Party_Kake
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:But that's an awfully shallow perspective. You CAN take a complete set of pre-arranged costume parts that are part of a set and turn them into something completely different, just with color!Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
The reason I see it as a lack of creativity has to do with what I see "creativity" itself as. A creative person is someone who takes parts and tools provided, but creates something new and unique which goes beyond what the creators of the tools and parts envisioned, even if just a little bit. If you literally take exactly what the creators have envisioned and use it exactly as they have envisioned it being used, you are not creative, because you are not creating anything. You are simply using someone else's work wholesale.
This is the difference between character CREATION as we have here and character SELECTION as in a game like Diablo or Dungeon Fighter or Rusty Hearts. There's nothing inherently wrong with selecting a costume someone else made if that's what you want, but I personally see it as uncreative, because it's not, strictly speaking, "your" costume. It's someone else's costume you're borrowing. Someone had to show creativity to make it and put it together, yes, but it simply wasn't you. If you're not interested in creativity or leaving your own mark on your game, then that's fine. To each his own.
However - and this is where my bias comes in - I really have no interest in reusing other people's work. Even when I blatantly rip people off, I still try to inject enough of my own spin on it to make it distinct enough to be my own. I can't feel like I "own" a character if someone else made it for me. The only way I can feel like a character is truly my own is to customize this character in a way that other people won't be likely to replicate at complete random.
That's why costume sets bug me - because I'm never, ever going to use an entire set of anything. I will always try to mix and match between sets, and the easier this is to do, the better I'll like it.
For example:
<-- Party Kake uses the "Blast" look in white, so that her costume looks as close as possible to a layer of mutagenic vanilla frosting. Granted there are variations on her main costume that allow for various glove and boot options, but the rest of it stays. And it works.
That's obviously not the intended manner in which "Blast" is to be used, but hey, it works! And all it is is applied color.
If someone found a way to change the color of the gunslinger/scientist/witch look to make their character look like something else, more power to them! "Green cowboy" counts as creative! -
Quote:When DC started their "New 52" Thing, our local name for the mysterious lady in purple was Carmen SanDiego.Originally Posted by Kitsune9tails
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Still, I wonder if it would be litigious to put a npc named Wally who has big glasses and a striped hat in the game that wanders randomly through zones and awards a badge if clicked on...or a villainess in hat and trenchcoat who dropped miniaturized landmarks if defeated...
I'm sure you could even be as vague as "Lady in Purple" and players would get the reference and it would not be suable. -
Quote:That in my opinion would have made the celestial wings better. Not that they're not cool folded up while not flying, just that seeing them beam out would be pretty epic.Originally Posted by ThePill
I kinda wish they were like path auras, except only on during flight.
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It started off as a joke in a thread in the mastermind forums but has ballooned in-game into a "thing." Every time I mention it someone seems to agree it's awesome.
So the Carnival of Shadows (and Light, and War) exist in the game (and already as part of an Incarnate path power, can be summoned), but what I'm proposing is more of a generic clown, definitely something that a player could SAY was part of the Carnival of choice.
The funniest part of the idea is the concept of the clown car power.
It'd be one of two things:
a) it'd be a travel power that 'stores' your pets in the car, to have everybody pop out at once when you turn it off...
b) It's be a 'gang war' type power, where you target an enemy, summon the clown car, and it weaves around erratically before crashing into that target, only to have a bunch of clowns shamble out of it and start beating them with big rubber mallets. (I suppose use some of the titan weapon animations for that lol)
there could be a giant mallet as the 'weapon' of the set, with perhaps a pie grenade power.
And as an extra added bonus, I hear one of the devs is terrified of clowns. Mwahahaa! -
I enjoy the pieces, but I think out of context they'd be a bit out there.
If I had gone to the store as a kid and seen individual lego pieces I don't think they'd have been as appealing. But seeing a little box with a tiny jail, a pirate, and the parrot on top, for example, makes me see something I want, and the individual pieces I get as a result of that purchase are a bit more friendly.
There was a costume contest last night (I was one of 5 winners on my Titan alt), and a guy made a character named Paying Mantis. Looked like a combination of bug and rich guy, green everywhere, and damn, I've never seen a more compelling argument for the "money flying around behind you" aura. It was brilliant. But a concept like that I don't think could happen if they just released individual parts. Perhaps if it was all just one big mass of "random parts" then it might happen, but I don't think it would work if they made one costume piece at a time and put them in the market or something. -
While I was playing Skyrim I ran across an area labeled "Labyrinth" and explored a little mini-maze that required using magic wands to activate runes, which led to a bossfight and some cool treasure.
It was completely secondary to the game's main goals, and if I had wanted to I could have skipped it entirely and just grabbed the dragon word on the wall behind the labyrinth.
I found it to be loads of fun though. Partly because it was completely voluntary.
If you wanted to make it work in City of Heroes, I'd start by introducing it as a rare possibility in newspaper missions. something like:
Hidden within the mystical Maze of Ka-Ahh lies a secret Circle of Thorns artifact, a small figurine of a rabbit. Venture into the forbidden Maze, locate the rabbit, then leave. your "reveal" power cannot be used here, and powers such as fly, teleport, superjump, and super speed can be used to help you get through the maze faster, but there are no enemies, just the rabbit figurine and the exits. -
Oh wow, if there were NPC's in bases that would open up the opportunity for all sorts of cool stuff. For example I'd enjoy seeing younger, less experienced hero/villain characters that just hung around in the base and made coffee for everyone, complained about "the system," and saluted me as I went past or something, to add to the flavor of the base and whatnot. And if they occasionally walked around and did emotes and stuff that'd be great.
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It would be cool if some characters were randomly left-handed and VIP status bestowed you with the ability to change your character's handedness, but that's not really a significant gain for the effort. Granted there are other things they've done that might seem to be little gain for the effort, but whatever.
changing the damage type by weapon model - that's a bit crazy. costume parts shouldn't be tied to gameplay mechanics.
I have a new titan tanker and a titan brute and they're both loads of fun. -
Quote:That's AWESOME.Originally Posted by Kadmon
That gave me a brilliant idea. A "No weapon" option for the various ranged weapon sets. So you move your arms like you're holding a rifle, but it's the superheroic equivalent of pointing your fingers at someone and saying "POW! I shot you!" Except, instead of them either ignoring you or playing along, they are shot. With bullets.
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I had a very similar problem and fixed it by turning off spybot in the background. I had just installed spybot 2 yesterday and thought that had to be connected somehow.
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Well, psh, believe it or not I found out the cause of the problem.
Apparently when I went to install the newest version of spybot I saw that I was pretty out of date (or so I thought). I installed the newest version of spybot 2, and for some reason it never thought to replace the old version with this one. So both spybot and spybot 2 were running in the background, and I assume (with very high likelihood) that the two programs were competing for attention and trying to do things at the same time.
shutting down spybot 1 in the background resulted in a massive increase in performance. I'll consider this issue solved. -
Quote:This... sounds awesome.Originally Posted by Back_Blast
Well I'm liking that they're listening on this and making changes. I'l agree with the apparent consensus that the costume bits need another way to be aquired outside the packs. I look forward to further developments and the changes so far make it more likely I'll consider buying some now and then.
And a further idea: Since much of the angst I've seen over this comes from the notion they're trying to milk VIPs for more cash, how about a VIP-only perk for the packs? Freems and Preems get the pack as stated now, but VIPs get say, an extra bonus card? Like an extra bonus rare or something. Or a bonus card that is of theoretically any rarity but guaranteed to be a costume part, ATIO, or other desirable item.
Such a thing would help improve the value perception of the packs to VIPs and be an extra little nudge for non-VIPs to become such.
I open a pack, I get more than somebody else? That's amazing. And so simple.
Hmmm... What if they made it where VIP players get access to better versions of costume parts, too? Like, the regular players get just the pre-tinted one, but the VIP players can de-pre-tint the costume parts?
It's so delightfully evil...
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there are certain costume parts that no longer exist, but the game won't change your look without your permission.
so your saved costumes will actually look different. pay close attention to the faces when you do this. sometimes all it is is a renamed face detail, one of the face markings was renamed "fishhook" for females, if you had the previous version, it's actually still in the game you just have to "correct" it.
if your character unlocks a new costume slot, sometimes you'll see an icon on that costume in the costumes window, showing that there's a difference. you can use this as a guide to help you find out what's changed, like I did. -
Quote:Didn't mean to be snarky but I see how you read it.Originally Posted by Bosstone
Haven't got an answer for that, Clever Dan. I don't know how they're intended to work in practice. I'm going off what we were told in a post I remember reading but can't find now, which is why I'm backing off.
Honestly it's a question even I can't answer.
I had assumed these packs were going to be sold to VIPs only, because that just makes sense. no chance of anyone getting things they physically can't use. granted there'll be people who get ATIO's for classes they don't PLAY, but oh well. -
Quote:If a premium player opens 7 packs and gets 7 mastermind ATIOs, what do they do?Originally Posted by Bosstone
Sorry, I don't understand what you're saying here.
A Premium player can buy a Super Pack, open it to find a Brute ATIO, then put that ATIO in their Brute without requiring a license or VIPitude.
Edit: I'll back off on this, actually. I believe it to be true, but I can't find the redname post I swear I remember reading stating as much. -
Psynder I respect that you're good and all at M:tG, maybe even better than me, but keep in mind that this isn't supposed to be the main draw to the game, it's supposed to be a perk for VIPs.
I don't think that a fully functional ccg model is appropriate here because it IS supposed to be a thing that you have to be a VIP to really benefit from. That's what they're trying to do, they're trying to give VIPs something to really make the status symbol worthwhile. -
Quote:It's definitely a good fit for the game. You only need to look as far as "The Tick" to see an appropriate hero-style comic book themed world where it serves as appropriate.Originally Posted by Noble Savage
Because of costume part ideas like brain-in-jar and a possible brainslug, I've started to think a lot more about humorous/silly/kitschy costume themes. Certainly, players have been making their own 'joke' costumes since the game began, and we routinely pick these sorts of things for our costume contest winners (if you make us laugh, you pretty much win). Didn't want to derail the Costume Workshop thread with this, but if any of you would like to discuss, feel free to post here.
--Good fit for the game?
--Something you've always wanted?
That being said, I loved the brain in a jar thing.
Make us an optional "helmet" where you turn the head into a rikti monkey pilot. Like, he's fiddling with levers and stuff to move the character, sort of Men In Black style, where there was that little alien inside a guy's head and he was controlling things? That would be hilarious. Alternatively you could make it Nemesis-themed, because it was a Nemesis plot all along!
And let me be the 4th or 5th or whateverth person to say I love the idea of swinging random people as weapons. Especially for villains. Gravity control already has that power that randomly summons things, does it require a massive amount of animation stuff? or would it be possible to have the titan weapons version randomly choose a ragdoll person to use as a weapon when you first draw the weapon? -
I had some issues with the pdfforge toolbar trying to change my default search engine, and installed the new spybot-s&d and ran it to clear my computer of any nefarious spyware, and was pleased that so little existed.
However, after that, I started up CoX and checked in on a few characters and got into a low level mission team on some alts, and it may be something on my end and it may be the new patch, but there seems to be some sort of massive memory leak causing some severe texture issues and massive lag spikes. As in:
I turn my camera to the right and it's 1-2 seconds before the game is playable again.
Sometimes when too many textures would load at the same time, the game simply does not show them or doesn't show them properly.
Sometimes an in game object such as my character is invisible unless there's an object behind her, as though she's become a transparent overlay or the floor is now showing above her.
I casually mentioned this while we were grouped for the positron trial, and another player mentioned they were having the same issues. So I decided to come here and ask.
Is this a new thing players are experiencing in game? Could something be causing it that's not on my end? -
Quote:That's interesting.Originally Posted by Aggelakis
The ATEs will be tradeable (though the Superior/upgraded versions will not)
Seems like a new thing that might work. You offer the lesser versions of the store bought stuff to be traded around so that anyone can get them and see what they're like. That seems like it would be a good way to spread the word about them and to advertise the value of the upgraded ones. -
Do you auto-fail the trial if a civilian dies? That's lame.
They're the bad guys anyway, they shoulda voted for the other guy.
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Every time you use the ability on an enemy, 1/10 of their friends die.
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According to your definition of gambling, #6 can be used to describe any activity at all, including deciding whether or not to get out of bed in the morning.
And "anything of value" describes anything made out of matter or energy. Thus, something as simple as breathing would constitute gambling, in a bizarre, nobody's actually going to bother analyzing the atomic structure of a human to calculate out how many atoms are wasted in the process of converting oxygen to carbon dioxide, kind of way. -
Quote:Which ones? pardon my ignorance.Originally Posted by Aggelakis
On the contrary, you can trade some of the stuff.
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Quote:Well, firstly, thanks for being civil, I appreciate that.Originally Posted by Snow Globe
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People don't want to pay real money for a gamble on virtual items. However it goes deeper than that. The packs were made to entice more money from VIPs than their subscription. They were designed to make players buy what they weren't buying before: consumable items. Zwillinger said as much:
As a player myself, I have to say I like the idea of having something I can spend points on on a regular basis, and if there's a "pack" of stuff that I can just dump points into, a perk for being a vip, that nets me stuff I WOULD want, like costume parts or costume change emotes or auras or enhancements, or temporary powers like the self-rez or the instacast mission teleporter, that would be great. but I can't visualize them restricting the number of those I can purchase weekly, which would be the only way to avoid the ccg state and prevent me from exhausting its value as a point sink real fast.
It's important to note that M:tG when it was still in its infancy was a very aggressive CCG concept that showed no mercy for players who weren't good at math and statistics. Some of those cards are now worth truly obscene amounts of money. Today, even M:tG is much, much more user friendly, with pre-built, decent playable tournament decks on sale (called Event Decks) that eliminate the need for doing a lot of strategy before you can jump into a tournament environment to see how it's played at a competitive level.Quote:The problem is that the consumables aren't incentive enough for players to buy them. So they targeted VIPs with items they wanted to get (ATOs and costumes) and put them in with the consumables. Players called them out on it.
I first started computer programming in 1982. I've developed computer programs that are similar to the Super Packs. I've spent thousands of dollars on collectible card games. I don't really have to assume anything as experience has provided lessons as to what will happen. From those lessons, I know that I will avoid the packs. From those lessons, I know what will happen to others that will go after the items in the packs.
I've no doubt in my mind that these super packs will take that into account. They'll probably release the packs as they are, let people collect a few, then after a while see if the response was good and offer a way to purchase single parts at elevated prices, essentially the same way you can go to a local comic shop and purchase the magic singles you want (if they're in stock).
the upside is you don't have to worry about inflation of demand, nor storage requirements (lol), nor limited supply.