Pilcrow

9PM where I am and Statesman is responding to disgruntled Tankers trolling the controller changes thread.

The guy is being beat up eight ways from sunday on the boards and not only is he paying attention and responding, he's doing so with a tolerance people usually reserve only for their children.

Not to mention that it evidences that he's reading the feedback he asked for in the controller thread (he answered like 1 page later on a ~20 page thread).

Kudos for tolerance and a genuine interest in serving your customers, States.

Oh, this will be a fun post!
Thanks for...
<ul type="square">[*]releasing "A Council of War" - and giving it a good testing first[*]the Epic ATs - especially the encouraged grouping (which benefits those of us before 50) and the cool look![*]Ancillary Power Pools - to let us round out our characters (more, more, we want even more!!)[*]Zone events - second best thing in this issue IMO! Especially like the ghost ship![*]New Zone: Striga Isle - Not just because it's mid-level content, but the storyline of the place is GREAT![*]"Giant Monsters, no matter what their level, will con Purple now. This is because the monsters are able to be fought by the entire level range of Heroes." - I can fight alongside a level 50 without being SKd, talk about feeling like a hero! (Hey consider making ambushes work the same way only conning orange to everyone!)[*]"Changed the way many temporary powers expire. Many that were based on “real-time” will now expire based on number of charges instead." - You mean I can actually USE the temp powers when I get back from work! I love this![*]Group Flight &amp; Team Teleport fixes - well deserved love for these powers[*]"Powers that “Drain”...will give the same buff/heal as though you were targeting a foe of your level" - Defender love! Defender LOVE![*]Whirlwind, Repel, and Repulsion Field will KnockBack foes of all levels the same distance. That is, Repulsion Field will no longer lock higher level foes into permanent KnockDown. - I always lose so much end when using Repel on a boss today (as it tries to re-repel him when knocked down), what a nice suprise[*]Increased the effectiveness of the Defender version of Transfusion, Kinetics, Twilight Grasp, Siphon Power, and Kinetic Transfer by about 25% so they are consistently better than the Controller Version - Hey you nerfcallers, they fixed this one with a BUFF! Thanks, devs. [*]The Family now has Tommy Guns - this is just so cool[*]Change to FEAR - Controller love. Controller LOVE! (and some others share the love)[*]Increased Tanker Damage, Changed Tanker Taunt to an AoE Taunt, Tanker Taunt is an Auto Hit, Made all Tanker attack powers (secondary set) generate hate - Tanker love. Tanker LOVE![*]The powers Ice Armor/Frozen Armor, Wet Ice, and Glacial Armor are no longer mutually exclusive and can stack. Wet Ice now Resists Sleep effects - STACKING ARMORS![*]Fixed Animate Stones immunity to Disorient, Hold and Immobilization. Also, Animate Stone can now Jump. - Another BUFF UP of a weak power. Thanks for fixing that pet, devs.[*]TOXIC DAMAGE - Three cheers for the hard work Geko and everyone put in on this one![*]Unyielding no longer makes you Immobile - Yeah! Self root isn't very fun.[*]Lots of new status defenses - Thanks devs for listening to our "too much status" woes[*]Increased Damage of Hot Feet - love for an oft maligned power[/list]
And for me, the best stuff is always in misc, especially the bolded one (best new feature in this update!)
<ul type="square">[*]Fixed the long door wait bug, that left players with an hourglass cursor unable to act for an extended period [*]Minimap is now resizable and has an options pulldown.
Added /assist command which will change your target to a selected allies target. [*]Autorun will not turn off at ID Card, Enhancement Screen, Power Selection/Respec or Options screen. [*]Dialogs can be answered via 'dialogyes', dialogno' or 'dialoganswer ' slash commands. [*]Player description in the Info window will now respect enters and tabs [*]Quit will no longer be interrupted by mouse clicks. If you are quitting to the desktop you will be given the choice to exit immediately [*]Some columns in supergroup, search, email, and friend windows can now be resized [*]You can now hit an opponent with a melee attack while chasing after them. [*]The Supergroup window has been revamped. Unnecessary fields were removed and it now displays level and map. The window is also 2-stage collapsible, the header can be hidden, and then the bottom buttons can be hidden as well. [*]You can now control what music the boombox plays with a bunch of new emotes. These are also available from the Quickchat menu. They all begin with "bb" which stands for "boombox". The list: bb, bbAltitude, bbBeat , bbCatchMe , bbDance . bbElectroVibe , bbDiscoFreak , bbDogWalk , bbHeavyDude , bbInfoOverload , bbJumpy , bbKickIt , bbLooker , bbMeaty , bbNotorious , bbMoveOn , bbPeace , bbQuickie , bbRaver , bbShuffle , bbTechnoid , bbWindItUp , bbVenus , bbWahWah . bbYellow , bbSpaz. [/list]

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I'd even like to thank Statesman for his sense of humor and play. As demonstrated by posts like this one.
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OK gang, we'll throw at least 2 of your wants into Issue 4.

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Sometimes I want to strangle him while I thank him, mind you. Which 2? Which 2? (Let on be SSOCS, please!)

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Stop saying SSOCS. It's not super-secret anymore. Call it the OCS or Skills.

Thank you developers for announcements.

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Its the Super Hero Ocupational Education System (SHOES).

I cried because I had no SHOES, until I met a man who had to kill rats.

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I want to thank everyone responsible for making city of heroes the great game that it is. Its full of memerable aspects, to many to list.

But I will mention one which is probally pretty old to most.

Despite getting the game on launch day, I've progressed at a slow rate due to being a somewhat causual gamer. So it wasn't until recently that I got a look at dark astroia. The area design there is just wonderful. All the ghost like figures in the backround the disapear when you approch them, the fog that limits your line of sight, the hordes of zombies. It has quite some atmosphere and is quite creepy. Of course its partly so creepy because I was there on a kill x banished pantheon mission, and I was solo and to stubbern to find a group, so my strategy was to sneak around and pick of enemies that seperated themselves from their group. Basically a game of cat and mouse where its a litte ambigious who's really the cat and who's really the mouse.

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You just wait until you hit the big "thing" in Dark Astoria. You're gonna be posting here again.

I'll avoid spoilers, but that big "thing" in DA alone is brilliant devs.

I'd even like to thank Statesman for his sense of humor and play. As demonstrated by posts like this one.
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OK gang, we'll throw at least 2 of your wants into Issue 4.

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Sometimes I want to strangle him while I thank him, mind you. Which 2? Which 2? (Let on be SSOCS, please!)

One of my alts is rapidly becoming my main (parked my DA scrapper, more because scrapping isn't my best playstyle), and I got to do the Lou's Garage clockwork mission for the first time since issue 2 came out today.

I'd heard about the new "dressing" of the old missions on the boards, but it's nothing like the experience. The garage has racks of tires, beat-up old cars, large red toolchests, even a checkered flag styled pattern on the floors. It was IMMERSIVE and ATTRACTIVE and SUPRISING and GREAT.

Kudos for so many things there. For the artwork. For the new "grafitti" technology (that I suspect was leveraged). For taking the time to improve low-level content.

Wow. Just WOW. That was the best "new" thing I've experienced since FrostFire, and it wasn't even new.

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Mine is a Kudos, but in an evil way...

Devs:
I curse you for bringing my comic book heroes to life
I curse you for making it such a great MMO gamw
I curse you that there are only 24 hours in a day(well maybe not you fault)
I curse you that there is fun and excitement throughout the supers life
I curse you for keeping things up to date and running well.
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Thanks !


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Looks like CapnJack is gonna post another kudo when CoV comes out.

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Well if he didn't mean Pilcrow, then shame on me.

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No shame on you zzMdude. He did indeed label me a "sack of crap" along with the person proposing we send the article to Glow Girl.

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So some sack of crap comes on here, collects 5 pages of thank yous with the motivation to prove someone else wrong (based on their lame-o interpretation of an article they obviously either didn't read or didn't understand) and is followed by yet another sack of crap who wants people to send comments to Glow Girl containing curse words.

Well, Merry Friggin Christmas to you, too, [censored].

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My urge to make sure people take a moment to thank the devs for the good job they do preceded Glow Girl's article. Here's proof!

Before you go around calling people names and assuming you undedrstand their motives you should take two minutes to use the search feature.

Even if you hadn't searched, this post within this thread should have demonstrated to anyone who was paying attention that the motive is not to "prove glow girl wrong" but to actually show the devs the appreciation they deserve.

It's sad that this board is so poisonous that people feel a need to troll a thread like this one. You're right that there should be no "in your face" to glow girl, but to spew this kind of bile while you do so is beyond the pale.

MisterMighty, I'm gonna assume you had a bad day. I've found that some of the best people on these boards express their feelings strongly and therefore we wind up in conflict sometimes. Heck, zzMdude and I just had a slugfest a week ago and since then we've defended each other in two separate threads. Strong feelings are good, it means CoH means something to you. I hope next time we meet you can channel them more positively.

So devs, thanks for making a game that matters to people so much they can get this worked up over it.

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Alright, so now that we've got five pages, who's gonna go e-mail the Warcry people with the message "Five pages, [insert expletive of choice here]!"

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Five pages is just a start, I hope. If we can't find 5-10 kudos to post a day for the next few weeks, we're pathetic.

Last night I joined a new SG, and chatted with my new SG mates in the chat channel like crazy tonight. It was really nice. There's a kudo.

But before then I was making binds for my character. I was binding emotes and says to my attacks and it was a blast! The bind system in this game is GREAT. Thanks devs. My toon seems so much more real and fun now.

Thanks for standing up to the Marvel Nazis!

Thanks for cellphones to our contacts. I like this feature so much, I want it sooner.

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OMG!!! I have to take a side track for a second and thank PepsiDrinkingGuy for something:

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Guardian server:
Mutant Pooh: 15 scrap

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I have NEVER laughed so hard as I did when I saw this guy standing in Kings Row... I just wish I had half a brain left at the time to grab a screenie.

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Here's a pic of Mutant Pooh

Thanks devs for allowing me the tools to create such a fun character to play!

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Very funny.

Devs, thanks for the easy to use screenshot and demorecorder!

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Thank you all for working so hard for all of us even after release. You don't push out bad expansions as a gravy train -- you give them to us for free, and make sure that they're nigh on perfect!

Coming from a long-time MMOer, this game is awesome. I try to sell all my friends on it, something I wouldn't do if I wasn't sure they would love it. Keep up the fantastic jobs!

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On a similar note, thanks for being cuatious with Issue 3s release. You really took the lesson of Issue 2s release to heart and that's a great thing.

Also, thanks for being such a good team that the initial rollout and issue 1 set incredibly high standards for rollouts in the first place. Other MMOs have chronic issues worse than the worst problem I've ever seen in CoH!

Also, thanks for creating homes for almost every thread kind imaginable in these forums. Comic culture forums, idea forums, the continued tolerance of Ask a Stupid Question. Thanks for this online community as well as the one in game.

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Thank you from a first time MMORPGer, who never thought he would ever get into these types of games.

As a long time comic book fan, it was like a dream come true the moment I hit 14 with my first character, and I was able to FLY.

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Oh. You are SO right. On my first toon, I took fly. Even though I knew ti was slow. Why?

Because when I FLEW I felt like a super hero! Big time!

Thanks for fly.

Thanks for adding the "melee-runners" code in the upcoming issue 3. It's so nice to see something some said was impossible to fix FIXED!

This article on Warcry says we can create 100 page posts of our complaints to Cryptic, but can't put together 5 pages of thank you's for the people who make and manage CoH.

I say we prove them wrong. I've seen lots of little thank you threads on these boards: let's see what they look like all in one place. You can keep them short and sweet, just keep them coming.

I'll start.

Thanks for being one of the most involved Dev communities I've seen. Statesman alone has posted to these boards over 600 times, in other games, you might find that the entire Dev community posted less than 200 times.

So thanks for taking the time to keep us informed. Even where we disagree with you, it's so good to know where you're coming from.

Typically, bosses are NOT soloable content for low level controllers. That's true today. In the context of EVERYONE being able to solo their own missions, his reply is not beyond the pale.

If he brought Scrappers down to that standard, I'd start to worry. But I think we're building mountains from molehills here.

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Yep. I'll grant one of those original wishes.

Maybe two.



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[george bailey voice]
I wish I had an Abominable Snowman.
*lights lighter*
HOT DOG!
[/george bailey voice]

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If you really want to address the AoE problem you need to... nerf the AoE attacks .

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I think I speak for most players when I say this should NEVER be a suggestion. First, it's just wrong to call for another AT to get weakened in any way just because you don't like it, are jealous of its success, can't think of a better way, and so on.

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I see, only Blasters have AEs. My Spines scrapper must be pretty confused then. And all Blasters are AE masters. Guess those Electrical blasters are a bit confused, too.

Herding works because AE attacks can kill an unlimited number of MOBs if they can be encouraged to be close enough together. The max HP a single target attack can do = ~4X its base damage. You need 6 damage SOs + build-up + an outside buff to get there. To do 4x their (lower) base damage, an AE attack needs to have 4 MOBs within its AE radius. If base damage for an AE is half that of an quivalent single target, than it takes 3 SOs + those 4 MOBs.

AE attacks are imbalancing. They aren't limited to blasters. They need to be fixed. Raising MOB HP has a lot of side effects that a true AE fix (decreasing damage as you get further from the center of the AE, Total HP cap, Max 3 of MOBs per hit, lower base damage, separate damage and acc enhancements like the cone range enhancement, or one of the 50 other ideas on these boards).

That said, the minion HP change isn't really aimed at AEs. It is meant to make combat longer in the belief that longer combats and the death of the alpha strike will make the roles of tanks, controllers and defenders more needed in combat. I don't know that this is true. I do know that the extra end needed to get through a combat makes it harder for support ATs even on a team - and soloing is even worse for ATs who were already far, far below the other ATs in soloability (so much more disadvantaged in the ability to solo than they are advantaged in their ability to team).

In short, the implementation of this change to production without the "oomph" promised is going to hurt the support ATs more than it helps them.

Narcissus is right.

Now, I know the HP/XP increase is still in test mode and data mining needs to be done - but could a red name speak up and let us know what the planned "oomph" is? States has already said that the increased Tanker damage was a failure - so what IS the oomph? And how will it help us solo.

Of course controllers/tankers are worse soloers. That's not relevant. These ATs are already at or below the 1 hero/3 even con minion standard. With the new HPs some more oomph is a must to avoid forced grouping for "support ATs". Is it just more damage? Is that only for Tanks and Controllers? Answers are needed before the changes go live.

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Oh snap... what a [censored] apple polisher. the man made a reasonable request... why even talk about tweaks when we all know for a fact that they mean "make less effective" and we all know for a fact they're going to go ahead with said tweaks no matter HOW much we rant about it. given the amount of time and effort people put into their build the developers should EXPECT complaints and pleas for understanding. In short Statesman dosen't need you or your fan boy ilk to defend him. Get off the ballzac....

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This isn't about defending statesman from the slings and arrows of the boards rants. It's about respecting the other people on the fripping boards. There are plenty of threads to drill down into AE and Regen issues - some even started by the devs. If you don't think there are enough, then you have the power to start one. You could even post a link in this thread to your new thread without crossing the line into putzville.

But when someone put rants in a Q&amp;A thread, they aren't screwing with Statesman. The people they're screwing with are the ones in here whose questions don't get answered because they felt like hijacking this thread.

If you insist on labelling me a fanboy for being anti-thread-hijack, then being on your ignore list will be a honor.

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Please, please, be clear and concise or say nothing at all.

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If only more of the posters on this thread followed the rules you wish to impose on Statesman.

Maybe WE are the villians here. Playing by any set of rules we choose while the hero must play fair.

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Statesman is the learned and talented lead designer of City of Heroes and has an obligation to play it straight with his customers. We on the other hand are a bunch of yahoos who paid $15 to play a game. There is no moral or practical equivalence here. We have no obligation other than to show everyone the same courtesy that we would expect in turn.

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"Rationalizations are a key to survival. They're more important than sex."
"I doubt that."
"Really, whens the last time you got through a day without a rationalization?"

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Please, please, be clear and concise or say nothing at all.

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If only more of the posters on this thread followed the rules you wish to impose on Statesman.

Maybe WE are the villians here. Playing by any set of rules we choose while the hero must play fair.

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I feel bad for people who can't enjoy both the book and the movie. I'm a Heinlein fan and a Verhoven fan and I will tell you that I enjoyed both the same way I enjoyed serious tellings of King Arthur's tale and the Monty Python version. Same way I enjoyed Thor comics even though I was a rabid Norse mythos addict.

I wouldn't recommend Python, Thor comics, or Verhoven's movie as serious tales that teach you important lessons on life. That didn't stop me from enjoying them.

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Well, first off, if they had called "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" "An Accurate Account of the Life and Times of King Arthur", I would see your point. But from the title, you know what you are getting into.

But when you put the title "Starship Troopers" on a low budget B movie sci-fi flick, you cant tell that they are not even trying to stay true to the original book of the exact same name.

If you truely read and understood the book, you know how they arent even really the same story!

But I do agree, Starship Troopers the movie was comical, but in ways they were not trying for.

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You're dead wrong. The movie was very specifically trying to be funny, camp, and over the top. It converted true drama to melodrama on purpose. You sound like someone who went to a John Waters flick and walked out suprised it was vlugar.

Did the movie Starship Troopers lose themes of the original book? Why indeed it did. As the Thor Comics lost themes of Norse Mythology and as Monty Python's the Holy Grail lost themes of the Arthur Legend. All three took rich, thematic source material and transferred them to a much flatter genre where themes are all much shallower - the comedy, the comic book and the camp Sci-Fi flick.

Anybody who goes to a Python flick expecting depth is a fool. Same for anyone picking up most 1960s comic books. Anybody who walked into a movie by the guy who made Robocop and Showgirls expecting something deep was just as misguided. Movies are a director-driven medium. Setting your expectations for a movie based on the source material and the title are as foolish as setting you expectations for a novel based on the publisher and typeface - the first has little bearing, the second no bearing at all.

You want to see a crap adaptation of a Heinlen property - get the Puppet Masters, an attempt at a serious adaptation the completely crapped on the themes of the original work, rather than just ignoring them. How do you defeat the Puppet Masters? Blow them up!