Samuel_Tow

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  1. Quote:
    Originally Posted by rsclark View Post
    I've never been refused a refund at a movie theater.
    Now why don't movie theatres here do that? If they did, I'd never have to pay for a movie again in my life.
  2. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Carnifax_NA View Post
    More worringly this Feed the Beast attitude seems to also be impacting powerset bug fixes somewhat. Synapse has apparently said that most of them have to wait for 21.5 to make it to live.
    Actually, I think this has something to do with their Byzantine update pipeline. BABs was famous for saying he's made changes but had no idea when they'd be implemented and what build they were in, and Matt Miller has repeatedly talked about them working several Issues, and presumably a dozen builds, ahead of time, so it's not too hard to imagine a lot of stuff being done, but being tucked away in a build queue waiting for a blue moon to rise or some such.

    Seriously, though - that sort of thing is more QA and scheduling than development priorities. I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that a lot of the bug fixes Synapse is talking about have already been done and are waiting for a full build to introduce them, and I21.5 is probably close enough that THAT will be the next full build.

    ---

    Completely separately, I21.5 reminds me of I19.5, and how that thing's sole reason to exist was because Melissa Bianco, for some reason, promised that they'd add more Incarnate stuff once a month or thereabout, hence why they didn't want to wait the full three to four months for I20 to launch before the introduced the new WTF mechanic (I think). It's interesting that we still seem to be getting half-Issues even though that practice seems to have been discontinued (and good riddance, far as I'm concerned).

    *edit*
    That's not to say I'm not worried about schedules and quantity causing quality to take a serious dive, all for the sake of having a new shiny to make "people with poor impulse control" always buy something. Personally, I never had a problem waiting three months or more for a new Issue, and I'm perfectly fine waiting until Paragon Market stuff is finished BEFORE it goes to market. However, part of Freedom's... Well, freedom, is that the development team can release things in smaller bundles and have us purchase them separately.

    Where the CoT set fails is that it is NOT a full bundle, yet it's being priced as a full bundle, and at no point has anyone suggested that this is not the full set and that more will be added at a later time. Personally, I would never complain if a costume piece came out every day if that's how they chose to do it, provided they were priced accordingly and provided I had reason to believe more like it might be produced.
  3. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jagged View Post
    If he sends me his account details I will play the game for him.

    With or without changing his password and transferring away all of his stuff?
  4. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Fleeting Whisper View Post
    I agree that it works inconsistently, but it does work outdoors, at least sometimes. Just today I noticed the crate with the letter in the last mission of the ITF showing up on the minimap.
    Huh... I have never, not once, seen it work outdoors. I guess it's more bugged than I thought
  5. Quote:
    Originally Posted by JanusFrs View Post
    Damn, that's an awesome costume! :O

    Also, Samuel and G, I bet the two of you are the best of friends outside of the forums, your discussions with one another, while definently being serious, seem to be on a friendly, joking basis :P
    Thank you And I can't wait to see Leo's response to this.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Aggelakis View Post
    Sam, you -take- people to task, you don't "hold" them to task. You can, however, -hold- people accountable.
    Hold accountable/responsible, take to task. Got it. Thanks
  6. Quote:
    Originally Posted by BeyondReach View Post
    The CoT hood is both awesome and incredibly annoying. The shape is brilliant and the fact that you can combine two colours on it makes it also awesome, but it clips with everything. Well, I'm sure everything except the CoT stuff. But all I want is the hood. I can't even wear a cape with it.
    Wait, what does it clip with? I can't seem to come up with anything to make it clip bad.
  7. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Carnifax_NA View Post
    What's wrong with the Barbarian set? Seems fine (wonderful in fact) to me.
    Nothing, actually. Well, nothing BIG, anyway. I merely mentioned it to say that we got Barbarian one week, the CoT the next, then Street Justice the next. It seems the point is to have SOMETHING new every week, even if that something had to be booted out the door half-way through its development process. I don't think that's a good idea, since I prefer to have quality, even if it costs more, than constant half-baked additions like the CoT set.
  8. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Diggis View Post
    Actually, I believe that all hell is saying that as he's paying for a 12 month subscription he has to wait 12 months to get all the points from that. Where as if he dropped to Premium and spent that money he would get the full lot of points at time of payment.
    Ouch... That's NOT a good argument. First of all, a year's worth of subscription will cost you around $12 a month, yet will only garner $5's worth of point per month. Dropping to premium will buy you approximately twice the amount of points. However, dropping down to Premium will rob you of Incarnates and the Architect, as well as all the VIP perks that Premium players have to buy.

    I'm not saying it's a no-brainer one way or the other, but what I AM saying is that whether you get your points on the 1st or the 10th is pretty much the SMALLEST of the considerations you have to make when deciding between your options.
  9. Quote:
    Originally Posted by ChaosAngelGeno View Post
    I want to hit on Mercedes Sheldon.... wait, I think I screwed that one up.
    Try leading Dean McArthur to her. He'll do it for you.
  10. Quote:
    Originally Posted by AzureSkyCiel View Post
    Short answer: It's still the mask of Giovani Scaldi. And her parties were often considered "carnivals" do to their scale and... uhh... festive-ness.
    Huh... OK, that's a good point, definitely. I guess Giovanna is the one who brings out the "carnival" theme, which couldn't really develop fully with carnivals not really being appropriate for Praetoria's oppressive government.
  11. Quote:
    Originally Posted by all_hell View Post
    So there's a period of months between the time I paid my money and when I can begin enjoying the benefits of what I purchased.
    There's a period of 10 days, not a period of months. You will get your points on the 11th of this month, then the 10th of next month, then the 9th of next month after that until your "points date" matches up to your bill date. Until then, you'll be a day ahead.

    Again, where is this "months and months" nonsense coming from? You already said you don't care about your "points date" not matching your bill date, so as long as they come every month, what do you care? You are quite literally complaining of a week's delay. While that's unfortunate, it's hardly such a big deal.
  12. Quote:
    Originally Posted by TrueGentleman View Post
    The problem itself won't be resolved for months.
    The problem will be resolved within a month. Not "months." A month. Singular. The only thing that matters when it comes to Paragon Points that you get your next month's allotment of points exactly one month after you got them the previous one. Whether that happens on your bill date, your birthday or the day of the the Hundred Year War ended is immaterial. The only thing that matter is how long it's been since your last stipend, and the answer to this will be "one month." Actually, the answer will be "one month, minus a day" since they'll be clocking it back one day for ever month.

    So people didn't get their points on time. Big deal. That's the FIRST monthly stipend of the game, THAT is what is going to set the date of the stipend cycle. It doesn't matter if it happened last week or next week or noon tomorrow, so long as it happens at any point within the month of October. What matters is how long you're going to have to wait AFTER it, and how long is "one month, minus a day."
  13. Quote:
    Originally Posted by rian_frostdrake View Post
    I dont necessarily disagree with Sam, but i doubt that he or anyone who really makes specific and inflexible back-story for their character will be satisfied for a significant period of time because some other branch that is central to their character is now unfulfilled, so they will be dissatisfied again.
    Could you please quote me on where I said any of the stuff you're ascribing to me? Specifically, where, at any point in time, I argued that BECAUSE this particular character I played had that particular backstory, that THIS is the reason why I wanted to punch Aaron? Because I never said this. All I said is that I have a character whose backstory would fit such an option, but it's not that character who needs a "punch" option, it is ME who wants that option.

    Me, the player. Whether it fits my character or not, I, personally, as a real human being, want to punch Aaron Thiery. Considering that's physically impossible, the next best thing is to give an in-game option for an in-game character to punch him. It doesn't even have to be mine.

    ---

    In fact, since people are so hell-bent on misquoting me, let's turn things around. Let's say that as soon as I confront Aaron, Matthew Habshy shows up. He's recovered and he's angry that Aaron put his wife in danger. Matthew would, I'm positive, be within his complete right to sock the ******* in the face, and I have an option - let Matthew do it, or hold him back so we can hear what Aaron has to say.

    This, as a point of fact, is more or less a retread of the reunion of James Noble and Jim Donner, including Jim being badle injured but still able to stand up tall despite of it. Sure, I don't get an option to let James kill Jim as that would break the story, but the situation is the same.

    Does THAT get the point across that this ISN'T a "my character needs this option" argument yet?
  14. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Megajoule View Post
    You seem to be arguing that since the game can now present us with a choice of two or more responses, and text that varies based on those responses, that it (or the creators thereof) should anticipate and implement all possible responses. I am sure that you are intelligent to understand why this is not possible, let alone practical.
    Uh... No, I'm not. I'm sure you're intelligent enough to actually read my post for what it says without having to "summarise" it into something I never said. I apologise if I come off as insulting, but I have a very short fuse for being badly misquoted these days. I merely said what I want, I never said the game was obligated to expect me to want it.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Megajoule View Post
    I ignored the one-size-fits-all story the devs came up with and wrote my own. I decided what my character did; anything to the contrary was ignored. The amazing super-power that allowed me to do this is called imagination.
    What, then, am I paying $15 a month for, if all I need is "imagination?"

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Megajoule View Post
    You seem to want mechanical, coded support for all of your character's decisions
    No, I don't, and I never suggested so. I think you're putting your replies in the wrong thread.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Megajoule View Post
    You want to punch him in the face? Then say you did!
    I want to be level 50. Let's just say I am and not bother playing the game at all. It would save me a lot of money in the long run. I want a jet pack. Let's say I have one even though I don't and save the art team so much time and money.

    That's not how it works. Games are a visual medium. "Do, don't show." I'm not playing a MUD, I'm not playing a P&P game. My imagination goes into creating my characters, but I want an actual game to play. I'm prepared to work within the confines of the game and simply pick and choose what I do based on what makes sense for the specific character. But I refuse to pretend that brown Dark Armour is sand or that Energy Blast is water. If I did, I'd never need to buy a costume set or make more than one character ever at all, if I could simply pretend I'm playing a completely different game.

    And, incidentally, "just imagine it" doesn't work here, because what I want is to prevent Aaron from talking. Irrespective of what he says and what options I pick, I still have to go through no less than three whole, rather sizeable dialogue windows, possibly even four.

    ---

    Please, stop trying to infer what I actually want by reading between the lines when what I want is written in plain text on the actual lines: I want to punch Aaron Thiery. I don't want to game to read my mind, I don't want the game to account for every possible eventuality, I don't want the storyline to be linear, I don't want my actions to have consequences. I want to punch Aaron Thiery. Any extrapolation you make from that is wrong, because I don't want anything beyond that.
  15. Quote:
    Originally Posted by The_South View Post
    Well, for one, to test the limits of the character creator. Making someone original based on what what the game has doesn't push it as much cause it's a character designed for this game and it has the parts you want, for the most part. I kinda like to see just what it takes to make someone from something outside of the game.
    I disagree. Being able to recreate a highly specific look is not a sign of a "powerful" costume creator, it a sign that that specific look was included. Being able to create a GOOD costume in a broad variety of themes is the signs of a strong character creator, because strength in creation lies in giving form to imagination, rather than enabling lack thereof.
  16. Years ago, back when the silly idea of disabling hero-villain chat by default still existed, when you sent a cross-faction tell and the person had enemy chat disabled, you got a little system message telling you "The person you are trying to contact has enemy chat disabled." or something to this effect. This needs to happen with Free players.

    Beyond that, Free players need to be given the right to respond to tells. At lest one response per one incoming tell. I'm not sure what the technicalities are around this, but I'm also not sure I really care, because this needs to happen. Unless it's functionally impossible, it needs to happen.

    Finally, I'd like to give Free players the ability to at least chat and team with each other. Not necessarily with Premium players, but at least Free-to-Free. A while back, I got into a Free game that I liked, and I then I tried to get my friend into it. Turns out we can't chat or team with each other unless one of us pays, at which point we both essentially walked away.
  17. When the Animal booster was launched, it took about a month to add the changes we requested after the fact. When the Steampunk booster was launched, it took about a month for the changes we requested to be put in after the fact. The CoT and Barbarian sets are, what, two weeks old at this point? Give it at least a little time for something to happen before you cry wolf, please.

    Not that I necessarily disagree, mind you. The CoT set looks suspiciously like an unfinished, untested rush job just so something new could come out that week, and as a result it is wholly underwhelming, and that's surprising for a set as wild as this. There are a few decent pieces, but there AREN'T many more that should have been in it.

    What I'm trying to say here is - finish those sets before you kick them out to the Store. If that means delaying them another week or another month, then by all means, do it. I'd rather have quality work than half-baked experiments. You held off a perfectly functioning, entirely complete powerset FOR A MONTH, and yet you release a costume set that's barely finished FIRST? The logic here defies explanation.

    Sure, there's still time to fix the CoT set up. I'm a patient man. But that should not have been launched like this in the first place. If something HAD to be sold on the Market that week, that could easily have been Street Justice.
  18. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Doctor_Bob View Post
    While I don't want a refund, the original post Is correct. The set is really lacking, even as a brute. I'm really disappointed with it actually . I wanted to love this set, but the damage just stinks, even with fury. Now that my guys 50, he'll probably never see the light of day
    The set's not set in stone. I personally find it to be one of the better ones, but that's just me. The point is - if a set is underperforming, the thing to do is the same thing we've been doing for seven years: Address it, provide suggestions and raise awareness. Sooner or later, if something needed to happen, it WILL happen. Sets get updated all the time. Hell, Martial Arts got a pretty big boost with I18, and I believe it got a fix for the horrible "critical chance" mechanic of Eagle's Claw more recently with I21 or thereabout.
  19. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Clouded View Post
    Hey everyone. It might not be apparent but the OP was just looking to bait people into a flame war.
    I think it was pretty apparent, myself. It's not even the weekend yet, and the trolls are already out in force here in General Discussions. Some days I really miss Lighthouse. To date, he's been the only forum mod with the balls to actually perma-ban serial offenders off the forums and deal with the backlash of their sock puppet accounts. Then we went to the new forum software and everyone was un-banned...
  20. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Black Zot View Post
    Thugs come out of manholes and ride in on bikes in areas where neither could possibly have access.
    What are you talking about! The Shadow Shard totally has a sprawling system of sewer networks with stamped manhole covers snaking through its floating islands. Where do you think all that red goo comes from? And you totally can drive a bike from from the local dive bar right inside the Chantry. Just take the I666 and get off on the "Other Dimension" turnpike.

    Seriously, though, some powers do indeed not make sense to be used in some environments, but for the sake of having a cool death ray, I can live with it. The moment we got Masterminds OF ANY KIND, we gave up on any believable environment interaction. Because, and I ask this seriously - where do you get an endless supply of 20th century street thugs in Ancient Rome? Do we honestly want to go through the trouble of setting up complex excuses for why we get to play the game?

    Sometimes cool things are just cool. There are limits, of course (web-swinging from MID AIR), but those limits are quite flexible.
  21. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Warkupo View Post
    The new tutorial is much more exciting with an event taking place that actually has some imperative to it. I am informed of basic game mechanics of how to play, and then set loose to do that in an environment that is actually exciting to be in. Once the 'tutorial' is over you are sent to Paragon or the Rogue Isle's to continue to play around while the back story of the game and less crucial game mechanics are explained to you. Ultimately this works out better than the original tutorial because I'm playing, I'm happy, and I'm not bored to death so I'm actually paying attention to the information the game is trying to relay.
    I think you flipped over two pages at once, because that really is my biggest complain - it's NOT exciting. It's even more boring and even less involving than the old tutorial. Maybe the first time when the constant Shivans overwhelm your senses it might seem exciting, but once you realise you don't need to do next to anything at all in it, you realise just how dull the experience is. All you need to do is tag a few Shivans and let the NPCs take care of them, then pop out for a smoke while Vanguard Jets take care of the 15 Shivans then push back the Giant Shivan.

    To quote Yahtzee from a review of a different game, "the gameplay would like to involve you as little as possible." The new tutorial is a sequence of pretty pictures, but it utterly fails as a GAME. The player's action and inaction are completely irrelevant, because the game is playing itself. The new tutorial may as well be the train tour of Black Mesa for all it requires us to do.

    No game is ever exciting if it doesn't involve the player in any meaningful way, and the new tutorial has even LESS involvement than the old one. You could argue that the old tutorial was boring, and it kind of was, but not as boring as this one. It had me fight four thugs, two at a time, then it had me fight a whole instance of thugs while a companion NPC assisted me. This one has me tag four enemies, then get up from my chair and walk around because the Vanguard Jets push back the Giant Shivan before I can budge a tenth of its health bar.

    The suggestions we've been making for the Tutorial have been specifically intended to rectify that and involve the player much more often. Sure, keep the jets, but have US have to call them in, and have the clickie to call them guarded so that we have to fight our way to it. Have us run through the interior of a ruined building, fighting Shivans on the way, have us pass by a store being looted and choose to help out or help loot. Have us to something, anything to make this actually fun to play through, rather than just bedazzling to look at.

    The new tutorial is pretty as a picture, and about as much fun to play through.
  22. Quote:
    Originally Posted by rian_frostdrake View Post
    /looks over at pile of unopened bags of socks and fridge stocked with milk.

    sonova.....
    Thank you! I really needed that
  23. Well, let's put it simply, then: Continue making sets with glowing auras as an Original option, but also include a NoFX option where said Original aura is a metaphorical representation and not a physical manifestation. Sound about right?
  24. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Zombie Man View Post
    Don't you get it?! That's part of the plan, man! They release stuff... EVERY WEEK!! And that keeps you from keeping track of points, man!!! Then they get all the points!! It's what they were after all the time!!! ALL THE POINTS111!!
    Actually, if I had to have one complaint about Paragon Studios' "market stuff" release schedule is that I suspect the pressure to release more often may be leaving their releases underdeveloped and light. I'd honestly prefer to wait a little longer for a release than to have another CoT set.

    However, the question of quality vs. quantity really doesn't work well within the frame of a conspiracy theory.
  25. Quote:
    Originally Posted by sXerra View Post
    I am sorry If I offended you by submitting this questionnaire.
    You didn't offend me, but I thought you may be looking for feedback on the survey itself. I don't make it a point to nit-pick people's typing in casual conversation or forum posts, but when it's something you'll be publicising to a large number of people, you really want it to be as presentable as possible.

    If you want, I can go through the survey again and point out everything I spot.