Ravenswing

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Do any of you guys actually play this game?

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Hammer, it's the season of goodwill, do try to develop a sense of humour.

Now then. When I started this, I was so not bothered about targetted toggles. Hadn't even considered them. I started the thread because I had been playing the game, and I had wandered into PvP Zone. There I got my behind handed to me by a ranged attacker I couldn't get near. Now, that's partially my fault, I wasn't in the zone for PvP, the character isn't spec'd for it, but still, stopping my opponent shooting at me while I could do absolutely no damage to them got me thinking.

Essentially, with range attacks in this game, if you are in range and not blocked you are going to hit. You don't even need facing to do it, which would provide some degree of challenge to it.

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Stuns arent breakfreeable in the game anymore. Any of them. Neither are any other mezzes.

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Which suggests that this much vaunted solution to kiting is baloney.


To be honest, I'd prefer if facing was taken into consideration when attacking and LoS actually affected most powers the way it does snipes, i.e. they fail if the target is lost before the power fires. I suspect that the engine isn't up to making targetting dependent on facing, however.

Humans are amazingly good at spotting patterns. Their brains like finding patterns. They find patterns in things that have no patterns in, because they like finding them.

Similarly, if something that should have a pattern is broken, they tend to spot it pretty quickly, even if they can't figure out why it's wrong for a while.

I think that CoH already has the largest team size of any MMO I know of.

A 12 man team would spawn so many mobs that you wouldn't be able to move on indoor missions, and street sweeping would be a total steamroller operation.

So no.

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...so you're saying it's impossible, then saying it's possible?

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Sort of, for a given value of impossible.

I was actually saying that it was classified as too much work, but it may be that someone had a bright idea and it now isn't as much work as it was. We'll have to see.

No breath holding. People look bad on oxygen deprivation.

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which would in turn explain why the Ouroboros travel power is a "Temp" power - something that has never been satisfactorarily explained

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It's a Temp power because that's how the game allocates powers which are not gained through sets or pools.

PvP103 is a trial account. He started it so he could troll the boards. Ignore him.

I quite like Fahie's suggestion. That could work. It's active rather than a passive function of mechanics.

Some people take offense rather easily.

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It's still fun though, just a little odd to see a character run away with itself.

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No, we had that discussion a little while ago. It's not odd at all. Rare is the person who discovers their character doesn't mutate in unexpected ways once played.

The biggest cases of this I have are both women. Velvet started out life as a driven vigilante [censored], and rapidly turned into a mother figure, possibly as a reaction to all the teens we had running about the statue at the time. Nitoichi, as she keeps telling people, was straight when she started out, and has ended up shacked up with another woman. I really didn't expect that.

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i mean surely it cant be hardcoded indefinately if it works client side.

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What does 'hardcoded indefinately' mean?

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If its coded into it then surely its possible to get an overwriting code that works similar to the mods and basically code it so that everytime it fires, its coded to follow the same rule as your personal view does.

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So, every time this power fires, the game has to go out and find out what colour it should be changing that blast to be. It then has to go through the data file and change the hardcoded value. And then it can fire the effect as normal.

If someone else uses the same power on you, it now has to go off and find out what colour they are using, change your data file, and fire the effect.

What do you think happens when two rad defenders with different colour schemes decide to have a battle?

Meanwhile, the current game has no technology for modifying effect files on the fly. If it did, there would be an extremely high probability that a few weeks of gameplay would be in danger of corrupting the effects file anyway.

And let's not forget game updates, which would need to be changed to ignore effect files, overwriting them at all times to ensure they are correct. Currently, I think, it checksums them.

No, there is a right way to do power customisation, and what you are proposing is not it.

Look up 'Power Customisation' or 'Power Customization' if it's an American database or forum. You'll find loads of details on why it's been officially stated it won't happen.

However, it is also somewhere near the top of the list of things which have been officially stated as impossible, but that may happen. So, don't give up all hope, but also don't expect to see anything before I15 (earliest).

You missed out trot, which I think involves the legs moving in opposite corner pairs.

The other important aspect of horse's movement concerns the driving force employed. At full run, all the legs are pushing independently, or something so there's more driving force to the group (though, also at a a run, all four legs are off the ground at some points, which is never the case in the other modes of movement.

I'm sure there's a really good article in Wiki about this, complete with those old stop frame photographs that won the bet.

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Never been to Holland, but even there, where the air is relatively clean

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I just had to laugh. Some bits of Holland are agrarian, but it's a very small country and the nice, clean agrarian bits tend to be right beside the dirty, smelly industrial bits. The air there isn't that clean.

And, yes, I have been there, on days when you can see for miles (just like Manchester) and days when you can't (just like Manchester ). A lot of it has a lot to do with the amount of water vapour suspended in the atmosphere, I think.

Made me laugh.

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You might not have meant it as an insult, but the way you worded it seems to suggest that, by dint, Im uneducated, or stupid. Which Isnt particularly fair.

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No. As I have just had pointed out to me elswewhere, that's what you read into it. I've been programming computers for 20 years professionally, and longer than that as an amateur. I am bound to know a reasonable amount about programming. I also have some experience of modelling and animation from NwN. I'll admit that I never got the hang of the modelling thing. I didn't spend the time, I have zero artistic talent, and it was just, plain hard.

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So, I guess we just wait and see if they include walk or not.

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Indeed. And glory be that day. Just don't take the fact that there is a walk animation in the game as evidence that it's simple to implement on PCs.

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It's designed to encourage consumerism and adding an animation seems to be a (relatively - ie anyone who is interested in learning about animation can develop a new walk) simple task

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Hmm. Well, two things.

1. Presumably, the Second Life animation engine is designed to work that way (or was modified afterward). Of course, that same engine doesn't have to cope with some of the stuff CoX does. (Is there any combat SL?) A general rule of thumb in any code is that hardcoded values are faster than ones you have to look up.

2. If you wanted, you could design animated models for Neverwinter Nights. Anyone could do it, if they wanted to spend a fairly significant amount of time learning to use a 3D modelling program and how to implement animations using it. It could be that the SL engine has some mechanism for implementing non-cooked animations from pseudo-code or some such, but the engine will be doing a lot of work to turn that code into character movement.

I don't think you can really roleplay a character without a backstory. There would be nothing to roleplay with.

Even if your backstory is that they have amnesia and can't remember a thing before they woke up a superhero/villain one day, that's a backstory, and it would affect how you played the character.

However, I've never created a character I've been unable to come up with a backstory for. I usually end up making them, even if I didn't intend to. Velvet, for example, was created on Test originally, when the body scale sliders were first introduced. Maxed out chest and legs, tall, blonde. It was also when the martial arts jackets came out, so I decked her out in one of those, and thigh boots. Total [censored] with a katana. Five minutes of running around on Test, and she had a backstory (ex-Playboy model from Kent who had given up the business after marrying and having a child, now a hero to get revenge after her family were killed in a combing meant for a Family boss). She migrated to Union when I needed a character to play with while my main was busy out of town for a week or two, and turned out to be a nice character to play.

My current main, Nitoichi, was made with specific objectives in mind after I came back to the game. She was DB/WP because they were both new sets, and she was going to heavily involve herself with Vanguard, because of the RWZ revamp. I didn't have a backstory for her for maybe 5 minutes.

Edit: Also, as Syracuse says below, I pretty much never write down a ten page essay on my characters. Their 'backstory' is a rough outline of their history which gets filled in by annecdote while playing. (One of my characters is 8000 years old. If I had to write down his entire backstory I'd still be writing it.)

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well the base walk is a bit poo but that's to encourage you to find an improvement I suspect.

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I rest my case?

AFAIK, animations are generally seperate 'code' which is attached to a skeleton. It's certainly not impossible for a given engine to provide the facility to supply the animation code with dimensions, and then for the code to be complex enough to allow timing to be changed dynamically based on those dimensions.

However, there is no evidence that the CoX engine currently has that capability, and adding it would likely be relatively complex, and certainly more resource hungry.

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if not downright rude at times too

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Well, that's your opinion. I was simply giving my opinion, which is fairly well educated, but an opinion nonetheless.

My opinion is also that calling the development team 'lame' is a direct insult, no matter how many cheeky little smilies you glue on it. So please quit with the name calling.

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for AFAIK, the leg length doesn't have to make a difference, it's how NCsoft/cryptic designed the engine to work.

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You are absolutely right that it doesn't have to make a difference, but not that it's 'how they designed the engine.'

If you use the same basic animation for walking on a 4-foot model and an eight-foot model, it would look like one (or both) were moonwalking. To make it look right, you need to take the length of the legs into account. It isn't uncommon for height not to be considered for walking animations, but it does look odd even in LotRO where the height differences are pretty small. With the variation available in CoX, it would start looking stupid.

Running is pretty much entirely different, or at least, the difference is slight enough that it isn't as noticeable. It's all down to the kinematics of movement, and different stride types. Anyone with horse riding experience should know what different stride types do.

As for how it should be achived, I'd do it as a power, like Sprint. If you want it on a key you can always bind it yourself.

But that, as they say, is likely to be a long way down the road.

My only comment at this stage, because there's really very little detail there, is that the example you've given isn't a great one.

Rapier appears to be katana with added accuracy.

About the only thing I can immediately see as an advantage here is that you would probably be able to swap from BS Scrapper to Kat Scrapper with a respec.

A Very Ravenswing Christmas


Being a Tale of the Goings On of Ravenswing's Characters During the Holiday Season

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Mid-Wales, in Snowdonia, near Dolgoch, December 24th 2008, 21:05.


Something about the sound outside made Dafydd look up in time to see Amy frown. "There's something wrong outside," she said. "Anger... fear."

Dafydd folded his copy of the Radio Times (there hadn't been much worth watching anyway) and stood up, looking around for his boots. "I'll go take a look," he said. The boots were followed by a thick, waxed cotton coat and the cap he had taken to wearing, and then he picked up his stick, which happened to be about as long as a dai-katana, and walked out into the little porch, closing the inner door behind him before opening the outer one. Old stone cottages were glorious when warm, but letting the cold in could be fatal.

Thick cloud hung over head, low in the sky, but at least it was not raining and the temperature had stayed above freezing. Still, he planted his stick ahead of him as he headed out to the nearest field where the sheep were penned. It would not do to end up on his rump due to some patch of ice that had managed to hold on. He crossed the yard carefully and stopped at the fence, looking out into the inky blackness. "Should've brought some night goggles," he muttered to himself, and then the wind shifted slightly and he turned his head. It was a sweet, slightly metallic smell he knew quite well, and now that his eyes were adjusting to the dark and he knew where to look, he spotted the source immediately. Vaulting the fence, he ran toward the stricken animal.

Getting closer, he could see that there was no hope for this one. Whatever had hit it had ripped its throat wide open and then gorged on the entrails. It was typical of a predatory kill, but there was no sign of the predator, and there were very few things in the Welsh mountains that were up to doing that to a fully grown ewe. Almost automatically, Dafydd's mind worked through the spells which made War Crow what he was. His metabolism increased, his senses heightened. His grip shifted on the stick he was holding as he scanned around. When he moved, it was blindingly quickly, and he stopped beside another fallen sheep. This one was still breathing, a huge, clawed rent in its side. "Aww, damn," he growled, looking around again for the attacker.

It came out of the darkness on his left like a ghost. Eight feet in height, a double row of gleaming teeth doing more to reveal its presence than the jet black fur it was clad in. An enormous, clawed paw swung at him and he flicked his stick up to parry the blow, rolling right to gain distance and lifting easily to his feet. The creature growled and Dafydd growled back, baring his own teeth. It took this as the challenge it was and howled as it launched itself forward. A bolt of black netherworld energy slammed into the creature's side, enveloping the beast in coils of shadow. It stopped, stumbled, and throw a paw in Dafydd's general direction which missed wildly. Dafydd's arms raised up over his head and came down again, slamming his stick into the creature's muzzle. There was a yelp of pain, and the creature ran off in the direction of the hills.

Amy was at Dafydd's side a second later, checking him for wounds. "It didn't even come close, lass," he said as she fussed, "but yonder sheep'll need seeing to. Think y'can patch it up."

"Carry it to the kitchen," Amy said, frowning at the fallen animal. "I can take care of the wound, but it'll need looking after. There are some internal injuries."

Dafydd nodded and picked up the animal, which protested this loudly. Amy winced at the animal's pain. "I'll have to leave her with you," he said as he started toward the gate into the field, "that thing needs hunting down before it comes back, or attacks someone else."

Amy nodded, unhappy about it, but knowing there would be nothing she could say to persuade him otherwise. It was not how she had planned to spend Christmas Eve, but it was not the worst way she had spent it either.

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Founders Falls, 22:15.


Everything was packed, clothes, presents, bikini. Everything for a trip to an island in the southern hemisphere which, Anastasia was most pleased to note, was in its summer. All that was needed now was a drive over to Skyway and a quick trip through a portal to Zorielle's private getaway.

Anna smiled, picking up a picture from the bedside table. It showed a man holding a small child, a girl. "I do still miss you," she said to the photograph, and then she put it down, picked up her bags, and headed for the door.

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The Barrington Club, London, 22:45.


The staff at the Barrington Club held their annual Christmas party on the eve of the big day itself. A skeleton crew was kept in place, generally of the same few people who did not really like parties, and Barker, who liked parties, but also liked serving drinks. Besides which, the bar area was what they used to party in, with the tables moved into a storage room to make way for dancing. People you barely ever saw were there now, drinking, eating, and laughing with the other staff, and the one or two invited members.

It was Samantha's first ever Christmas as a member of staff, and she was sticking close to Jason. Partially because she hardly knew anyone, having spent much of her tenure in the Archive below ground, and partially because she was very much planning to get very tipsy, suggest she was unfit to get home, and end up sleeping with him. Christmas was the one time of the year she tended to regret that her considerable love of mouldy old books had resulted in her having no one to go home to. Even before she had joined the Club, she had spent much of her time on work, and had never really bothered with a social life. Now, with all the fascinations and distractions of the Archive... Well, Jason had had to come down and drag her up to the party. He had found her engrossed in translating a twelfth century Latin scroll she had located detailing the rise to power of a warlord in the Middle East.

Right now, Jason was talking to a small group of staff who Samantha vaguely recognised as having something to do with food preparation. There was a lot of laughing, mostly at the expense of members with odd dietary requirements who were not there to defend their peculiar eating habits. Jason laughed with them, and then said something about doing the rounds, and moved on. Samantha followed, drink in hand, grinning at the other members of staff as she did so. She would never remember all the names.

"You look a little tired," she commented in the gap between groups. "I saw Ms Ewers was in the Club yesterday..."

"Yes," Jason chuckled wryly, "it was a long night, though I admit the time seemed to pass too quickly."

"She's... quite something. You seem rather fond of her."

Jason stopped and turned to look at the young librarian. "Was that a hint of jealousy I heard in your voice, my dear Sam?" A grin tweaked at the corners of his mouth and she slapped him on the arm before replying.

"No! It's just... A man your age, it must be tiring." She realised that she was entirely failing to keep a straight face, which entirely spoiled the effect.

Jason looked at her shrewdly. "Well, how about you finish your drink, and then we'll go find out how tiring it is."

She blinked at him. He was one for long words and flowery speech, a passion gained through long centuries of education and courtly conversation, and yet he could be very, very direct when the mood took him. She grinned brightly. "I think I could live with that," she said.

---

King's Row, 23:59.


Seven's internal chronometer registered the coming of midnight with its usual accuracy. It was synchronised to the time pulse of the city's teleportation grid, which in turn was synchronised to the heartless beat of three atomic clocks. As the date changed, Seven registered nothing more than the passing of another day, but somewhere, someone let off fireworks marking the start of Christmas Day. Her socialisation software informed her that this was a habit which had become far more common since the turn of the millennium, and that it would be customary to wish people 'Happy Holidays' on this day.

There was also an image. A small girl gleefully opening brightly wrapped parcels to discover that one contained a child-size replica of a PPD uniform.

The sound of a car exploding pulled Seven from her contemplation of the child. Some people, it seemed, were taking the fireworks idea a little too far. Launching herself from a crouch into a long, high jump, Seven went about her duties.

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Mid-Wales, December 25th, 00:23.


It had taken Dafydd more than three hours to track the wolf down to a lair at the base of a small hill. To him, it looked like the creature he had seen would never manage to squeeze through the crack in the rock there, but apparently it had since he found a tuft of black fur on the rough rock. He was thankful that he had changed into his 'working' costume before coming out. It was padded and lightly armoured, and it avoided him scraping good clothes as he squeezed through.

The cave opened out slightly into a narrow tunnel, and Dafydd edge forward, senses on full alert.

He heard it before a saw it. A growl, and the slight echo he picked up, making him realise the cave entrance had widened into something more roomy. He gauged the size of the chamber from the sound and moved to his right, stepping sideways, keeping himself facing the source of the growl. His sword was pointed at where he was fairly sure the wolf-thing was standing, ready to strike or parry as required. His heart was racing, adrenaline filling him with energy. This was why he actually did this kind of things these days: the rush. Still...

"Hey look, boyo," he said, "it's Christmas by now and I'm not really feeling like gutting a werewolf on Christmas Day. So, how about you give me some really good excuse not to, like transforming back into a frightened teenager or something?" There was no reply. "Go on... what'd'you say?"

The creature lunged forward, both arms raised. Dafydd slashed down across its chest, a light stroke designed only to halt its movement, which it accomplished, then he stepped left, spun, and brought his Impervium katana around in a shining arc which opened the creature up from its left hip to it right shoulder. The wolf-thing dropped to its knees, looking slightly confused. Dafydd's sword sliced neatly through its neck.

The farm boy, turned hero, turned business man and hobby farmer wiped his sword clean on the beast's fur and looked at it a little sadly. "Well, suit yourself," he said, and headed back out of the cave the way he had come in.

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Vigilance Tower, Skyway City, 00:30.


Claudia Chandris sat in her room with the lights off, her chin resting on her knees, arms wrapped around her shins. She had thought of stopping by the refectory where she heard sounds of laughter, but the other students hated her, she knew it, and the thought of what Nitoichi or, worse, Annette might do to her if she decided to start playing had made her scurry on to the lifts instead.

She hated Christmas. Among her presents on for eleventh Christmas Day had been an injection which had put her in a comma for three days and left her with the ability to read minds. Her father had given her the injection, saying, "Merry Christmas, Claudia," as he did it. This success after years of failure had only caused him to redouble his efforts. She shuddered and began rocking slowly back and forth.

Claudia really hated Christmas.

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Mid-Wales, 01:30.


The sheep was trying quite hard to eat a tea towel when Dafydd walked into the kitchen of the farmhouse. Amy was asleep, her head resting on her arms on the big, oak table which formed the centrepiece of the room. He smiled, walked over, and kissed her on the head.

"Hmm? Whu?" she mumbled, her eyes opening and her head lifting up. "Oh, you're back. Did you get it?"

"Aye, it shouldn't be botherin' anyone again," he replied. "Merry Christmas," he added, grinning.

Amy smiled and kissed him lightly on the lips. "Merry Christmas," she said.

The ewe continued to try to eat its tea towel.

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Unity Tower, 08:50.


Annette's eyes flickered open and there was the traditional moment of not being quite sure she was awake, before her mind settled and she smiled. She was still cuddled up against Linda's back, one arm looped around the blonde's body. The sensation of warm skin against warm skin was a nice one to wake up to.

Merry Christmas, Ni's voice said from somewhere in her head. Merry Christmas, she thought back. Have we forgotten anything about today? No, I've been checking, it's all ready. So I can stay here in bed all warm and cuddled up? Why d'you think I made sure we were before you woke? You think of everything.

She would have to get up shortly. Well, maybe in an hour. She would go over to Galaxy and see Nate. It would not take long, he was always happy to see her, but also perfectly happy when she left and he could go back to eating turkey and watching cartoons. There were presents to open, of course. Then she would take Linda over to the Club where she had more presents, and a full British Christmas dinner being prepared for them. Then she would give Linda her final present of the day, which would involve a locked bedroom door. She smiled and snuggled up to her lover. It was going to be a good day.

(( Excellent. I already started writing one story for all my lot. I'll get it posted up here as soon as I actually get it finished. ))

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he knows how hard apparently simple things can be.

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That made me giggle, and I could do with a giggle.

That has to be the best summation of what an experienced programmer is - EVER!

Because I'm that kind of person...

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Breaking lock is exploitable

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How?

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and kills utility of toggle AT's

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That I can see. So, don't do it on the toggles?

Though I'd have to say that I'm not entirely sure about this. If I had to break out of a fight to lose LoS to a Corrupter (for example) so that I lost the debuff they'd stuffed on me, that's me out of the fight for that much time. Now, add a faster recharge on those toggles in PvP Zones and I think it's be workable.

This is a suggestion, I do not wish to have my head bitten off.

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that the fix for kiting is simply giving to melee powers that would fast close distance

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Give them what? You missed the actual word out.

Also, phrases like "It has been pointed out a gazillion times" usually means "we want PvP more like PvP in <insert other game>, and it has this feature, so that's what we need." (Where, actually, you can replace 'PvP' for any other aspect of the game, it's not just PvPers that do that.) Little thought has actually gone into whether 'this feature' actually would solve the problem. No thought has usually gone into whether any other idea would solve it better or be more interesting.

So, I'd really like to hear about those exploits.

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it shouldnt be too difficult as its just a matter of really adding a few lines for a "check if its ticked on or off" statement, if off, ignore and move on

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It's also a matter of coding up an entirely new UI to provide the checkboxes for you to tick. That would need to be dynamic, depending on upgrades, so it's not that trivial.

Not saying it's a good or bad idea, just that it's not 'a few lines of code.'