SaberCat

*delurks and puts on First One Hundred hat*

Bah! Bah, I say!!

I was kicking villain butt in The City when most of you were only knee high to a Prototype Oscillator and I've forgotten more about this game then most of you will ever know!!

As an example, three simple words: Naked Programmer Cam.

If ya know it, keep it to yourself and don't spill the beans!

If ya don't, then take THAT ya gosh darn whippersnapper you!!

Now quit making such a racket ‘cause I'm trying to take a nap.

*relurks*

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There you go, Saber. Fixed it for you!

(It's a reference to when Sabercat met the devs at a Frye's store one time and posted the pics. Between that and the excellent dev tracker of his from beta, lots of jokes came out of it.)

Did you know that the devs' posts were originally tracked by a separate program designed by Sabercat and the results had their own separate thread in the pre-beta and CoH beta forums? (Just trying to keep the post on-topic.)

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lol, thanks TK!

Well, this must be a "Certified Old School Thread" now. Poison and I posted back-to-back and somebody brought up the DevTracker!

Here's a good one:

Did you know....
that one of the Devs has a website containing a bunch of stuff including a blog and a webcam from his office at Cryptic?

(No, I won't tell you who it is or give out the URL so don't bother PMing me. Yes, I realize that means my "Did you know" can't be confirmed. No, I don't care. I don't want the poor guy spammed with "Hey, fix this bug!" blog comments! )

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Did you know... More Real-Life Influences on Zone Names

King's Row is a real-life street located roughly 1/4 mile from the offices of Cryptic Studios. The nearest cross street to Cryptic's street address is East Gish Road. You might not realize it if you grew up mainly in The Hollows, but The Gish is one of the neighborhoods in central King's Row in City of Heroes.

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This isn't right exactly.

The first (to my knowledge) location for Cryptic Studios was actually ON a street named Kings Row. I've seen the building and talked to Devs about it: apparently it was as scary a place to work in as it looks, so they moved a bit away to another location.

They were at the second location when the game launched (if memory serves). I've seen this place too and it wasn't nearly as bad as the hole they were in on Kings Row. But it wasn't great either.

After release they moved to their current location. I have never been down to the new place so I can't comment on it.

Ya, ya, more detail then anybody needed but, hey, I track devs what did you expect?

(note: this post is intended for Positron, _Castle_ and a bunch of hard working FFers who know who they are)

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Force Fields

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Well, I guess this is some sort of response to FF issues.

I've got to say that after all the work my little team of expert FFers and I did for Positron regarding issues with the Powerset this response is entirely underwhelming. If after seeing all those intelligent and creative writeups regarding FF issues, the best we can get is one "it's on the drawing board but low priority" (paraphrased) then I guess we are done.

I'm probably losing my fanboy status with this post, but if this is the best the Devs can do I'm not sure I want to be a fanboy any more. I was a member of the First Boards (no, the VERY first boards - think 2001) a month after the website opened, one of the First One Hundred in Beta and I was the DevTracker - I have always been here... but I'm getting very, very tired.

-SaberCat

ahhhh... that fanboy fix should last me a while.

Thanks to Manticore for coming out and signing stuff tonight!

By the way, your bow is extremely cool. Too bad only us local folks got to see you shoot it. I hope Heroes didn't catch too much hell from the cops that showed. Who knew archery practice in a parking lot was illegal?

And congrats again on the book. Must just be fantastic to get a story published like that. Way to go! Do you have a dream job or what?!

*cough*Iwantafanfest*cough*

Excellent! Another Dev's sig on my CoH poster! Can I take a shot or two with your bow?!

*ahem*

Jeez, sorry about that. You guys really bring out the fanboy in me. I'll try to swing by and meet you Manticore.

21/21.

No problemo. Kinda cute little game.

Had to delurk again (twice in the same thread!?) just to say these were really great ones!

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I remember when the dev, pohsyb PKed someone by mistake as a hoverbot.

I remember when the wheels on the cars was off axis

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"This thread has been contaminated by the Collector2.

Have a nice day."

The Roleplayers Credo

Calling body shots.


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I remember when the Dev Digest was first implemented and the speed at which the Devs posted.

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I remember when the Devs thread was created by a player created process rather than by Cryptic. Who was it that did the original? Can anyone remember?

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SabreCat. Good old SabreCat. Where are you now?

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*delurks*

Right here! And it was the DevTracker Thread and I had to keep my software running 24/7 or Devs would send me hate email!

I remember basically everything. And I'm not even kidding. I've been here so long I can hardly remember NOT being here. In fact, I'm totally sure I've forgotten more then most people playing this game right now even know.

Things I haven't noticed in the thread yet:

I remember...

when the game didn't have archtypes.

when we could only play the game three nights a week 'cause that was the only time the servers were open.

the xmas gift from the Devs when they turned the servers on 24/7 for a week.

early beta group photos at 'the big coin".

when travel powers were all available at level 10.

the bug that made fires and energy blasts look like crumpled newspapers.

getting flight 2 hours before the first beta character wipe

pohsyb sidekicking me and taking me to the Ziggurat for the first time.

'Bumped characters' used for testing higher level content.

flying through Kings Row using Recall Friend to help lowbies with no travel powers find the 4 or 5 CoT Spawn sites.

no Galaxy City.

no numbered zones.

the phone call I got asking me to turn off the DevTracker because the NCSoft IT guys had implemented the Dev Digest.

walking up to the old Cryptic offices (both of them) and feeling like a stalker.

how the first question every newbie would ask on the original forums was "will there be capes?"

the first video we were shown when they added bump mapping to the graphics engine (or turned it on or whatever they did)

watching that female hero do a forward flip into the air before flying in one of the first vids released

MacAllen's amazing thread on the original forums containing ideas for MMOs. Some of the most amazing things I've ever heard of where in that thread.

etc, etc, etc.

As the Vorlon would say, I have always been here.

*resumes lurking*

All you really need to know is the "I'm a Dev" secret phrase. Some of us First One Hundred beta testers worked to create that back in 12/03 to facilitate easier testing with the Devs.

With the number of people involved, I'm surprised it's still a secret at all. Figured it'd be on some fan site by now. *shrug*

Statesman,

Can you give us any more details about the Alliance system?

Also, when you mention 'powers with fear' does that include Rain of Fire, Ice Storm and Burn?

Thanks very much for the info. Speaking only for myself, it does make me feel more in the loop.

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I ran some tests on Force Bubble ... and let me tell you, this sucker makes Phase Shift look like Combat Jumping!

With no enhancements slotted, this bad boy sucked my FF Defender slave's endurance dry in 39 seconds in one test, 40 in another. This is WITH Stamina (enhancements removed), by the way.


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Force Bubble drained you to zero END in 40 seconds BY ITSELF?!?!? No other END drains were running in that 40 seconds? AND you have unslotted Stamina?!?!

Holy bejebus!

-100 END/40 seconds = -2.5 EPS

So...
1.67 + .42 - FB = -2.5 EPS
or
FB = 2.5 + .24 + 1.67 = 4.59!?!?

Conclusion (?):
-4.59 Force Bubble

I repeat, Holy bejebus!!

The XP/debt thing is a wash as RomSpaceKnight and others have pointed out.

I'm pretty sure the only 'advantage' to the Exemplaring system is getting to play with your lower level friends.

In a while (when it goes live) you'll also be able to go back and pick up TFs you missed.

Any negatives in the system (loss of powers, no enhancements, etc) are there to keep it from being abused.

All the Devs were looking for is a way to let higher levels play with lowers.

Why are people looking for more advantages then this?

Good point about these numbers probably looking very simple in the Dev time-space continuum - whatever the heck that is!

Also, good choice on not 'fudging' the numbers in any way even if some seem fairly obvious.

Good job Vennom!

Btw, doesn't this:
-0.46 Tactics
-0.45 Maneuvers
-0.44 Assault

seem like a margin of error kinda thing? Or would the Devs actually throw a +/- 0.01 EPS into the Leadership pool on purpose?

Just seems like there are a lot of powers grouped around certain numbers like -0.75, -0.40, -0.45, etc and I wonder if the Devs really created powers with this many different EPSs.

That said, technically I calculated -0.76 for Dispersion Field, not -0.75.

I ran this "drain to zero" test for Dispersion Field. Unfortunately, the only combo of toggles I have that would drain my End is DF+Fly and therefore I hit zero pretty fast. But here are my numbers and math for what they are worth.

I have no end recovery enhancements or powers.

Dispersion Field + Fly 'drain to zero' = 90 seconds

-100 End / 90 sec = -1.11 EPS

So...
1.67 - Fly - DF = -1.11
or
DF = 1.67 - 2.02 + 1.11 = 0.76

Conclusion:
-0.76 Dispersion Field

That sound about right?

To build on Jobble's ideas:

1) Hold it in San Jose area 'cause there should be some perk for living near Cryptic Studio.

2) And leave the cape behind too. Please?

3) and WarWitch