Pax__

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Even [1:1,000,000,000,000,000,000] is going to be infinitely better than no chance at all - even [0:2]. Always.

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Maybe I misunderstood but I thought that you did have a 1:1,000,000,000,000,000,000 chance of getting story arc awards from bad guys, it's just that story arcs give a guaranteed drop from the rare pool.

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No.

Current design is like this:
[*] Pool A - Defeating enemies, and by no other means[*] Pool B - Completing Story Arcs, and by no other means[*] Pool C - Completing Task Forces / Strike Forces, and by no other means[*] Pool D - Completing Trials, and by no other means

There is no overlap between any of the four pools. Pool A contains the great majority of all possible drops - so MOST things can come from just defeating enemies.

But there will be a few things that ONLY come from Story Arcs ... a few more that ONLY come from Strike Forces and Task Forces ... and a few more that ONLY come from Trials.

Pools A, C, and D are fine - it's all fully-repeatable content.

Pool B, however, is nonrepeatable. If you've already done it when I9 goes live, then you have LOST that chance to get whatyou want. If you've done ALL of the story arcs you're able to access, you will NEVER get anything from Pool B. EVER ...!

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Random suggestion via Quick Reply: Treat Mayhem/Safeguard mission completion the same as Plot Arc completion for Recipie/Salvage drops.

- Jock Tamson, Who is full of ideas.

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Like Story Arcs, you can not currently exempt down do to Mayhems/Safeguards as the mission holder. If I, as a level 50, want the Taunt bonus that comes only from a level 30 IO Set and go to Bricks/St.Martial, the newspaper/scanner won't give me missions. And so, they'd have to implement Flashback for Mayhems/Safeguard... to much coding in too short a time. Not an option.

In fact, speaking of coding....

Any solution will have to be a database adjustment solution in order for the solution to be out in time for I9. Any proposal that requires game coding is off the table. So, everyone, please stop dreaming up new content or mechanics... it ain't going to happen.

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Simple. DON'T PUT A LOWER-LEVEL LIMIT ON MAYHEM AND SAFEGUARD MISSION RECIPE DROPS.

You're level 38, doing a 35-40 Mayhem? The drop could be ANY Rare recipe in Pool B, from level 10 to 40.

Sure, the odds of gettign EXATLY what you want are lower. But the odds of getting something you have otherwise outlevelled are infinitely higher.

Even [1:1,000,000,000,000,000,000] is going to be infinitely better than no chance at all - even [0:2]. Always.

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I actually have had significant luck in cooping through the Hollows, Faultline (especially Faultine), Striga, Croatoa, and other zones.

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Nature of the ZONE, not the game. Try doing the same outside those zones, in COH. It won't be as easy.

No.

But it stops the "OMGZORZ! IT CAN BE SOLOED! NERF EVERYONE!" issue.

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Does that 30-40 minutes include the time it took you to get Shivan's and/or nukes? If not, how long do you spend in prep time before each of these solo runs?

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A Shivan takes me about 10 minutes to get. That also comes with 5 charges or 5 runs. Additionally, I VERY RARELY use nukes. (They do take a lot of time)

The COV respec Trial I beat with just a Shivan. Same with the 25-30 Strikeforce (Renault)

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Solution: PREVENT EARNING A MISSION COMPLETE BONUS FOR ANY TRIAL, TASK FORCE MISSION, OR STRIKE FORCE MISSION IF ONLY ONE MEMBER OF THE TEAM IS ONLINE AND ON THE MAP WHEN THE OBJECTIVES ARE MET ...!!

Now, you CAN'T solo them - you HAVE to have two or more people online, and on the relevant map - which sets the spawn sizes accordingly. Problem solved.

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This, at least, I can give you good news about: it's possible to join someone else's mission, Exemplar down to them (paying off extra debt in the process, or making more INF if you haven't any debt to pay off) ... and get the badge, even if it's not your mission.

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I understand, but as I noted in my post, the first requires you to *find* someone with the mission. You have to sit in the zone and it can take hours before someone gets the mission and is willing to invite you, and that assumes they know you want it, and to do that you have to spam the broadcast channel, and... Sigh. There HAS to be a better way. And by better I mean "Gives me the opportunity to play, rather than spend my time begging others to be allowed to play".

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There are global and server-wide channels for badge-hunting. Ther eare server-specific forums on this site. Get the word out that you're looking - you don't have to stand there waiting, you could try and schedule somethign beforehand.

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Paragon wiki. They mysteriously got all kinds of sets and what they do up there. It states all teh snipe sets are snipe/AS sets

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In turn, they got their information fom the leak on the U.K. boards, several months ago.

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Sting of the Manticore, for example, only works in Snipe or Assassin Strike powers (which I believe makes Stalkers the only AT that can slot it TWICE ).

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I hate to disappoint Stalkers out there, but Sting of the Manticore can only be slotted into Sniper powers, not Assassin Strikes. I don't know where that rumor started.

Assassin Strikes can slot in sets that are made for Single Target Melee powers.

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I suggest it would be a good idea to add a set or two meant specifically for Assassin Strikes - stuff with good Intrrupt Reduction, like the Sniper sets have. Presuming you haven't, already.

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2. Repeatable Story Arcs for 50s (shard, mayhems, whatevers) -- Not a solution for picking up a level 30 set for that coveted special bonus or proc only available to that level 30 set.

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Possible if instead of setting a lower limit on the drops, each range only bumps the upper limit.

Also if the "alternate" method of Pool B is a once a day Safeguard/Mayhem reward they can set up a "reward pool" specifically for it allowing any reward that can be used by a level 50.

And people call me pessimistic .

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Heck.

Make the Mayhe/Safeguard reward pool have no lower limit EVER, at all character levels. Some of us PRE-50 folks are already feeling the pinch of having outlevelled some sets we want (my MM is 32, and wants the Commanding Presence set, which is currently listed as a 10-30 set).

It's not just 50's that need alternate access to "Pool B" recipes. ^_^

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Whatever the solution, I do hope it's generalized enough to deal with a related problem: Accolades which require a badge which is in turn granted in a specific mission.

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This, at least, I can give you good news about: it's possible to join someone else's mission, Exemplar down to them (paying off extra debt in the process, or making more INF if you haven't any debt to pay off) ... and get the badge, even if it's not your mission.

It's not just level 50's that're facing troubles from the nonrepeatable nature of story arcs. The solution should not focus solely or exclusively upon them.

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The issue with Safeguard/Mayhem missions dropping from the Story Arc Pool would seem to be that it would make salvage that would seem to be meant to be relatively rare common as Hydrogen. As mentioned in another thread, how about limiting Story Arc drops in Safegard/Mayhems to once per day? This would provide a repeatable source of Story Arc drops, but the limit technology would keep the farming relatively low.

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Seems reasonable. They can limit the number of times you get SHO from the LRSF this way, I would think that might be something they could apply to recipes.

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Yes, once per day - and make it a choice: a new contact or, once per day, a Story-Arc List Recipe.

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* Some of the sets (the rarer ones), have parts of them that are only attainable by completing a Story Arc.

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What does that mean to a level 50 character, who not only has completed every Story Arc possibly available to them, but is also low on INF due to funding their SG (as Statesman and Positron expect them to) and/or working hard for Prestige on behalf of their SG ...?

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* There are different pools every 5 levels, to conicide with the recipes that are available at those levels.

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This means that, if you have already outlevelled the top point at which a particular type of IO shows up, you can never get that recipe for yourself. As these are part of sets you have yourself already described as "rarer than the rest" - essentially, the recipes are ultra-rare. That means prices in the Astronomically Huge department.

How will a mere 30 or 35 afford those?

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Now I hear you guys... you all seem to dislike the Story Arc aspect of this system. I've had some discussions with the team yesterday about what we could do instead, and still keep the flavor of the four pool system, because having the extra three pools allows us to not only reward risk/reward, but time/reward as well. Takes longer to do a Task Force? Here's a nice bonus you can't get anywhere else. Finish the Respec trial, but already have all your Respecs? Here's a nice reward that carries with it some good inherent value.

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A perfect solution has already been suggested, at least for the level 50 heroes: Safeguards and Mayhems should at least have a CHANCE of dropping a rare recipe. Essentially, each Safeguard and Mayhem is an un-scripted "arc" of missions, with a definitive end-point.

...

Quite frankly, you (or the rest of the team) will have to make a definitive list of what sets have a component in "Pool B", nd what level ranges that component is available in. If ANY of those sets is, thus, in a position where you can reach a level where it stops being available by your own activities, THIS IS AN UNACCEPTIBLE FLAW.

Either you have to look at retroactive rewards based on existing souvenirs, OR, you will have to spread those limited recipes upwards through subsequent pools.

Or come up with some other means of acquiring out-levelled Recipes. You never know, after all, if an EXISTING character might want to complete a set that is, at least nominally, "beneath their level".

...

At present, I remain unsubscribed, based on your post.

Well, I'm not up for making more alts and joining a new VG, but I have some ideas for you.

First suggestion: post screenshots of the costumes you have in mind. Photobucket offers free image hosting, it's where I put all my stuff.

Second suggestion: how about allowing the secondary color to differ, based on archetype? Pick one color per archetype, and allow those - with White being a general, SG-mode-only "anyone can wear this" color? As an idea:

<ul type="square">[*] Brute - Red[*] Corruptor - Green[*] Dominator - Blue[*] Mastermind - Gold / Yellow[*] Stalker - Black[/list]
The Brute, Corruptor, and Dominator form an RGB triplet - like the picture elements in a cathode-ray tube TV screen. MMs get Gold 'cause the archetype is into the "command authority" schtick, and Stalkers get Black 'cause it's a covert-ops sort of color.

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==Mastermind Tactics: Ruthless is Your Watchword==
There are four keybinds I have found to be invaluable. I do not use the macros provided in the beginning and instead bind what I find useful. Alter the buttons to suit yourself:

[...]

And finally:

/bind t "petcom_all goto agg" - If you can't see around a corner or up a cave, you send in your mechanical slayers ahead of you, but only slightly. This is to be done as a last resort. Clustered flamethrowers will be your downfall, well, not yours, but your robots' downfall if this is handled badly. This bind allows you to target an area and direct your mechanons to advance to that spot and shoot anything moving.[/color]

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Obviously, this unit is in possession of more advanced software than yourself. That software is exemplified by an improved variant of this keybinding:

/bind Lcontrol+Lbutton "petcom_all goto aggressive"

With a simple control-click - a single control-interface action - the same directive is issed to all subordinate units ... rather than requiring a seperate "keyboard" and subsequent "mouse" action.

OOC translation: try this hybrid KB+mouse bind; it greatly speeds up the use of "goto/aggressive" commands.

.... and some parting advice to lesser control-units:

Item one: Detention Field is your friend. Empathic heroes are not. Introduce your friend to the Empathic heroes, I am sure they will get along very nicely - and the Empath's team-mates will certainly find interesting ways to express the joy their compatriot's newfound contentedness will cause them to feel.

OOC Translation: make strategtic use of Detention Field to put Heroic healers into the "penalty box" when engaged in PVP; teams with a Healer aboard often come to rely on those green numbers, and merely causeing their sudden cessation can break their morale, and allow you to seize the initiative.

Item two: There is only one organic mind that a Mastermind should ever respect - Sun Tzu. Read his writings. Learn them. Internalise them. Apply them.

OOC Translation: seriously. Sun Tzu is the True Font of Wisdom, when it comes to tactical and strategic brilliance. ^_^

A little background on the RP-ish text above
Core Dump is a robot himself; an advanced AI system, intended for Police and Prison work; his prime directive, installed during his Field Testing, was "eliminate all crime, at the source where possible".

His AI was .... damaged (cause unspecified), and interpreted "the source of crime" to be humanity itself, and beyond that, all organic life. Thus, he has taken it upon himself to eradicate humanity and all other nonmechanoid beings from the face of the planet; only when the world is controlled by a Machine Utopia, will his "work" finally be complete. ^_^

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(Quick Reply)
Just to clear up:
No, we're not discussing any changes to Shivan's or the Warburg Nukes at this time. Shivan's are easier to get than anticipated, but even that is not likely to be changed in the near future. My original post was meant to show that we knew how these powers were being used -- and that is all.

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For starters - just cut it down to 3 uses per acquisition. That might go a long way to solving any problems.

For seconds - limit it to three acquisitions, EVER. That should finish up the job.

^_^

Global: *Pax Arcana
Gender: Male
Age: ... older than I'd like to be, but not quite old enough to complain about it. ^_^;;
Born: Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Currently: Lowell, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Joined COH: September, '05 - about two days after I5, heh!
SG Affiliation: (none on Infinity)
Most Recognizable Server Toon: Core Dump - Mastermind, Robo/FF

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I think the survey is flawed. PvE should have been an option. the closest answer to it would be specific mobs. Man i hate that term "mobs" and why are highest two choices over 200 percent? what kind of percentage breakdown is that?

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They're not over 100%.

See Costumes? Right now, it reads "704 39%". That's not "70,439%" ... that's "704 votes, comprising 39% of the total responses so far".

Costumes for me; Storylines are second place, and Badges third.

I put Story in second place only beause, as a veteran RPGamer, I can make my OWN stories - and COX at least doesn't actively "get in the way" of that.

I put Badges in third becausae I just like collectible stuff - but if that was ALL the game was about, I'd think it sucked, so ... ^_^

...

But the Costume editor here is VASTLY superior to anything you can get ANYwhere else - no exceptions!

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The solution is simple. Personal player housing through SG bases.


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Great minds think alike. Posi and I have been talking about this for awhile.

Here's the not so simple bit: the tech. But it's an interesting idea that we're wrangling at the moment.

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As for tech? You know those "personal items" ...? LEt people put one in, which is an entrance to ... *drum roll* ... their SEPERATELY-acquired, built, and maintained "personal apartment".

But as others have said: that's not going to solve anything. At all.

Access is the first point - cutting some of an SG's membership out of the loop WRT actually using, or even looking at the "group space" is like shooting yourself in the foot ... and then complaining that you have a limp!

Cost is the next point - cut the cost of purely decorative spaces and things. Drastically. If a space is going to be completely and purely SOCIAL in use ... it should have a cost that is, in fact, purely social - "join a group". That includes after-the-fact stuff (RENT), too.

Those are the big two.

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I'd be up for that. Pre 41 is when both sides are more balanced, so that's not a bad idea really. Anything past that you see the pure difference between the villains and the heroes. No matter what you guys try to believe, villain PPPs are just horrible in comparison to the hero epics.

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Maybe, then, what the developers SHOULD do is "instant 49's" ...? (I say 49, to avoid possible issues with making Kheldians ... let's restrict the test to the "core ten" archetypes for now, yes?)

No, seriously. Let everyone make a level 49 character - and for the villains, sidestep the missions for a patron, just have the patrons there to talk to and grab PPP access from.

Then, let folks out to have unmitigated FUN ... while the developers quietly datamine to see if the PPPs are, or are not, actually balanced.

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Bingo! That was the point of my presentation; that the cost exceeds perceived value. The current ability to customize a social space for one’s Super Group isn’t thought to be high enough to justify the Prestige amounts.

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As a suggestion or two?

One ... the Decorative stuff is, really, pretty much "pointless" in terms of Base Raiding - rooms, items, everything of that nature. Seriously. So - drop THOSE prices through the floor. Cut them by 90% of current ... at least then, yes, there'd be a reason for bases to be used for social purposes.

Two ... and please keep it firmly in mind, that I'm saying this as someone who has both COH and COV ... open up SG bases to non-COV-owners, in COH. Restrict teleporters, medical bays, enhancement stations, and worktables to those of us who own COV. Restrict base-Editting the same way. But at least let the COH-only folks in to look, yes?

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But costumes don’t provide ANY gameplay function – and people care a WHOLE lot about them?

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Simple psychology, there, States: the costume represents the fictionalised "self", the base does not. Ergo, a costume is more directly tied to one's sense of self-identity when playing the game; it literally IS a "costume" that we "wear" while visiting Paragon, or the Rogue Isles.

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My point: bases cost too much for what players think they deliver. What they currently deliver is the ability to create a social space for Super Groups that’s potentially customizable to the group’s theme/background/etc.

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That potential is hindered by locking out non-COV-owners.

Case in point - on Freedom, I'm part of a supergroup "Young Paragons" ... sort of a "Teen Titans" affair, with characters generally between thirteen and nineteen years old. We HAVe a base - with a surprising amount of non-window-dressing function, actually ... medbay, storage, enhancement stations, and a pretty much COMPLETE heroside Teleporter setup.

We have meetings, twice a week - Sundays and Tuesdays (any chance of a cameo appearance, by the way? Someof us have RP-based connections to one or another ofthe Phalanx after all - check my avatar, for one ... heh). We do NOT meet in our base, though ... even though that'd be the best, most logical place for us TO meet.

Not everyone owns COV. And most don't care to play villains, so ALL they'd get for COV? A few character slots, and being able to go inside the base. Not worth it to them.

So we have to meet elsewhere - the Steel Canyon campus of the University, as it happens. It's the easiest and most convenient congregation-point for our broad range of levels (from 1 straight to 50).

...

If you opened up SG bases, even just for show-and-tell, to non-COV-owners ... you'd put a lot more value on the base, itself.


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But it shows human behavior (and this was the point of my talk): people LOVE individuality. They’re willing to express it. But they won’t consider (in game) it worth a lot of time/effort to create a space that’s customized for group identity. Clearly, people don’t mind group identity (hence, super group costumes) and they love their own personal costume creation.

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Listed ways to add value to bases:
<ul type="square">[*] Chop the cost of non-function items and spaces drastically - moreso than you already have. The purely decorative should not be worked for; if everything cost 1/10 of current, a Supergroup of 1-4 could at least have an "SG Meeting Hall";[*] Cut rent out altogether, except MAYBE ... base it on functional parts. Rent for a Medical Bay ... sure. For storage or crafting stuff ... sure. But for a glorified meeting-hall-and-hangout-joing? Drop it entirely, please;[*] Adapt the Base Edit feature to allow for personal, private spaces - the individual Lairs and Apartmetns you'v elong claimed to want to add in, anyway. And give everyoen the option to link those directly to their SG's base - complete with a range of options for clickable transport (elevators, doors, Oranbega-style portals ... whatever the SG prefers);[*] Allow non-COVers in, at least to look and RP - it's one thing to limit the Function, but another to not even let part of an SG look at the base they're helping pay for![*] Add something to bases that you cannot get elsewhere - somethign minor, but still "neat". Maybe some new costume piece or other - or several, tied to various SG badges. How about NPCs - to sell inspirations, maybe even enhancements? I can see bases getting much more use, myself, if running to sell stuff could be as simple as hitting your own base. ESPECIALLY if doing so gave the SG a small prestige boost, too - even if doing so meant you would NEVER get the "specialist" rate for selling to a same-origin store.[/list]
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A point well made. Jack's comparison of bases to costumes is wildly off because I control my costume. I help pay for my base, yet none of it is my creation.

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Yet a Super Group costume isn’t your creation, either. And yet people wear them.

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I have more control over my SG-mode costumes in the Young Paragons, than I do over the base; I can decide which SG color to use, if any, for each seperate body part ... TWICE: once for the primary, once for the secondary. So, I do have some say over my SG costume.

For example ... my wee little Fire/Devices blaster, "Automatic Justice". His defaults are Red-with-gold, with Red being the overall primary color. His chest emblem is the Scales of Justice. You can see it here, if you wish.

The YP's colors are blue and white; their chest emblem is the starburst-in-a-circle.

AJ's SG-mode look? Change his gold for white, and put the starburst on his chest (blue star in white circle). And, I alone decided on that look - noone else. I controlled the process of decision making, based on the pallette offered to me. If I'd wanted to, I could have simply not used any SG color(s) or the emblem, yet, still beein in SG mode, contributing to the group's prestige totals. You can see a screenshot of his SGmode here, for comparison.

Bases don't work like that; I don't have personal control over how a base is laid out, not even a tiny corner of it, unless I "own" the SG. Yet, I have to help PAY for it - Prestige income in-game, and real-world money spent to own COV.

I think that's a lot of the problem: if you're not going to raid ... there's little or no point in having a base.

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I'm not keen on the idea of fan art being displayed in-game. It breaks immersion.

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... you don't think that various Heroes in Paragon City have fans ...? You don't think that a city most visually distinct form others due to colossally-huge-a-mongous statues of various heroes wouldn't have an art show centered around ... well ... heroes? ^_^

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That's an excellent point. If they could find a way to display art in a method that doesn't break the immersion, I'd be all for it. Perhaps opening an Art Gallery in one of the Hero and Villain zones with updated images about once a week or so. I'd be for that, but I suspect that would require quite a bit more work than the devs are really willing to put into this. I think updating the Fan Art page and providing a Screenshot Gallery and Wallpaper Gallery would probably be more than sufficient though.

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Hence my suggestion, above.

Picture this: a painting/picture/portrait object, hung on a wall - like the semi-generic "fine art" decorations in office maps, and also available for use in SGs. The appearance is a lower-resolution "thumbnail" of the picture itself.

So far, so good, yes?

The catch is this: it's "clickable" - and opens a window much like an NPC dialog, where a much-nicer-quality ingame rendition of the art is displayed, along with pertinent information - i.e., things like the name of the picture, a brief description that perhaps names the character(s) and/or palce(s) depicted, the date it was included in COH (as a "created on" entry), and the (pseudo)name of the author.

So ... let's say someone submits a picture of twocharacters, a duo of characters ... theirs and their S.O.'s, maybe; hero characters, for simplicity's sake (yeah, I'm sure even Villains have "fans" ...). The title might be "Two for T", especially apt if a big "T" is their chest emblem; the artist's name (as included on the contest submission) and the year/month the piece was submitted; and it might name the specific characters depicted, and even a breif (1 or 2 sentences) description of the events depicted, if it's an "action shot".

Of course, if you don't go into the actual art gallery, you never see any possibly immersion-breaking elements. Even if you do, if you don't CLICK on the pictures ... they're just different wall decorations.

And since it'd be a contest, with rules, and maybe even a THEME, set by Cryptic and/or NCSoft? The odds of having anything immersion-breaking even BE there goes waaaaaay down.

...

As for themes? Here's a few ideas:

"Comic Book Covers" (make the piece look like the cover of a comic book, complete with over-the-top title, a price, and so forth. Hey, if we can get those sorts of things to hang in our SGs as in-game items [Vet Rewards] ... ^_^)

"Heroes (and villains) in Flight" (pretty self-explanatory, IMO)

"Signature Characters" (Any of the signature characters - hero or villain; since it's for submission to Cryptic, they can put a clause that a submission is also anacknowledgement of ownership/copyright/trademark, and legal worries on that front can be assuaged)

"Holiday Spirit"[/i] (Depending on the holiday ... theme the image to suit; for Christmas? Think of Heroes manning Salvation Army kettles, helping Marines at a Toys-for-Tots dropoff, or just plain shopping for presents; Villains mugging Santa Claus [heh!!] or delivering suspiciously-ticking presents to the Freedom Phalanx's base ... )

"Dance Party!" (Anyone and everyone, partying in Pocket D; especially interesting as a theme immediately after a major in-game Event held there, actually ...)

... that's five already. ^_^ I'm sure others can be thought up. Heck, "Enemy Groups", featuring various enemy groups but NOT, neccessarily, centering on any one particular hero or villain ... there's a sixth one.




^_^ I can't draw, paint,or ANYthing for crap, and those ideas make even MY fingers itch to try something ... ^_^

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I'm not keen on the idea of fan art being displayed in-game. It breaks immersion.

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... you don't think that various Heroes in Paragon City have fans ...? You don't think that a city most visually distinct form others due to colossally-huge-a-mongous statues of various heroes wouldn't have an art show centered around ... well ... heroes? ^_^

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given the genre is heavily steeped in art I to wouldnt mind seeing something dedicated to the many fine artists here...other than the forum here...I think that they are forgotten on the whole. without the "art" there would be no comic book heroes...which in turn means there would, more than likely, be no Co*.

just a quick thought on the matter~

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'nother not-an-artist popping in for a thought/suggestion for y'all: what about an in-game Art Gallery, displaying various pieces of fanart submitted to Cryptic for that purpose ...?

Seriously, picture: every August and January, there's a thirty-day window for folks to submit fanart to Cryptic for review (with, of course, defined standards, restrictions, and limitations as to the art, it's subject, composition, media, etc, etc - as well as including explicit license for use in the game, on teh website, and on "any and all" advertising media in perpetuity, blah blah blah, yadda yadda ... you get the idea).

During the month after the submission window, the submissions get winnowed down to a dozen or so "winners". Those winning pieces get put into the game, as part of the semi-annual display at the in-game Art Gallery, and the artist gets a badge to show for it - simply enough, "Artist". I'd suggest something involving a paintbrush and palette, or maybe an easel, would be appropriate (and appreciated by you fine folk, too, I suspect).

Further, one of those then gets the nod for inclusion in the permanent collection. That, of course, should be worth a second badge - perhaps, "Masterpiece", with the "Artist" badge's artwork ... and adding a blue ribbon to it. Also might be good to give "Masterpiece" a gold border, and "Artist" a silver one.

Keeping it to semi-annual - or, if need be, annual (though I'd suggest upping to twenty Artists and two Masterpieces, if it was only once per year) - should keep Cryptic's work-contribution within reasonable limits.

And you guys could both (a) strut your stuff, and (b) add to the in-game experience.

... I think I'm'a gonna PM this to Lighthouse, it's a darned fun idea, if I say so myself - and I do! ^_^


EDIT TO ADD:

While PMing Lighthouse, I had a further thought; the biggest catch that occurs to me is somehow allowing CoVers to get in on the act, and see their works in-game. So, a suitable location needs to be picked, not in Paragon City itself (sadly) ... so ... what about a new room for Pocket D? ^_^

The developers and "community peeps" could even hold a mini, private party for the winners, past and present, by just limiting access to the room for the evening ("must have X or Y badge to enter") ... as an extra little thing to do for the folks making the art the rest of us would get to ogle at. ^_^