Puppycrusader
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:One of the other strengths CityOf has, is that it's been friendly to 4-color, without forcing 4-color on you.Originally Posted by Black Pebble
The traditional 4-color comic super-hero is a bit of a niche concept compared to fantasy. It has strong appeal in America, and less so abroad. That's certainly one of the challenges, but also one of the strengths that City of Heroes has.
I think what films such as Avengers and X-Men have shown is that with the right twist, those same characters can have huge international appeal.
I hate that stuff. I mean, I really, really detest it. Always have - save for a few more
oddball books, I grew up unable to tolerate most superhero comics. Terrible writing, bad
art, mostly uninteresting characters and concepts, and endlessly looping plots that never
go anywhere in the long term(since the goal is to preserve the franchise in perpetuity,
rather than tell a good, coherant story. Yes, I know exceptions like Watchmen.)
But I love this game. It lets you have fun with the genre, without subjecting yourself to
all the crap that makes it bad. Many of my friends aren't into superhero stuff either(even
if they don't hate most of it as much as I do,) and most of them, too, were able to find
things they enjoyed about this game, even if it wasn't a priority with some of them.
If this game had presented itself like, say, Champions does, I guarantee most of us would
never have tried it out, though. All the people who like that stuff, can play CityOf and get
as much as they want. All the people who don't can play CityOf, and find things
to enjoy as well, without having to immerse themselves in FREEM constantly.
That's why CityOf is a great game. -
Quote:I'm just wondering where this part came from to start with. Was someone asserting thatOriginally Posted by Nihilii
Fair enough. Gloves off, then.
Being able to lay off an entire developer team from one day to another isn't an example of a "successful democracy" to anyone who hasn't lived isolated from the rest of the world.
NCSoft was a government unto itself, and a successful example of democracy? Because I
don't see where this even has anything to do with the issue at all, unless this is confusing
the issues of democracy with the issues of capitalism. -
Quote:To be fair, there's often been a certain layer to QA missing in this game, for some reason.Originally Posted by Agent White
It depends on how broken it is. Grandville causing more lag is less broken than say, a bug in the SSA which stops the mission from being completed.
It comes down to a matter of resources and profit. Paragon was A) a small studio and B) needed to continually produce items that garnered profit. That's why new content took precedence. Fixing stuff can be a quality of life improvement but more often, stuff like Grandville is more cosmetic than function so it's not high on the list of priorities.
Or worse it's something that was broken by previous developers and left in an unfixed state and the best people to be able to fix it have left. Look at bases and mayhem/safeguard missions. Both things that really needed fixing but just the sheer amount of time to A) Reverse engineer to simply have an understanding of its workings and B) work out how to implement changes/fixes/upgrades without breaking the system (if it was even possible) is pretty high compared to what it would require to just build new things from scratch or that already work within the existing engine and are well documented and understood (costume sets, powers, zones, etc).
And it isn't like they didn't get around to fixing stuff when they could spare five minutes. I mean look at everything that was getting fixed or changed around in Issue 24. The schedule is always tight but you never know when they get to squeak in something.
There's a lot of bugs that can(and likely should) get delegated to the backburner, but
there've been quite a number of serious, sometimes game-crashing bugs which are known
for some time, and then pushed live anyway(and in some cases kept live longer than
really should be.) That's more on the unacceptable side. I don't know if that was from
lack of resources, or some broken layer of communication, but it's been a real thorn from
time to time.
Steel_Golem pretty much had it right though, and it's what always bothers me about MMOs
in general. With other software, the feature development is usually going hand in hand
along with the bugs, so more gets fixed. But for games like this, there's the constant
pressure to keep new content coming, keep the flash, keep the WOW, and keep people
paying cash. That sucks a ton of time away from the product quality as it is, but it also
buries older problems under a mountain of new hotness, so it all just gets lost.
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Quote:Don't forget Dr. Nova, finally besting karma.Originally Posted by Atlantea
( Stage whispers:
They probably never went anywhere with it because "Hugo" and "Gally" are character name references to Battle Angel Alita/Gunnm, a manga by Yukita Kishiro, and the mission arc mirrors (vaguely) their relationship in the manga. And they could probably "get away with" a reference to that for a single mission arc, but planning anything major beyond that might be... problematic. Lawyer bait, y'know? )
It was actually mentioned in-game after that - one(or more) of the Tip missions mentioned
it was an ongoing problem. But I didn't get much sense of whether it was a "serious,
cascading collapse" problem, or a "straggler here and there" kind.
The arc itself implied Hugo's influence on this process would have created the former, so
with Manticore escaping with both him and Gally, it was hard to tell where that thread
might have been headed in the end, and lots of other potential questions with a rogue
Bane Executioner and a Longbow Officer romancing on hero side were raised as well.
Like most of the stuff I asked personally, it was small(or seemed small) in the Grand Lore
Scheme, but it was a thread that always interested me, and I wanted to know how it
might've ended up. So I asked!
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My questions(I haven't read the others yet. Quite possibly repeats. Just means there's interest!)
OUROBOROS/RELATED:
1) Someone went back in time to screw your character's early adventure up in Outbreak/
Breakout. You mended that with Mender Tesseract, but Who was it, and Why did they do it?
2) Ouroboros one day crashes into the sea. Different forces seem to be involved in this
day - Time Echos, Kraken(possibly time echo, but untargetable so couldn't tell,) and
Dream Doctor strongly implies he's going to do it in DA personal story. Who actually did
that/what happened that day?
3) Dream Doctor states there are 13 methods of Time Travel. He uses the Dreamscape,
Ouroboros crystals are another(?) What are the rest, and what method does Requiem
use for the 5th Column?
4) Everyone's going to have questions about Mender Silos probably. So I'll pile on.
Carbon Tether supposably has limits about how far back someone can go in time. Silos
broke this law; so did Mender Ramiel. Was this a lie, or if not, how do they do it?
5) Joke question(maybe): What did Lazarus see when he tossed himself beyond the Abyss?
CHARACTERS
1) Protean. How did he come in contact with/get recruited by Praetoria?
2) Hero-1 was last(?) seen after being recovered by the Vanguard, fighting alongside
the rest of the gathering against Mot in Dark Astoria. Does he resume his full role
of a hero, and if so, does he also reclaim Excalibur? Or does he more or less remain
a sketchy asset with Vanguard?
3) Lady Grey. Who IS she? This lady is one of the most mysterious characters in the
game. Anything you've got about her background, why she's so knowledgable about
incarnates, etc, would be awesome.
4) Where there ever any plans to include Incandescent in-game?
5) Hugo Figures and Agent Gally. Were they ever going to be successful in liberating
the Bane Spider network? If not, what ultimately happens to them?
6) Crimson Revenant seems to be a pretty high-power super for such a low-key bounty
hunter. What targets has he taken down in his day?
7) Operative Jenkins is seen several times, working his way up the promotion tree
despite his blunders. He seems quite resourceful(or quite lucky.) What was his ultimate
fate?
8) t3h S00p4rFr34k also appears recurringly, powering up every time you see him.
With the advent of Praetorian technology, and the Battallion coming down the line,
what was his ultimate fate?
9) Lastly, how did High Roller and Mr. Simmons' students finally turn out? Are they
continuing their mentors' arch-rivalry?
I may drop in a batch of story/lore/world questions later in thread after I read
the rest of them so far. -
I don't think it's possible for me to love this thread more. For every complaint, there's
at least ten indignant complaints complaining about the complainer.
This whole thread is like watching a textual auto-immune disease in action. -
Quote:It seems like there's more people complaining about complaining in this thread, than there isOriginally Posted by Darth_Khasei
It is kinda crazy the level of angst and crying in this thread over a free item give away pilot program. People are acting like they did something wrong by introducing this program.
What is wrong with some of you people? Seriously....
actual complaining, though. What complaints there are, are getting greatly magnified and
blown up by the jibes and out of proportion whining about complainers.
So... ENDLESS. -
Quote:They don't need to do that. It's not like they run out of shelf space - paragon market itemsOriginally Posted by MadHobbit
I also think for the most part they will be "clearance" items. Things that are not selling,but they want to spark interest.
are no more than 1s and 0s. There are as many or as few as they want; a literally bottom-
less stockroom. If something doesn't sell that often, no big deal - they just take notes that
people aren't that interested and move on. If someone occasionally still buys it,
bonus. -
Quote:Immediately made me think of a bunch of hitbox sounds followed by this:Originally Posted by Arcanaville
A power that simultaneously phased the player and the target(s), like a combo dimension shift, would help the player solo by eliminating all the other targets from being able to shoot at him or her, but in teams that would be counterproductive because the team couldn't help you kill your target, you couldn't help them kill anything else, and they couldn't otherwise buff or heal you.
In effect, its making the teamed player effectively solo. But it does not explicitly require using it badly to generate that result.
Maybe that's something stalkers should get instead... -
Quote:I appreciate this position quite a bit. It's rare, and as another one of the players the newOriginally Posted by Dr. Aeon
Hey guys!
We have been reading peoples feedback regarding the EBs in Dark Astoria. Right now, were planning on leaving them the same. The goal of Dark Astoria was to provide challenging content for solo players and small teams; upgrading these EBs to be AVs that scale down, at this point in development, has the risk of causing a number issues that could hamper this experience, which is something we want to avoid. However, we are taking the feedback into consideration for future arcs, so please continue to give us your opinions about this. Thanks!
Dr. Aeon
Dark Astoria small teamer concept was designed for, it'd be bullish of me to not show my
gratitude for it.
I definitly like the EBs where they are, and if changing them to be scaled up/down will mess
with their current difficulty for the worse, I thank you for favoring the small-teamer side
in this.
I do hope in the future, some agreeable way can be found to give other players what
they want too, though. Just because DA was made for "me", doesn't mean I don't want
the large-team loving folk to get a good experience out of it too - they may resent people
like us in an MMO, but the opposite doesn't hold true for me. With luck, you'll find a
good cludge to the system to give both of our sides what we need and want. -
Quote:Yeah. Some people have likenened it to entertainment expenses, like buying a pizza, and IOriginally Posted by End Sinister
Puppy, at least you're honest about the system. A previous poster kept bringing up gambling with baseball cards. Well, baseball cards and virtual items are not the same. While you may not get the player you like in a pack of cards, one or many of those supposed no names may one day become a big star and their respective baseball cards should see some increase in value. Besides potential profit, you have a physical object in the real world that has real value. Virtual clothing items, as Puppycrusader said, will have absolutely no value once City Of Heroes is shut down. I am well aware of what I pay for this service and I refuse to pay more than its subscription cost, fifteen dollars a month, for either points or V.I.P. access.
think that's a fair perspective too though. If they feel the entertainment satisfaction is
worth the money PS is charging for <whatever>, that's as valid a valuation as anything
else, as long as they know what they're getting. Personally, at *these* prices, I'll almost
always choose the pizza instead, and I guess you're the same - I really wish more - or
most or even all - people felt that way, but obviously they don't, so here we are.
The one I simply can't get along with, is when people say they're buying all this stuff
just to "support the company." That drives me nuts. Like a terrible movie said, it's a
business. This ain't unicef. There's nothing inheriantly noble about paying a business
for something you don't even want, just because. -
Quote:It's a division that's always going to be here. =/ I keep it in perspective for myself, byOriginally Posted by End Sinister
Puppy, I addressed the issue with the developers in one of my previous posts, and I do agree with you that what we are seeing is the machinations of a marketing division having more influence on how we play City Of Heroes. As far as what I said about modern day corporations, I think their actions speak for themselves. I can use the incident where the creators of Eve: Online sent emails around the office that showed they had a very poor attitude toward their customers and viewed them as petulant children saying one thing and doing another. It isn't until people act with their money are these arrogant people checked. I'm only trying to persuade other people into not buying these products Paragon is offering because the product bundles are getting worse and worse. I can't understand how many people that play this game seemingly have no problem throwing their money away, at least the ones posting in this forum, that is.
remembering something very important: with this optional content, we're not buying that
content.
What our money is actually paying for, in best case, is a few entries in a database on
their end, or at worst, a bitflip of 0 to 1, that says you couldn't use/didn't have them
before and now you can/do. That's it. When you make the mistake of thinking you're
paying for the *parts* and such-like, you start thinking of them as tangiable items, which
isn't what you're getting - these 1s you're paying for are useless anywhere else, and will
be useless when these servers are no longer accessable(and something you'll get for free
the day this service closes and the emulated servers go up.)
It's hard to get less for your money than that. The question that divides us, is how much
we each value those 1s when these new offers come up. =/
In the meanwhile though, here: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Have some on me. They're not as useful, but at least they're free!
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Quote:Most businesses do care about customer satisfaction and opinion about their product.Originally Posted by End Sinister
Yes, spending is the American way, but if the world's countless sovereign debt crises tell us anything, spending the way we have is unsustainable and has wrought nothing but financial ruin to the world. That aside, gone is the time where businesses actually cared about what people really thought about a certain product. There is mostly nothing but hubris abound when it comes to modern day corporations. It is interesting to see when that will really cost them.
At least when there's any viable alternative their customers can switch to. It's just
that different departments have different priorities - marketing is the one least likely
to care about the product itself, most likely to view the consumer as a sucker, and
the aspect we're exposed to the most personally(other than the product itself.)
PS itself is a good example. I don't, by any means, believe the entirity of the dev team
is really all that "involved" in the market and the money side - I think many of them are
way more interested still in content delivery, in their various deparments(and going by
the marketing hate on the forums, I think it's a fair statement that many people feel
simularly.) We're dealing with them less, and marketing and PR more these days though,
so that's the "face" PS as a whole are giving us more of. =/
As said, different people want different things. Personally, as disappointed as I am withQuote:Originally Posted by Tyger42
What is with people getting so offended by a BUSINESS offering a purely optional but desirable product to entice people to spend their money? The whole point of a business is to do just that, you know. Welcome to this little thing we call "capitalism".
this offering and direction... it doesn't actually impact me that much. My main focus is
in the content, and with the current SSA, upcoming DA+, and other things down the
pipe, I'm.... a surprisingly satisfied customer just now. Been awhile I could state that
honestly. I'll state my opinion because I'm a loudmouth, and just in case anyone in
Redname cares a fig, but.
When costume parts and customization are *that* important a side of the game to one,
I can see where things like this are very close to dealbreaking events. And if they'e already
irate about something else, well...
Voting with your feet and your wallet when you're not personally satisfied is *also* one
of the crucial components of capitalism. If a business isn't meeting your personal needs,
there's absolutely nothing dishonorable about saying so and taking your money away from
them. -
Quote:Glad to help bring joy to your life. =)Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Really? You mean all this time I was writing on a public forum when I could have been doing it in notepad and saving myself an extra posting step?
Say, does that work with singing also? Doing it in the shoe department of Macy's is not always convenient, but I do own a shower.
Incidentally, I'm writing this for other people who might find you just as amusing as I do. I'm not writing this for myself because I already find you amusing. -
Quote:Ah, I wasn't aiming that at you; sorry for the misunderstanding. You were giving directedOriginally Posted by Astra
Well, I like my long-winded opinions. This is who I am. I don't like to be misunderstood, and I like to voice my thoughts however I have them. It wasn't for a sense of satisfaction that I voice my thoughts either. I do not want to give up such a great game, but I do not wish to be a victim again either, nor do I wish to not have the ability to not get every item in the game, which, up until now, has not happened. So, I guess you can dislike me Lol, Everyone's different.
feedback and responses(as are others.) That's a lot different. -
Quote:I don't think he meant it in regards to the players buying it. I think he meant the offeringOriginally Posted by Chad Gulzow-Man
My, that's a very high horse you have there.
itself is, regardless if people buy it or not.
Though I guess the promo shot on the front page *does* look unfortunatly more like a slot
machine display instead of trading cards. :P I'm not sure that was a good design choice. -
Quote:It's not confusing. I'm not sure you understand the meaning of the word, with how oftenOriginally Posted by Arcanaville
This didn't read so much like a reply, as it did an attempt to appear editorially significant for self-gratification.
By specific strict unbreakable policy, unless I specifically state otherwise any post I make longer than a single paragraph gets reviewed and edited at least twice before posting. That rule has been true since my very first post. Upon rereading it, I'm still happy with its structure and topical flow. If it seems confusing to you, I can break it down for you and outline the specific transitional constructs and the thought progression.
and quick you are to throw it out in response to everything challenging.
I'm just saying, if you're writing for yourself, you can do that in a text editor locally
and save the spam. That's all. -
Quote:This didn't read so much like a reply, as it did stream of consciousness, more aimedOriginally Posted by Arcanaville
Wall of Text Snip
towards yourself than the other person. -
Quote:Welcome to City of Freedom Dollar.Originally Posted by Slazenger
Where did they say these costume pieces would be sold normally?
If people purchased these costume pieces on the basis that they were only available via the super packs, there are going a hell of a lot of p'd off people looking for their money back. -
Extremely disappointed this went live like this at these prices.
I'd type more, but it never seems to matter these days. -
Quote:Nothing says "means business" like deliberately exposed vulnerabilities on your battle gear.Originally Posted by Noble Savage
Bottom line, this is a battle-ready, functional design that 'means business,' but it also has character and tells us a little about the young woman who wears it.
In a News of the Weird story today, popular young superhero Penelope Yin was killed
in Kings Row today from a severe gunshot wound to the abdomen. Yin - who had only
recently joined the ranks of Longbow - was reportedly rounding up some of the loose
Clockwork plaguing the area, when a known gang member confronted and fired the
fatal shot.
The shooter - a known member of the Skulls gang, going by the moniker "DarkHollow Ichigo",
was apprehended during an altercation with his girlfriend.
A representative from Longbow spoke briefly about the tragedy, and assured this reporter
that Longbow would undergo a comprehensive review about their uniform customization
policy. -
Quote:$5 aprx was the price I always felt super boosters should be at, to not qualify as a Ripoff. I was greatly pleased to see one finally at this price, so scooped it up right away, even though there are only a handful of things I want in it.Originally Posted by Avatea
Martial Arts Super Booster Pack - Available 25-29 November Only
Contains 41 martial arts costume parts, 2 emotes, 2 costume change emotes and the Ninja Run power.
Paragon Market Location: Paragon Picks > Black Friday
400 Points
A shame it's only a black friday thing. I'd certainly buy other full booster packs if they came down for that price. -
Quote:As someone who keeps trying to play stalkers, and keeps failing to enjoy them, this is byOriginally Posted by Pyro_Beetle
I do not think sweeping changes are needed. Outside of outlier powersets in brutes and scrappers, and using the placate and AS mechanic, I think stalkers DPS versus single targets is just fine. The mechanic, however, is somewhat clunky, and does need to be tweaked. AoE needs to be addressed for many of the sets (lets face it Dark, Electric and Street Justice still have as much AoE as the scrapper/brute versions)
1. Make AS (outside of PvP) a normal attack power, 1.07 sec cast time, ditch the interrupt time.
far the biggest change I would want to see personally. Even if it came at the cost of
somewhat lower damage.
The difference between Widow/Bane SoAs, and Stalkers, is summed up in the difference
in how fast and easily the SoA heavy hitters burst out of concealment, compared to how
clumsy the stalker generally is about it, for me.
If stalkers had as quick and easy a time running in and jamming their knife/hand/ball of
energy in somebody's kidney as the SoAs do, I think I'd enjoy them a lot more.
Yeah, I know, you don't have to rely on AS, and that stands out more on some primaries
than others, but Hide > AS is the signature of the Stalker AT. It should be the fuzzy feel
good of the AT, IMO, and at least for me, it just makes me feel impatient and bored in a
way even regular snipe powers don't make me feel.
I'm there. I'm in melee range, I've got a glint in my eye and I'm ready to murder something.
Hurry up and let me get to business. -
Quote:In the case of incarnate trials, I'm glad it's not like that. It means all of us who don't wantOriginally Posted by Obsidius
It should be awarded with a badge for completing the trial, just like every other unlockable weapon in the sodding game. If they're going to get a costume piece, at least they could have used precedent. Having it as a random rare drop just makes it feel like an armor or weapon drop from any other grindy MMO raid ever.
to run that crap, don't get locked out. The way we'll have access to it is a bit of a hand
me down, but I'm fine with that, just like I was fine with having to get my pool c/d recipes
as hand me downs when the invention system first came in, since I don't like running TFs
that often either.
The drop odds and neccessity for two recipes concerns me, but something I'd have to see
how it shakes out. -
I too have problems in these zones, although I expect much more trouble than normal,
since my hardware is old.
I've come to believe that in these two zones, the "phasing" technology introduced,
along with whatever kind of graphical caching they're doing now to speed up
mission loading, are both the source of many problems at the moment.
In First Ward, I avoid the shadow paths like the plague. AP, phasing can't really be
avoided as far as I can tell, but despite the reports of /unloadgfx 's behavior being
changed, I've found that using it on zoning in or out of AP, both decreases my
trouble with the zone, and has all but eliminated my out of memory crashes in it.
Additionally, the central square around the Atlas Statue and City Hall, appears to be
a sandtrap compared to the rest of the zone. I tend to avoid it and skirt around the
edges whenever possible, and this too has decreased my problems in AP.
Some or all of this may or may not help you, but they are in-game behaviors that
have helped me with these new zones, so they may be of some use to you as well.