City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Rangle M. Down

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  1. Rangle M. Down
    I've got a couple of SW characters that could use a Guild both Empire and Resistance sides.
  2. Rangle M. Down

    Last Dance

    POST-ACTION

    While I certainly didn't always agree with the tone of many of your posts, I will say I always respected the information you brought to the table. I always had to shake my head when people argued with you over "the math."

    You were an invaluable asset to the community, even though many didn't see you as such. It was always interesting hear how the Dev's occasionally leaned on you to explain "their" game to them. Arcana-Time being one example.
  3. Rangle M. Down
    Happy Turkey day to you too.
  4. Rangle M. Down
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by konrad knox View Post
    Wow, kids. When your roller skating rink shuts down an arcade machine, to you cry this much too?
    It's games. Games shut down. The fact that you were horrible lifeless addicts who detached from reality and got engrossed in a videogame is your own personal problem.

    Games shut down, they aren't meant to last forever.

    It's not NC Soft's problem that you like your characters better than yourselves or something, beats me why else there would be such a tragedy and anger. There are a ton of different games out there.

    City of Heroes sucked anyway. I told everyone last year that it won't last long. If they had any plans to continue it, they'd fix asset control and continuity issues and pvp and a lot of other things, lacking from a persistant world standpoint.
    And a... uhm.... Happy Thanksgiving to you too?
  5. Rangle M. Down
    I must say I was completely Flabbergasted by the whole thing. Kudos to everyone who was involved in the surprise.

    All those "Rangle toons", the Rangle Plot channel and The Rangle Plot SG?

    Just.
    Completely.
    Blown.
    Away.

    I can't how much I appreciated the effort you guys took to pull the prank off. My hat's off to all of you. I've been "Rangle Plotted".
  6. Rangle M. Down
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rabid_M View Post
    I guess that explains the emails I've been getting saying I can get "cheap, Canadian Tw1nki3s" from them.
    Don't those come with a higher percentage of alcohol, just like their beers?

  7. Rangle M. Down
    When the Wildstar Beta was announced, I was intrigued enough by the game that I attempted, unsuccessfully, to get into the beta. Finding out after the closure was announced, that CoH was the 5th MMO that NcSoft has shuttered, I'm hesitant to play that game. Not because I hate NcSoft, but because I don't trust them to make decisions that are best for their customers.

    We've been told that CoH was profitable by the former PS management. NcSoft has never told us it wasn't. Closing a profitable branch of your business, in a manner that "smells like politics", would leave me thinking "what's next?" Maybe in a few years, if they've shown a change in direction, I might try another NcSoft title. For now I'm not comfortable spending money on their games. Who knows if I ever will.
  8. Rangle M. Down
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TimTheEnchanter View Post
    Technically, this would be called a realignment of company focus.
    Ok. That works for me.
  9. Rangle M. Down
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Brillig View Post
    If it were that great, that successful and that profitable, it wouldn't have been shut down.
    That would preclude politics. There have been times when management shifts have changed business direction and successful areas have been shut down.

    1. Sometimes it's a change in business focus. (they'd branched out too far and are getting back to their "core" philosophies)
    2. Sometimes it's because the new guy in charged disliked the idea of that business.
    3. Sometimes it's because it was the previous manager's pet project and the new guy disliked them.
    4. Sometimes, even though it's successful, it's more work to keep it there then they feel is worth the effort.
    5. Sometimes they want a new shiney that "might" make them more money.

    I'm sure there are other reasons I'm not thinking of at the moment. We've been told it was something along the lines of my first point.
  10. Rangle M. Down
    I'm not sure where I heard this first, but I like telling this "tall tale"...

    One bright day in the middle of the night,
    Two dead boys got up to fight.

    Back to back they faced each other,
    Drew their swords and shot each other.

    Deaf policeman heard the noise,
    And came and killed those two dead boys!

    If you don't believe this lie is true,
    Go ask the blind man, he saw it too!
  11. Rangle M. Down
    It's also possible that some of the original coding was "sloppy" compared to current coding practices. I'm sure they linked things in some ways to "make it work", that caused other issues when more code was added later on. The equivalent would be changing the wall switch in your house which then somehow causes the neighbor's sprinkler four blocks down to stop working right.
  12. Rangle M. Down
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Fantabulous View Post
    So they didn't want to do their jobs properly and there were problems. I understand that it's the same everywhere.
    Depends on the definition of "properly", and how it's interpreted.
  13. Rangle M. Down
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Warrior7 View Post
    #3) The "Random" hit roll generator: I've said this time and time again that the so-called "random" rolls were tainted, but no one listened. CoH was adamant against putting those numbers out there and with good reason. I've finally figured out the reason why the numbers are skewed... different powers produce different numbers with different objects. There is no way in hell they tested EVERY power against every villain and every object in the game. (IE: the inherent technology power of Taser vs. oil slick. Even with my invention sets upping the chance to hit to 95%, I miss 20 - 30% of the time. Bet they didn't test this power to this object).
    Tankers really took it in the shorts on this, especially if you were playing a combo system like Dual Blades. With Gauntlet making every attack an AoE, and having it's own hidden "to-hit" rolls that were being counted against the streak breaker, it was possible to miss several times in a row on your ST attacks.
  14. Rangle M. Down
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Starsman View Post
    Wow... just how many of these accounts you have in reserve?
    It's possible he bought them on Sockpuppets.com
  15. Rangle M. Down
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Black Pebble View Post
    We'd also have to put in Moon Rover Stops, so players could stop wondering where all these Moon Rovers were coming from.

    FPARN!
    FPAFCRNP! (First person after four consecutive red name posts!)


    I just want to make sure you weren't mooning Tunnel Rat. That would be bad.
  16. Rangle M. Down
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Black Pebble View Post
    There were a few things I learned almost immediately upon joining Paragon.

    1) Pretty much every idea I, as a player, ever had was thought of and evaluated in-depth already.

    2) Nothing was ever "that easy," even if I was dead-on sure it was "that easy."

    3) Nobody wanted bug fixes and gameplay improvements more than a COH dev.

    4) Nothing was ever "that easy." (Including the Hami-O exploit)

    It was an incredibly educational experience.
    I never said, nor presumed, that it "was" easy.

    However, I do believe the delay in getting the exploit fixed led some to believe that "if they haven't fixed it by now, it never would be fixed."
  17. Rangle M. Down
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AF_Again View Post
    Actually I was talking about the Mother Ship and Hami Raids. The MSR enjoyed a brief resurgence with the Alpha slot but it was brief. Hami poor old fellow just got neglected. I was on servers that went months without having a raid because his rewards were considered poor. That was even before the Hami-O nerf after that it was just more of an uphill challenge to get people to participate.

    Goes to ADHD/Complete lack of follow through on the part of the devs and a community that excused them anything and encouraged anyone who wouldn't to leave.

    Now that I think about it that may have been the final effect of ED. The people who had a concept of standards and accountability overwhelmingly left. What was left was possibly very skewed in outlook.
    Funny story here. Even after the release of the iTrial system, the Justice server ran Hami raids nearly every Mon/Wed night for years, with the occasional Friday night raid as well. (Sometimes Justice would run back to back Hami raids as well.) Even with that, someone could still run a successful pop-up Hami during the week. Typically those would be followed up by a Mother Ship Raid. Even with 2-3 Ship raids a week, I could still run a random MSR during the week, in-spite of those other Ship raids having happened, and still get plenty of people. As with the Hami raids, sometimes there would be back to back MSRs as well.

    As for the Hami-Os getting Nerfed. We, as players, have always been warned that there was a bug that we exploited. It's like going to an ATM and withdrawing $100 and getting an extra $20 free each time, without that extra $20 getting charged to your account. So when they finally fixed it so you don't get the extra $20, you're complaining about your "loss".

    Did I like the bug? Hell yes.
    Did I exploit the bug? Of course.
    Was I disappointed when they fixed the bug? Well, duh.
    Was I mad when they finally got around to fixing the bug? No. Because I KNEW IT WAS A BUG THAT WOULD EVENTUALLY GET FIXED...
    I think the saying is Caveat Emptor.

    I was, however, surprised that it took them that long to get around to fixing it.
  18. Rangle M. Down
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Starsman View Post
    Well... first to clarify, this is not "this is where CoH went wrong and due to it the game is canceled" but instead "this is where CoH went wrong and could have gone much better"
    • Power customization: should have been a day one feature.
    Indeed.


    Quote:
    • City of Villains (the game should have never set solid barriers between players)
    It would have been better if they could have had heroes and villains in the same zone, with the ability to flag yourself to PvP or not. Mind you, I would have kept the flag off.


    Quote:
    • Level stamped inventions.
    No argument there.


    Quote:
    I also have a few grudges with AT balance, especially tankers.
    I'm almost afraid to ask...
  19. Rangle M. Down
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tenzhi View Post
    Invention Origin set bonuses... in my opinion it would have been better to have a hard cap on the various bonuses (possibly with sharply diminishing returns past the cap) to keep them from really getting out of hand.
    It probably would have been impossible to implement, but I wouldn't have minded AT mods effecting set bonus numbers.
  20. Rangle M. Down
    Looking back at the game there were a few things that stood out to me that seemed to have created the greatest population loss in the game. Some of these I wasn't around for, but was told about how "they were handled." Mind you this is my perspective, so take it with a grain...er bucket of salt. Not in any particular order, here's my take:

    Endurance Diversification and the Global Defense Nerf: While ultimately necessary, it looked like the manner in which this was handled caused a lot of anger within the game population. If there had been better communication about the reasoning behind this, and an announcement of eventual IO system, I think this would have gone over smoother. If the game had started with those in place I don't think it would have been an issue.

    PvP in general: I'm certainly not a huge fan of PvP, but I know a number of folks who are. Unfortunately PvP in this game wasn't well implemented to begin with. When they did the i13 changes, with promises of more to come, they didn't follow through. While the PvP population wasn't huge, those changes sliced that population even thinner.

    The Incarnate Reward system: First, not realizing there were inconsistencies within the iTrial reward system that heavily penalized Masterminds etc, not responding well to the criticism about it (and from the players perspective, not admitting there was an issue for quite a while). That included wide spread modding on the forums that angered quite a few of the more respected members of the game community. (I'm aware of quite a few well regarded Justice players who left because of that alone.) Adding more and more types of Incarnate rewards, making things more complicated then necessary. Gating Incarnate powers behind teaming to begin with, delaying a solo path for others, and then making the solo path extremely slow for those that chose that direction.

    Architect Entertainment system: Not listening to the beta testers warning that the system could be abused, and then "freaking out" when the players did it? Yeah, not so good. Eventually it was brought into a balance, but getting there was U G L Y.

    Advertising? What advertising?: While I'm sure Black Pebble did what he could with the budget he had, it's hard to make a working Rocket Ship with duct tape and elmers glue as your only resources.

    And lastly the Invention Origin Enhancement set rewards: While the Law of Five certainly kept it from getting worse, like the AE system players found ways to exploit set bonuses. The most infamous of this was the Blessings of the Zephyr set, and the dust up when it's set bonuses were reduced. Mind you, I abused this as much as anyone, but there were times where I scratched my head and went "Really? I can get away with this? Ok."
  21. Rangle M. Down
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ImpulseKing View Post
    I know this is probably covered by the EULA, but I'm not certain where. Asked another way, if the game is sold after shutdown how will the new owners know about things like veteran status or prior purchases?
    In all honesty, we don't know if they will, or not. The data will exist, but who knows if a "new owner" would get that information if the game was purchased as part of the package. We don't know if NcSoft, etc. will have the ability, or willingness, to extract that information and give it to a different company. That would be up to NcSoft and any potential new owner to sort out amongst themselves. One would hope so, but like life, there are no guarantees beyond death and taxes.
  22. Rangle M. Down
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Nova Knight View Post
    Stage 1 – Denial: “This can’t be happening. They just introduced new powersets, they were beefing up Blasters, creating new content and making all kinds of quality-of-life improvements. There must be some mistake.”

    Stage 2 – Anger: “NCSoft, you’ve made a powerful enemy. From hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.”

    Stage 3 – Bargaining: “How ‘bout if you increase the subscription fee? No? Then take my first-born; he’s strong and he’ll work hard... How ‘bout a kidney? I’ve got two of those… just keep the game up and running.”

    Stage 4 – Depression: “Can’t bring myself to play… it’s too painful, like rubbing salt into an open wound. Where’s the damn Ben and Jerry’s?”

    Stage 5 – Acceptance: (sigh) “Guess I’ll log on while I still can. November 30th is coming fast.”
    I went through most of those within the first week of the announcement, even though I didn't get all that angry.

    I still had some hope the game might be sold to the former Paragon Studio management, but after a month had gone by I dropped back into Stage 5. Occasionally Stage 4 will smack me upside the head still.
  23. Rangle M. Down
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Evil_Legacy View Post
    dang, WoW, the land of fantasy and majic and top notch gear being defeated by a creature that is summoned from a small red/white ball who's icon is a yellow electric rodent like thing.
    An extremely popular yellow electric rodent like thing in the younger populations. Some of my friend's children have their noses constantly stuck into their Nintendo DS playing that game. I know I did a similar thing with books when I was much younger.
  24. Rangle M. Down
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dark_respite View Post
    most of us are trying to forget him.

    Michelle
    aka
    samuraiko/dark_respite
    qft
  25. Rangle M. Down
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TheRing View Post
    It's amazing enough that you've kept this event running, but the success of it's proliferation to other servers is the real testament to your enormous dedication, perseverance, and MEGA awesomeness.

    Even after years of inactivity, I'd always recognize the 1st Tuesday of every month. The people who showed up to those events, and the ones who managed it through thick and thin, were a constant temptation for me to re-sub and put on tights again. But when I played I couldn't even imagine every Tuesday as a Tanker Tuesday. So epic.

    Well done tanks, well done indeed!

    I miss all my old school tanker friends, and wish I could have kept in touch with them all...

    I'm @Ring in CO, and usually Ring on steam as well, but if not, I'm a member of the Steam Group "MEGAFORCE" which was my SG before I un-subbed. Also, there's MFERS.NET, if any of the old tanking crew want to catch up sometime. I plan on participating on TT's, however they turn out, in Champs. Look forward to meeting some of you there!
    If you're interested, there was a Tanker Tuesday Steam Group created.