFs today, back to back... I know, full teams, blah blah. But the teams were actually mixed ATs and power sets. Lots of people refuse to prepurchase for whatever reason, especially on Virtue. Point is I was noticing with my "pathetic" dual pistols that I was the primary damage dealer, particularly once I SO'd out at level 22. Empty Clips followed by Bullet Rain tended to kill the minions in most spawns outright, and they were generally yellow con for me.
So I can't see anything wrong with the set. -
Quote:You rang?Originally Posted by Human_Being
Okay, I've been fighting the urge to do this for hours, but I've got to...
COBRA!!!!
His name is Serpent Supreme
And this is the inevitable Shadow homage:
I also have a couple of gunslinger types, but they make me sad because the revolver models in the game kind of... well... suck, to be frank. -
Quote:No. I have a colossal, and not at all concealed disdain for those who piss on the fun of others by calling it "farming" or "PLing" and telling us that we should go play this "real game" in their words.Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
Okay, we get it. You've never liked the game, and you have a colossal, barely-contained disdain for anybody who does.
I haven't the slightest care in the world how anyone else plays the game. But some people just can't be happy unless they make anyone who doesn't agree with them miserable by whining until the devs nerf or eliminate things.
Oh, I'm sorry. You're totally right. The word temporary totally makes ill-conceived knee-jerk fixes ok. The fact that there's no timetable mentioned for a better fix, or that, indeed, they are apparently barely in the discussion phase of how to go about such a fix is entirely irrelevant because the word temporary fixes everything.Quote:Originally Posted by Ironblade
I'm guessing you missed the part where Horatio said TEMPORARY.
Hi, I'm going to change the locks on your house and not give you a key. But don't worry it's temporary.
Sorry, patience is not a virtue. The patient get exploited. Persistence is a virtue, but that's an entirely different animal from patience. -
TF's and Radio missions have pretty much always been the only things that kept me interested. And I do take breaks. Generally months long breaks, which is why I only have about 30 months of vet badges when I've been playing since release.
I've pretty much always hated the "real game" as some purists would like to call it. The regular contact missions in this game are tedious and awful. I was running TFs the moment they were available, and I could never understand the people whining about how they were too long and boring. To me they were finally something halfway fun in the game.
When they introduced radio missions I was overjoyed because the "real content" that so many people seem to gush over is so damn idiotic to me. But that didn't keep me interested more than a few months at a time, off and on.
AE farms kept me captivated for pretty much the entire time the AE was around. Awesome fun, purple enemies that can two shot any squishy, not a single wimpy minion in sight, no waiting between bad guy bashing sessions, no fedex, no nothing. And enough exp flowing that I didn't get bored going days without getting a new power.
Remove the AE farms, and I've been doing pretty much nothing but TFs and the occasional AE team (Not farms, per se, because you can't farm with an 8 person team anymore, and it's boring with just a few people) or radio team.
Nerf TFs so that I can't fight purples in them and there's just very little of interest left for me. -
Wonderful. No AE Farms, no invinc TFs. Nothing fun left
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I don't think it would work. There's too many weird things in the setting. The hospital teleporters that make it so no one can die, ubiquitous healers, ressurection powers... The list goes on and on.
Not to mention that there's very little point in designing a setting to accomodate thousands and thousands of heroes when you're running a game for 4-10 people. That just makes them less special. -
I had no position on this issue, until the other day, at around level 16 or 17, having done the sewers, missions, and radio missions to get there... I got the pop up message "You have just received your first piece of invention salvage..."