Rusted_Metal

I hate it. It takes way too many 5 stars to counterbalance a single zero-star. It needs redone for balancing and so that a couple of people loading it up and exiting from it doesn't hit it with zero stars and drop you pretty hard.

I do believe it takes 11 5-star votes to counterbalance a single zero stars.

Funny!

Even though I was slightly disappointed. My friends and I have a Golden Age-esque SG full of characters made who look like the Golden Age characters, and I was hoping that there was going to be missions in 1910-1950's Paragon City.

I'd like to see Statesman's Tiny Task Force review since I redid parts of it. (Huh, who knew naming my badguys "Naked Skulls" would get the mission invalidated)

Arc Name: Statesman's Tiny Task Force
Arc ID: 52668
Length: Long (Tiny maps tho)
Mission Count: Five
Morality: Heroic
Genre: Satire/Humor
Description: It's Statesman! GLEE! Oooh oooh oooh! He wants you to do some stuff for him! This is it, baby, you are on your way!

I used search, and while some of these were touched on, I'd like to make a nice comprehensive list.

Battle Damage Costumes
This could be toggleable in the Options.
As the character takes damage, the costume is damaged. Linking this to the color coding for health seems to be the best option.
When a character is defeated, (s)he either lays there smoking (like a lot of comic characters do), lays on the ground with birds or stars circling their heads, but for rating reasons, avoid the spreading pool of blood. The type of "defeated aura" could even be selectable at say, level 10. A costume change at level 10 would be welcome by a lot of people, since the aura could be tagged to the debt code.

I understand this would require a LOT of effort from the artwork team, but it would definitely improve immersion as well as just plain fun.

"Dude, you look rough. Want some healing?"

New Enhancements
Knockback can be fun. It can also suck. Since there are enhancements to improve knockback, why not enhancements to decrease it?

How about "plus/minus" enhancements. Versions of SO's, available only from contacts or something like that, where it gives a 50% above the normal damage bonus for an SO of that power, but either increases the End drain of the attack, or decreases the chance to hit. That would allow serious customization in various characters. Do you prize accuracy or range above damage? Slot a acc+/dmg- or a rng+/dmg- SO in order to adjust as you see fit.

Some people might slot to min/max, but a little careful work with a spreadsheet might be able to allievate a lot of the problem by tweaking the percentages.

Off hand attack SO. AKA Additional strike. Some IO sets do this, but what about one that does it anyway. Depending on the SO you buy, it drops 10% off of the primary hit, and does a second hit for 30-50% of the original attacks power.

Enhancements are pretty fun. A lot of people like using them to tweak their character. (I've got a blaster who's snipe is unreal range and accurate, but base damage, and another who has knockback, recharge, and acc to keep them down)

Extra Powers
Right now the focus is on "new powersets" but why? Adding two to three new powers into the powersets, without increasing the amount of powers you get, can really diversify the various characters. Don't make the powers weak or useless or monsterously better than the existing ones. Sit down, do the math, and figure out a way to make them equal. Adding in 2-3 new powers per powerset is going to make characters a lot different from one another.

New Pool Power Sets
Either add new pool powers, or add new powers. Level 30 tiers might be nice. Some sets could even have powers from other powersets moved into them to ease the programming and artwork time.
Jumping: Flying Kick, Crane Kick.
Flying: Power-slam (the old superhero standby of going up slightly and slamming down with the fists), Flying punch (a range to melee attack that brings the character up close and slams with the fists, with stunning and possible knockback)

The list goes on and on.

New power pools, of course, would have to be carefully weighed, but some could be fun.
Crafter: Crafting IO's takes a % less of influence/infamy, topping off at level 30 when a crafter can summon a table (like the crafting badge) that only they can use.
Powerlifter: Useful for scrappers/tanks, those with melee attacks: It increases the attack's damage, make it toggles or activations, like some of the blaster attack enhancer powers.
Exploiter: Someone who specializes in spotting weaknesses, again, think the blaster aim powers. Some work would have to be done on how to make this so that stacking it with blaster aim and conserve energy targeting doesn't game break, but hey...
Faster Traveller: Increases the movement speeds, leaping, all of that, and maybe even boosts the hard limits.

Speaking of Travelling...

How about making the fly poses and other poses selectable while at the tailor or in the option. Making them automatic, since a lot of people don't even know how to do them. (I'm always asking how come my character looks good flying)

Now for some harder and more time intensive stuff:

Houses. Everyone needs a home. Think a small superbase only each character has their own. Team-mates can come with them, or there can be an access list, but for the most part, it's just for RP and to relax. Maybe a few storage areas, but I've seen a lot of people mention wanting this. Superbases work great, so why not a personal area?

Day Job Missions: Got the badge for the day job? Then you get a contact who is an endless contact who gives you missions kind of like your day job, or other missions.

Speaking of missions, how about this...

Better Villain missions. I spend more time beating up bad guys as a villain than I do as a hero. That's just hurried story-writing. I'd like to see new groups we villains have to take on, some heroes in their dorky spandex, or maybe vigilante groups. I'm sick of doing the heroes work for them. Villains take on Arachnos more than heroes!

Speaking of Arachnos: How about more arachnos missions? How about Arachnos setting up firebases in Boomtown? That areas wide open for expansion into by groups, and you're trying to tell me that 5 years after the disaster, there isn't any mad scientist villain making an underground lair there that the characters could go try to root out?

And no, you wouldn't have to redo the zone. I know what goes into rebuilding a zone. The doors are there. The mobs are there. The spawnpoints are there. It needs some contacts, a few missions, and presto, zone makeover. Do it like you did the Hollows.

And do Perez Park too.

And finally:

Storyline updating. I don't know if you guys are out of writers, or what, but it's time to start advancing the storyline, having multiple storylines and subplots added in. I'm sick of everything leading to Nemesis. He's a sissy and so are his minions. Every time I see him, I think: "Go back to Austria, Gramps, the world moved on, you're irrelevant!" Hire some RPG freelancers who have proven they can write RPG's according to client specifications or other RPG guys to do the writing. There are a lot of players who are interested in the stories.

New contacts and new story arcs wouldn't be that hard to implement.

I could add a good 2 dozen to this thread alone (and probably will) for plots, subplots, and intrigue, none of which would require a single new piece of artwork.

The think about the plot progressing, is it will bring back the older players, and give people the chance to say "Hey, remember when she had us chasing the clockwork in that office?"

Finally, the standard stuff everyone wants:

Moonbase and extra-terrestial stuff.
Outer space is a staple. Even if it's just tilesets to allow people using MA to make stuff, it needs added.
Suboceanic content. No, it doesn't mean we need to be able to swim, although that would be cool (and doable. We're heroes, we don't need to hold our breath or drown, that doesn't count for superheroes, we always have the power/gadget/mutant ability to survive underwater) to be able to dive down and do underwater exploration and missions. Just a tileset with the walls showing water and seaweed on the other side would be a refreshing break.

Maybe some more alien guys, or maybe evil guys/good guys from space. Something new, something fresh. Pull out the costume creator and the power splicer and make up some new guys.

You guys forget the lessons of Cold War Supervillainy. The bigger and more ostentatious the more powerful you are. You have the volcano lair for the Council, but how many missions actually go there?

Redo the task forces. They're been the same thing forever. Redo them with new storylines. Oh, and make it so that characters can come back and get new task forces at higher level. AND FIX THE FACT THAT MINIMUM LEVEL CHARACTERS CAN'T DO THEM! That makes new players madder than anything.

Rivals: Being able to create a rival supervillain or superhero would be cool, you level him up when you level up. Don't get beaten to the punch on this.

Selectable colors for the powers. I can color auras but not my powers?

Along with that, placing where the power comes from will be nice, but that's a ton of work. I understand that.

More selectable/unlockable weapons: That would be nice. More options for the weapon types. But everyone wants that.

There's more, but maybe later I'll put down some plots and subplots.

NP, I'd like my post on this subject to be clear and concise, and not get bogged down because I mis-remembered something or seem like I'm accusing the Dev's of anything.

(I'm not accusing the Dev's of anything, just saying that this is a chance they shouldn't lose!)

That better?

[ QUOTE ]
Please provide links to where the devs made promises of a moonbase, mars, Rikti homeworld, and power customization.

[/ QUOTE ]To be honest, I remember Emmert making references to Moon Base and Mars missions, and mentioned power customization, but I wouldn't know where to find stuff from all the back like I-3.

I misspoke with the Rikti Homeworld bit, and will correct it.

Still, you say new content is coming out all the time. I'm not denying that it doesn't. I'm not denying that they put out a LOT of stuff for the game that doesn't involve purchasing a bunch of stuff to update the game.

What I'm saying, is now is their chance to UPDATE the game, fix stuff that has been broken forever. (Positron's Task Force... go ahead and try it with a team of minimum leveled heroes. Call me from ICU and tell me how it went) And maybe even see about coming up with promised fixes and features.

AE is, as the poster above said, as close as you can come to a pause button on the game. They could make all kinds of game and story tweaks, and nobody would notice for awhile.

This is an opportunity they should grab, not let slide by.

Everyone seems to be upset with AE over the farming, or that nobody is playing the regular game content. Now, let us just ignore the farming issue, and focus on the second issue:

Very little regular game content is being played.

This is an opportunity that the developers should NOT pass up.

See, in Atlas, the same missions are still there from the get-go. Did you play around I-2? Pretty much same missions. Did you play around I-8? Pretty much same missions.

Hollows? Wincott's kid wasn't kidnapped. He's a runaway! I've rescued that stupid kid a 100 times, and Wincott loses him before I even zone. CPS ought to be investigating him.

The Rogue Isles? Same contacts with the exception of a very few since launch of CoV. I'm so sick of Burke and Kalinda, I'd gladly punch them in the face with a steel lined glove.

How can this be solved? By going in and redoing the missions, by updating the story, and by advancing story canon.

How about fixing the TF's, so that you can actually get together and team them at the lowest levels instead of them just being PL fests where 2-3 max level characters protect the rest of the team till the rest of the team gets caught up enough to actually play it?

How about putting artwork on new zones for the Rogue Isles, and storyline on doing some stuff with some of the zones that nobody goes to?

Boomtown has all kinds of opportunities. Yet we don't even have some contact in here saying "Hey, so and so lost his cousin in the cataclysm, how about you find his skull for me so I can make it into a pair of slippers?"

How about we update some stuff. How about using the costume creator or have artwork develop some new outfits, and write a backstory on some villain groups and add some more?

For the most part, time has been the issue. Not wanting to leave the players without stuff has been the issue. But now, everyone is using AE, so why not just start adjusting the game world as a whole, and keeping an eye on AE to make sure the building doesn't explode and kill every hero and villain in the game.

How about following up on the promises of stuff that was to be fixed, altered, added, or removed?

How about making moonbase and Mars stuff? I seem to remember the Dev team being excited about heroes fighting off Earth, facing "The Coming Storm" or whatever it was called. That way, the constant complaining about "unfulfilled promises" can be set aside.

How about a Rikti Homeworld counter-invasion? Those portal can work both ways. How about a $9.99 expansion pack that lets me customize my robotic minions, or change my power color and where it comes from?

How about a new string of enhancements?

A "Reduce Knockback" enhancement set. Or perhaps a "Add Knockback" set? Or perhaps a "Switch Damage Type" set that changes Dark Damage to Fire Damage, and all of that?

AE could prove a boon in taking the pressure off of the developers for a few weeks or months and allowing them to update the game.

It's an opportunity, not a complete disaster, that so many people are doing AE missions.



------------EDITED FOR CLARITY AND FOR AUTHOR MISCONCEPTION----------

Statesman's Tiny Task Force (Level 1-10)
Positron's BBQ Party Task Force (11-20)
Synapses Speedy Task Force (15-25)

This is my last post before I hit the rack. Thanks for the discussion, and sleep well stapler.
[ QUOTE ]
This is a game of superheroes. If it was merely a game of heroes doctors, firefighters, and my grandpa would be in it. I didn't buy this game to be a boat commander in World War II, no matter how heroic that is. I bought it to throw on a costume and fly through the air and fight bad guys just like in the comic books that inspired the game.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, but what if I want to play a boat commander that has risen from his watery grave to take on the forces of the Penumbra Council? Or a fireman whom the Hellions burned to death and is now surrounded by a the aura of the very fire that took his life?

Aren't those heroic?

[ QUOTE ]
Jason Voorhies or He-man could be a tanker and Freddy a scrapper. Ash could be a blaster. Yet are those people we wanna see in this game? And while some might actually say yes, I vote an astounding no.

[/ QUOTE ]
Jason, no. City of Villians, oh yeah.

He-Man? What's wrong with him? Actually, that might be a cool idea. "BY THE POWER OF GREYSKULL!"

Freddy? City of Villians, definately.

Ash? City of Heroes, oh yeah.

Sadly, I could make all of those with the existing CoH costume parts, barring Jason's hockey mask.
[ QUOTE ]
And to ask what will it bother if someone is wearing a stupid costume. What will it bother if someone wants to called their hero Streetwalker69 or SatanicSchoolSux? Does it physically impede our gameplay? No. But is it something we want to see in the game? No.

[/ QUOTE ]
Stupid costumes don't bother me. Stupid names I laugh at, but costumes? No.

Remember those horrible 1960's X-Men outfits? BLECH!
[ QUOTE ]
Will most people send a petition? Yes. Same thing goes for costumes as it does for names. You are welcomed to make whatever look you want, and the rest of us are still free to ridicule and put our votes in against things like giant skull monsters for heroes.

[/ QUOTE ]
Sending a petition against stupid costumes or names means you take this WAAAAAY too seriously. So what if he is named "Eye Gouger Smurf" and is a blue scrapper in a doofy wardrobe. Don't team with him.

[ QUOTE ]
And it's mainstream majority of comic readers that want the ideal look for their heroes. Otherwise Superman would be fat, Wonder Woman a guy in drag, and Spider-man would have a nubbin.

[/ QUOTE ]
Wow, how nice of you to speak for all of us mainstream comic readers.

I guess because I worry more about deeds than appearance, names, and bluster, DC will send someone over to rip up my Superman collection.

[ QUOTE ]
And Deathlok(at least the Luthor Manning version) wasn't interesting because he was ugly. He was interesting because he was a pacifist trapped in the ultimate weapon. The dichotomy there made him interesting. If being fugly was all it took, Beak would have his own comic.

[/ QUOTE ]
He wasn't interesting because he was ugly, but he WAS ugly AND heroic.

Look, I understand you are passionate about this game, and want it your way, to create your perfect City of Heroes.

But one person's perfection is another person's nightmare.

I think the idea of playing the Mime of Death supervillian is starting to sound pretty cool, so I better go to bed.

Sleep well, notmystapler, and I'll read your counterpoint tommorrow.

[ QUOTE ]
*looks for the slap the stupid out of the poster key* Since I can't find it, I'll have to use words.

[/ QUOTE ]
Careful using that key, you'll end up with a black eye. You should go for the "Slap the arrogance" key, since both of us will get punched in the face that way.
[ QUOTE ]
Toxic Avenger and Thundarr are NOT superheroes.

[/ QUOTE ]
Really? That's strange. I seem to remember the Toxic Avenger would easily fit the Tank class, and Thundarr would definately be a scrapper.
[ QUOTE ]
Using your logic, we should have Baby Ruth bars and clubs with birds that come out of them. The guy from Goonies and Captain Caveman are as much superheroes as your examples. Captain Caveman probably even more so.

[/ QUOTE ]
Hmmm... Costumed. Fights crime. Has strange abilities/powers/gadgets. Not a hero? Hmmm, better start a thread asking Statesman to get rid of Archery and Devices power sets, those aren't heroic.

Oh, and neither is punching people. Better get rid of Superstrength.

[ QUOTE ]
And if ugliness is heroic.....naw just too easy.lol

[/ QUOTE ]
Then we're both pretty heroic. There, I said it for you. Don't bother me if ugly is heroic. Does it bother you?

[ QUOTE ]
And why should we cater to little kids WHEN THE GAME IS RATED TEEN???

[/ QUOTE ]
Rated for violence and suggestive content.

A lot tamer than a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

And who said anything about catering to them. What, will adding a strawberry shortcake hat so I can make my "Super Powered Emo Chick Villian FOOOOR YOU!!!" cause your computer screen to melt down when I run by with other fun/comedy based heroes on the way to make fun of Frost Fire after he faceplants from a beat down?

[ QUOTE ]
Should we put the Wiggles in a Rob Zombie movie just because some parents ignore the ratings system and let their kids watch it?

[/ QUOTE ]
LOL And people accuse me of exaggeration.

Yeah, CoH/CoV == House of a 1000 Corpses.

How about you let us design our ugly costumes, and ask for what WE think is cool.

This isn't City of thatsmystapler, or even Mthatsmystapler'sORPG. A lot of people play it, a lot of us have opinions.

Sorry some of us want to be silly and have a good time, and that it offends your delicate sensibilities. If I want to make a superpowered Mime with a "sunsword" and a tutu and strawberry shortcake hat, I have just as much right to as you do to make your oh so serious gritty hero.


-----EDIT------
Closing a tag and appending two statements.

AND

So what if American comics portray good as good looking and muscular.

I'm able to decide what's heroic, and I decided a long time ago that it's deeds, not words and appearance.

[ QUOTE ]
We want our heroes big and muscular and all ideal.

[/ QUOTE ]
Well, YOU and those who think like YOU want them that way.

I like mine flawed. Be it externally through looks, or internally through emotional/mental issues.

I find Deathlocke a lot more interesting than some spandexed pretty boy who probably gets his superpowers from how heavily his true mating desires are closeted.

Actually, I can think of a litmus test for whether or not something should be in the villian section...

Get a teenage boy, you know the ones, all full of rage, angst, rage against The Man, and in love with Evul!!!! and ask him if something is cool or lame.

If they think it's cool, it's villanous.

If it's lame, it's heroic.

Or...

If it's sold at Hot Topic, it's not villanous.

Why should Tutu's be added?

The Toxic Avenger

Why should "lightsabers" be added?

Thundarr the Barbarian

Troll Heads

Because sometimes ugliness is heroic

Strawberry Shortcake Hats

Because sometimes real children play this game. Some as young as 8.



Congradulations on your promotion to the Command Sergeant Major of Costumes, though.