Redlynne

There is a QoL update for the game UI. There will now be a slider allowing you to increase the size of your mouse cursor up to 2x the legacy (ie. unchanged since the game was played at 640x480 resolution) size.

Maybe not ... but you at least know who to talk to about making it happen, who to lean on to make it happen, and who in the office would be willing to demonstrate in person the use of a chainsaw in close proximity to sound editing equipment (with predictably catastrophic results that makes for fabulous youtube footage). Even if you aren't responsible for sound design ... you can "talk" to whoever is ... which is something that *WE* as a community can't do directly (like we can with you, Dink).

"Commence Operation FULL FRONTAL NERDITY!"

Post Apoc Costume Set is getting AN ELECTRIC CHAINSAW??



Seeing that big blade, I'm wondering if Dink can do up a variant that puts a stenciled "CHUNQSVARNA" logo on the big open space inside the rotating chains, as a parody nod to "Husqvarna" chainsaws (the LART of choice for BOFHes everywhere!) in the traditional fashion of Japanese Anime deliberately misspelling the names and logos of well known products for parody purposes (ask Black Pebble about this).

Ah ... but can you MAKE IT DRIP ... when playing the character "idle" animation(s) ...?

And if you can, make sure that the "red palette" choice is available for doing so ...

No ... and it's not worth it.

Says The Golden Girl of CoH.

I see what you did there ...

Considering that I've "cornered" Dark Watcher (and other programmers) for conversations on the topic of a completely revamped (and thus, supportable!) base editor at the last two Player Summits ... and will be again at the next one I attend ... I'd like to think that such speculation is not exactly idle. After all ... anything the Devs can build now for Base Editing has a very obvious application in being able to do Map Editing for Mission Architect *AND* could potentially be used as a tool to expand the available list of Indoor Maps used for regular missions (see SSA 1.5 for an example of this already in action).

As the person who talked to Arbiter Hawk at the Player Summit, let me give some more context to what he said then, and what I reported he said then. The first thing you need to realize is that Hawk is a pretty soft spoken guy (as you can see on this week's Coffee Talk with Zwillinger) who isn't a very "forward" sort of fellow (like, say, Positron, Dr. Aeon or Protean, for example). That means he isn't all that prone to "volunteer" all kinds of information and tidbits about Stuff™. He like to play conversations (both on the forums here and in person as well) with his cards held close to the chest (as it were) ... which is a good thing for a man in his position at Paragon Studios. So he's good at keeping info in "lockdown" and not revealing too much.

Secondly, when I was talking to him personally, I could practically see the wheels spinning in his head as he checked and cross-checked his lists of what he COULD and COULDN'T say about things, and was constantly on guard about confusing what was already LIVE in the game (and thus public knowledge) versus what he was actually actively working on for internal builds, and trying to keep that ALL straight in his head while standing in a hallway at a hotel on a saturday. Then add in the fact that I was peppering him with some reasonably specific questions pertaining to specific powers within a specific powerset ... and understandably if I were in *his* shoes (which don't have toes, while mine do ... but I tangent) I would want to have access to either City of Data, or better yet the in-house Powers Spreadsheets at my fingertips to be able to discuss SPECIFICS on powers and how they fit together without needing to reconstruct all of that information from memory (and probably get something wrong in the process).

And bear in mind, I wasn't just talking with him about Trick Arrow ... I was engaging him in a conversation about multiple powersets (Peacebringers, Warshades, Dual Pistols, Trick Arrow, others that I can't recall now because it's 3 months later) and without reference material "in hand" to aid you in conversations like that it's just really hard to keep everything straight in your head at all times what everything does and how it all "fits together just so" and what the little itty bitty gritty details we argue about are all relevant to ... and so on. So I can hardly blame him for not wanting to get too deep into the weeds with me on the specifics of powersets while I was chatting him up at the Player Summit (although he probably felt like I was putting him On The Spot somewhat), in part because I can understand the delicacy of his position.

Plus it's hard to remember EVERY DETAIL of EVERY POWER in EVERY POWERSET if you don't have either Mids' Hero Planner, City of Data or the in-game Spreadsheets (or cheatsheets of notes derived therefrom) in hand while talking about this stuff. I know *I* can't do it, and it would be quite "unfair" to expect Arbiter Hawk to do it just because manipulating that stuff is his Day Job (speaking of which, I wonder if he's gotten a badge for that yet?).



So in that respect, our conversation was somewhat necessarily limited to more generalized/generic themes and issues of powersets than I personally would have liked (because I *do* like getting down into the weeds of stuff like this) and we were not exactly interacting on the same plane/level of information (ie. I felt like I was a little better prepared, simply because I had a focus and knew my ground, while Hawk had to know "EVERYTHING" in order to respond, which isn't quite fair to him, honestly). Plus, he had limits to what he could talk about which I was *NOT* about to push or pressure him on!

And in an objective sense, he was actually correct in his point (made at the time) that Trick Arrow played well is far more effective than when it is played badly (let alone incompetently) ... but that was actually more of a side issue to the points I was trying to make with him about Trick Arrow is effectively "penalized" for its specialization, particularly when compared "on balance" (in multiple meanings of that term) with other buff/debuff powersets, in that Trick Arrow needs to "work harder to break even" with the performance of other powersets it is "competing" against.

The thing is, there really wasn't any way for Arbiter Hawk to just come right out and say, "You're right, what should we do about it?" or anything even approximately similar, and then have a discussion about proposals to "fix" Trick Arrows. And to be even more fair, in a casual setting like the Player Summit, *ANY* conversation about powersets would essentially require him to give very conservative answers to questions about powersets, the perceptions about what should be "done" with powersets in the future, and so on ... which is precisely what he did, and which is entirely right and proper for a Dev in his position and with his responsibilities (which are considerable).

In diplomatic speak, I like to think that we had a "fair exchange of views" on a ramble of topics (to the point where I'm sure he wanted me to go pester someone else after a while ), and although he certainly couldn't *commit* to saying (or *doing*) something about the powersets we talked about ... I am equally sure that the feedback I gave him personally at the Player Summit on powersets like Trick Arrow will be given consideration when/if Trick Arrow ever gets put on the schedule for review. Meaning, even if I couldn't see the seeds I planted sprout, grow, flower and bear fruit during the course of our conversation, at least the ground was tilled and the seeds were planted for "something" to come of threads like this one at some later date.



The problem is that Players think of "later" in terms of days/weeks or maybe a month or two. The Devs of this game have to think in terms of NEXT YEAR ... maybe ... because their schedules are already booked that far in advance with the stuff that's already in process/progress right now. So a lot of the disconnect between Players and Devs on things like this is just how the Development Cycle "churns" through stuff in ways that are not transparent to the Players.



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I'm still of the opinion that we need a "Jeff Hamilton" hairstyle added for Males and Huge. Hopefully you won't need to go too far out of your way to find source material, Dink.

As the player who stood at the microphone and asked for WEAPONS be included in the Post Apoc Pack ... specifically, *CHAINSAWS* ... I find it mildly gratifying that people have ... embraced ... the notion of putting them into the game so avidly.



HUSQVARNA

Not just for trimming Devouring Earth down to size!





You know, this seems worthy of a quote from alt.sysadmin.recovery (also known as the Scary Devil Monastery to you youngsters) ...





Dink ... go nuts.

Yes ... it will.

ONCE.

I think the recharge on the NPC powers is going to be faster than the recharge on yours as a PC. Although there is Burnout sitting over there in the Speed Pool ... trying to look "innocent" ...





I'd also like to thank Arbiter Hawk for putting up with Zwillinger's repeated attempts to make him feel uncomfortable (which he does to EVERYONE) during today's coffee talk. At least Hawk was better at reining in Zwillinger's Urge To Tangent than several other guests who have been on (in large part by not aiding and abetting him).

Considering the fact that I just mentioned this in Dink's Character Art thread only this past weekend, I can only surmise that this fix was "in the mix" even before I mentioned it!

Request similar modifications be done to "Range Biased" Pets controlled by Masterminds ... such as Robots and Mercs ... as well as some Controller Pets ... such as Phantasm and Decoy Phantasm.

/em checks OP again

No ... I'm pretty sure the question was if it would be an XP leech ... which pretty strongly suggests that the underlying question is whether or not it would be a Good Idea™, if only by virtue of the fact that "Good Ideas" for builds rarely wind up as XP leeches.

No.

Anything you can do with a petless SlaveMind (because you're obviously the MASTER of NO ONE) can be done far more effectively with practically any other AT in existence (and yes, I'm including Peacebringers in that list of choices!). Masterminds are "bottom of the barrel" for damage using personal attacks and for buff/debuff powers.

Novelty concept/RP? Sure, knock yourself out!
Viable addition to a team, and not just an XP leech? Not so much ...