Samuel_Tow
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Posts
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Joined
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My only worry is that discussing this requires me to assume I'll be selected, and that's not a safe assumption. But let's get past that... Where's my bicycle pump?
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There, big head achieved!
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Personally, I'd prefer characters and their roles as "in-character" as possible, from a writing perspective. This means name, description, powers, clues and role in the game should pretend this is a real, actual character having some part in this story, rather than a cameo from someone else's work. I understand that recognition needs to be given to those that deserve it, but I'd prefer that to happen either at initial briefing (or even arc description) or otherwise at end debriefing or final Souvenir.
The Souvenir feels like a good place to put that, as sort of a credit crawl, because the souvenir is the only thing which a player can take away from the arc after it's done. Descriptions, clues and briefings can be seen while in the actual arc, but when the arc ends, they all disappear, and all you're left with is whatever's in the final Souvenir (and I HATE people who don't bother to make one!).
That's personal preference, though. If it's decided that name and/or server has to be put in the character description, then I'll crop a word from somewhere where I have redundant advectives or drop out a whole sentence and make room. That's not a problem.
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Also, could you do an updated list of applicants?
*edit*
And, yes, I did cheat on the costume just for the screenshot. My apologies
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Yes, I'm with Bill on this one. We really should examine how much humans in this fictional universe would class as bigots before we start holding other races to task over it.
Which, really, just makes for a pretty good narrative. Never let it be said that I hate EVERYTHING about the in-game storylines
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Quote:Part of what bugs me is that that's actually in Jane Temblor's description. Something about "inexplicably different gender" or some such. Yes, I get it. Jim Temblor is Jane Temblor. It's funny, I get it. I don't need to be prompted to laugh at it. You don't need to lampshade it. The more you explain a joke, the less funny it is.Originally Posted by MDanger
I understand, and to some lesser degree, agree with everything else. While it's certainly possible that the winking and nodding at the audience (us) is close to, at or even over the line (a subjective line if ever there was one), I didn't pick up this last bit at all. No one mentions anything about the duo's gender and certainly no one blaims the couples annoyance on the fact that one of them is a woman.
City of Heroes can be humorous, I make no qualms about this. But it's so ham-handed with its humour that it just ruins the effect. You don't need to explain your own jokes, you don't need to turn everything into a running gag and you most definitely don't have to include "You should laugh here!" nods to the audience.
I know I'm probably one of the few remaining dinosaurs who still check the descriptions of our enemies, especially on a TF, but it's there, and that in itself set me off on a bad leg for the whole sketch. -
Quote:This raises another interesting question: We chide the Rikti Traditionalists for not accepting us into our society unless we convert completely and fully, but were they to attempt to enter our society, how accepting would WE be of them? Even getting past the "Icky aliens!" rash of xenophobia, how far would humans be willing to accept and integrate what are factually alien beings of a completely different mentality, morality and ideology into their inner society?Originally Posted by AzureSkyCiel
On the otherhand, we don't get as much a chance to interact with Traditionalists as I'd like, I still hope for when the game story progresses far enough that the traditionalists and restructurists division becomes common knowledge, and then we can see traditionalists coming by in our world, or hanging out at places like Pocket D, I mean just imagine it...
How willing would people be to share their apartment buildings with aliens, when they will likely have to have weird vats of glowing green good and toilets made of anti-matter or some such? How accepting would people be of calling "these things" equals and sharing our homes, our jobs and out hang-out spots with them? It's a good idea to consider those questions first before we brand them as bigots. After all, the "Earth is for humans!" billboards are still up throughout the city.
I don't think things should ever come down to a matter of accepting "aliens" into one's society. No-one should ever feel obligated to do this. Even the idea of a human global society is flawed in its inception, because different cultures are and will remain different, and they cannot expect the rest of the world to "convert" to their ways. Yet we manage to coexist just fine, for the most part. I see no particular need for the Rikti society to change so as to accommodate humans any more so than I see a need for human society to change so as to accommodate them. The two societies should be perfectly capable of coexisting and cooperating without melding into one entity, and there's nothing wrong with that. -
Quote:I wouldn't restrict that to costume pieces, myself. Failure to release any of the following would definitely count, however:Originally Posted by Gemini_2099
Let me add that, failure to release any new costume pieces in Issue 21 will cause people to question the direction of the game.
*Costume pieces
*Power customization options of ANY kind
*New weapons (Um... Hello, dual pistols?)
*New powersets or proliferated powersets
*Anything doable or attainable solo -
Quote:To be honest, not very many do, even if you go back to the original Diablo. Yes, most games tend to give all of their locations a clear beginning and a clear end, but then most games with random-generated maps (or even "random" generated maps) also tend to give the player several paths to follow, some ending in dead ends, some branching further, some merging with other paths and generally constituting a lattice mesh of multiple paths, rather than a tree with only one correct path with many dead ends.Originally Posted by Tymers_Realm
I do agree w/Sam about the linear (and head-scratching layout) nature of the maps. But then again, what video game doesn't use a linear path, in essence, for indoor/underground areas?
In essence, think of an old Dyna Blast/Bomberman map for what I mean - you have an open field with blocks strewn about so you can only ever move along a grid, but getting from any one point to any other point is rarely a question of a single path, not unless all other paths are blocked off, but those can be blasted open.
I find instance maps where you never have to make a meaningful decision as to which direction to take at an intersection to be quite boring and uninteresting, because they remove even the illusion of choice. -
Quote:I feel that pointing out a flaw as an idle fact is useless as a mental exercise, because the instinctive response to it tends to be "So what?" So I don't like this particular bit. And what of it? Whenever I bring problems up, I try to do so within the context of finding solutions to them, rather than for the simple act of bashing the game. Idle complaints and criticism is unconstructive, at least in my view, so I do what I can to at least suggest possible paths for solutions and hope that people follow up on them or invent their own.Originally Posted by Pyrokinetix
On another note, while many of your posts seem to flesh out many flaws ingame you do mention a few good points but I think cutting down on what you want to change would balance people's view of your opinions on the game in general.
I do realise that it also makes it easy for people to ignore the subject of a post by overfocusing on discrediting the proposed solutions, but at the same time it has been my experience that this is a necessary evil, as those who focus on the most constructive side of destruction usually outweigh that by enough to be meaningful.
All of that said, I don't necessarily want to see the game put words in our characters' mouths, even if that might actually be pretty cool. I'd like to see the game avoid putting thoughts in our characters' heads via godmodding narration. That's really all there is to it. -
To be honest, I don't specifically feel the need to be credited, at least not on the character, herself (if she's chosen, of course). Souvenir would be acceptable, attached clue would be acceptable and, really, anything else would be. But it just feels... "Out of character" to put owner, as it were, in the character's own bio.
Of course, it's your arc so it's your call. I never get into these contests expecting to be selected, so I'll worry about that if it comes to it
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While I completely lost interest in Blasters, I still feel they need to have Dark Blast proliferated to them.
More as a general thing, we're overdue for another proliferation Issue. Seriously, why is this such a low priority? It should be obvious to anyone with a data sample that not all people play all ATs very much and that many people have favourite ATs they prefer to play. Proliferate sets between them and you let players eat their cake and have it, too, you give them more options and everybody wins. -
I still want to see paper missions available in all zones, or at least zones you're over the minimal level of. Ambushes in low-level zones have occurred since time began and we survived just fine. I'd sooner have the major convenience of being able to get paper and scanner missions in all zones over the minor inconvenience of occasionally facing high-level ambushes. It's not like debt is all that big of a deal these days.
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I can throw my towel into this, and I have just the right screenshot to use, too We're talking about:
Brutticus
Level 50 Natural Brute HERO
Battle Axe/Shield Defence/Energy Mastery (without the energy attacks!)
Server: Victory
Incarnate Status: Spiritual Radial Boost
Description: Brutticus is human. Or, at least, she is as human as the people of the alternate dimension called Savage Earth are.
Quote:Description length: 1021 symbols. It should fit in the field if the new line characters don't transform into <br> tags.Savage Earth is a nightmare world which took off on a different evolutionary path. Giant violent beasts roam the land and mystic shadows stalk the night. The air is choked with volcanic ash and poisoned with toxins, all water is polluted and teeming with aggressive parasites. Even the plants of Savage Earth are carnivorous and dangerous. The planet is crushed by intensely powerful gravity and the weather teeters between violent extremes of bitter cold to unimaginable heat waves.
All life on Savage Earth is hardy, and humans there grew to be massive, strong and resistant. They are tenacious survivors, fighting for their lives with brutality and weapons made out of the unbreakable trees and dense, heavy metals of their world.
Brutticus was sucked into our "soft" world through a dimensional portal, and has since taken on the resoponsibilty to protect the "squishy" humans.
*edit*
Costume File:
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Head BodySetName standard Color1 31, 10, 0 Color2 255, 190, 63 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Geometry Armored Texture1 leather_02a Texture2 leather_02b DisplayName P3937616722 RegionName "Upper Body" BodySetName Tights/Skin Color1 38, 26, 0 Color2 255, 190, 63 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Geometry Big Texture1 leather_02a Texture2 leather_02b DisplayName P2104750136 RegionName "Lower Body" BodySetName Tight Color1 38, 26, 0 Color2 255, 190, 63 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Geometry v_fem_belt.geo/geo_belt_spikes_05 Texture1 !Emblem_V_SPikes_01 Texture2 !Emblem_V_Spikes_01_Mask DisplayName P177456852 RegionName "Upper Body" BodySetName Tights/Skin Color1 38, 26, 0 Color2 255, 255, 255 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Geometry V_Fem_HAIR.GEO/GEO_Hair_Serrated_Sugar_01 Texture1 !SF_Hair_Serrated_Sugar_01 Texture2 !SF_Hair_Serrated_Sugar_01_Mask DisplayName P2681220175 RegionName Head BodySetName standard Color1 0, 0, 0 Color2 0, 0, 0 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Fx None Geometry None Texture1 None Texture2 None Color1 0, 0, 0 Color2 0, 0, 0 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Geometry Tiara_04 Texture1 Tiara_01a Texture2 Tiara_01b DisplayName P2793026233 RegionName Head BodySetName standard Color1 255, 255, 255 Color2 0, 0, 0 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Geometry V_FEM_Emblem.GEO/GEO_Emblem_Chain_02 Texture1 !X_V_Emblem_Chain Texture2 None DisplayName P2281134661 RegionName "Upper Body" BodySetName Tights/Skin Color1 0, 0, 0 Color2 255, 255, 255 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Geometry V_FEM_SPADR.GEO/GEO_SpadR_Gladiator_01 Texture1 !SpadR_V_Gladiator_02 Texture2 !SpadR_V_Gladiator_02_Mask DisplayName P772741860 RegionName "Upper Body" BodySetName Tights/Skin Color1 255, 255, 255 Color2 31, 31, 31 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Fx None Geometry None Texture1 None Texture2 None Color1 0, 0, 0 Color2 0, 0, 0 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Fx weapons/custom_axe/fem_axe_base.fx Geometry None Texture1 None Texture2 None DisplayName P3380827087 RegionName Weapons BodySetName Weapons Color1 255, 255, 255 Color2 0, 0, 0 Color3 20, 0, 31 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Geometry None Texture1 None Texture2 None DisplayName P2371314042 RegionName Head BodySetName standard Color1 38, 26, 0 Color2 255, 190, 63 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Fx None Geometry None Texture1 None Texture2 None Color1 0, 0, 0 Color2 0, 0, 0 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Fx None Geometry None Texture1 None Texture2 None Color1 0, 0, 0 Color2 0, 0, 0 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Fx None Geometry None Texture1 None Texture2 None Color1 0, 0, 0 Color2 0, 0, 0 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Fx None Geometry None Texture1 None Texture2 None Color1 0, 0, 0 Color2 0, 0, 0 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Fx None Geometry None Texture1 None Texture2 None Color1 0, 0, 0 Color2 0, 0, 0 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Fx None Geometry None Texture1 None Texture2 None Color1 0, 0, 0 Color2 0, 0, 0 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Fx None Geometry None Texture1 None Texture2 None Color1 0, 0, 0 Color2 0, 0, 0 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Fx None Geometry None Texture1 None Texture2 None Color1 0, 0, 0 Color2 0, 0, 0 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Geometry None Texture1 None Texture2 None DisplayName P1848153390 RegionName Head BodySetName standard Color1 0, 0, 0 Color2 0, 0, 0 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Fx None Geometry None Texture1 None Texture2 None Color1 0, 0, 0 Color2 0, 0, 0 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Fx weapons/customshields/female_shields_spartan1_02.fx Geometry None Texture1 None Texture2 None DisplayName P621611857 RegionName Shields BodySetName "Spartan Shield 1" Color1 87, 87, 87 Color2 255, 255, 255 Color3 38, 26, 0 Color4 255, 190, 63 } CostumePart "" { Fx WEAPONS/CustomShields/None.fx Geometry None Texture1 None Texture2 None DisplayName P1164533673 RegionName Shields BodySetName "Spartan Shield 1" Color1 255, 255, 255 Color2 0, 0, 0 Color3 38, 26, 0 Color4 255, 190, 63 } CostumePart "" { Fx None Geometry None Texture1 None Texture2 None Color1 0, 0, 0 Color2 0, 0, 0 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Fx Costumes/AnimatedTails/AnimatedTail_Wolf01_Female.fx Geometry None Texture1 None Texture2 None DisplayName P546439883 RegionName "Lower Body" BodySetName Tight Color1 0, 0, 0 Color2 0, 0, 0 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Color1 0, 0, 0 Color2 0, 0, 0 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } CostumePart "" { Color1 0, 0, 0 Color2 0, 0, 0 Color3 0, 0, 0 Color4 0, 0, 0 } }
My global is @Samuel Tow. I keep forgetting to include that as it's the same as my forum handle (minus the underscore, since you can't use underscores for names in-game).
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A bit of more specific character background information on Brutticus:
Brutticus is a character with a strong but one-sided sense of morality and prone to snap judgements and uncompromising decisions, so she could be used as both an ally or an enemy to the character in question. Having grown up in a world where survival at any cost is the norm, she is used to applying extreme violence and rugged determination in practically every situation, so she will not back down from any fight, no matter how difficult, or indeed how stupid.
Brutticus' morality revolves around protecting the weak from the horrors of nature and from the malice of the strong, so she will naturally regard strong people with suspicion and mistrust unless given reason to feel otherwise. If she is given reason to believe a strong person is somehow at fault, she's very likely to choke-slam said person into a wall before getting his end of the story.
Despite growing up in a world without spoken language, Brutticus has learned to speak fluent English, though she speaks plainly and directly without much unnecessary eloquence. I don't want to supply specific suggested lines she could say, but any curt, to-the-point, firm and possibly aggressive dialogue should fit her. -
Quote:This is the point where I start to question developer priorities, to be honest. Most of the tilesets we use now have been in the game since Launch. Think about it - normal/old offices, normal/old warehouses, blue labs, caves, Column/Council caves, Oranbega, sewers, pink tunnels (Issue 1), ships (Issue 3)... OK, CoV has its own versions of most of the old maps, but those are just reskins of existing tilesets. And even Going Rogue uses reskins of offices and warehouses.Originally Posted by Johnstone
I know several people who used to play, or tried the game for a while. The most frequent complaint from all of them: the maps. They don't all have the same complaints, but each of them had some issue with the maps. Some thought the maps weren't realistic/immersive enough. Others felt that they were just all too similar and once you notice the pattern, you know which way to go all the time when you see a particular map. A few have mentioned the idiotic elevator system. And then, of course, there were a few complaints about the blue cave layer-cake room.
We've gotten new bits to old tilesets exactly ONCE - around I8 or something like that, and it was a HUGE improvement. A dozen new corridor pieces, a dozen new rooms, it made things almost new again... For offices and warehouses, anyway. Nothing new for blue labs ever, nothing new for sewers at all, still the same three ship maps...
The single greatest complaint said by easily the most people ever against this game is the instances. Why they're a problem varies from person to person, but they're almost always the problem. They're repetitive, they're nonsensical, they're boring... And how much has been done for them? Not all that much. In fact, the more genuinely new instances we get, the more boring they become. No offence to Praetorian labs, but those are mostly just giant square warehouses with props strewn about.
Instances are hover half of what we spend our time in, if not more, so why do they always receive such rock bottom priority? -
I have to side with Venture here, which surprises me. I've often been criticised of hating everything, and that's not the case, so I know where he's coming from. This is, essentially, the Yahtzee approach - show the bulk of the writing as the horrific mess that it is so that the few instances of true brilliance can shine by contrast.
The actually GOOD storylines come up rather very rarely, so there's very little context for me, at least, to talk about them. And I do talk about them in almost every context, but people somehow end up forgetting that I keep praising specific arcs and overfocus on the things I hate. I see the same happening to Venture and I find it rather distasteful. It's gotten to the point where people ignore the fact that he DOES make good points for the ad-hominem attack of "Well, you hate everything so your opinion doesn't matter." It does.
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More to point, the SupaFreak has exactly the right idea. Have the interactive narrative set the setting for the character by giving the facts, but DON'T have that dictate the character's reaction to it. Stick to railroading his actions (because we don't have the tools for branching paths), but avoid railroading his emotions and contemplations. It's not necessary, it's not engaging, and most of the time it's so wrong as to be insulting.
One of the best approaches to convincing a player character to make a decision which is fairly obviously not very optimal is to go with the "But even if it's a trap, it's not like you can't handle yourself, so there isn't all that much to lose." I've used almost that exact line in my own villainous story arc to send a villain on what is, to a large extent, a weird mission. To me, this approach is both an ego boost - you're so tough you can afford to not worry - and it does give a reason without assuming concept.
To my eyes, whenever narrative requires our characters to feel a certain way, it should attempt to CONVINCE them to feel that way, not TELL them that they feel that way. For instance, if I need to feel appalled at Agent Freymuth, don't tell me that I feel appalled at Agent Freymuth. Tell me how big of a jerkass he is, tell me of all the bad things he's done, tell me of all the reasons to hate him, but let ME decide how my character would react to all of this.
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I'm with Venture on this one - it's not impossible or even all that hard to write narrative which doesn't hijack a character. People have been doing it in the Architect since that came out. I did it in the Architect while it was still in Beta. It's not rocket science, it just take a little thought. Find the right words, find the right phrasing, plan ahead a little bit and it's well doable. "Second person narration" is the cheap, cumbersome easy way out of a difficult writing situation, but it is not the RIGHT way to solve problems. -
Quote:We don't know how sophisticated and wide-spread the Rikti mental network is on Earth, considering there aren't that many Rikti, not to mention how much the Restructurists care about maintaining a pure and orderly mental network to begin with. Both of your examples are Restructurist agents operating on Earth, which doesn't necessarily apply.Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
I'd argue that's not necessarily the case. The Rikti Ambassador had to struggle to think/speak like a human again. B'na'dk (or however it's spelled) was fitting in just fine until he saw his brother and that "broke." Had he been in there longer, it's quite possible it wouldn't have.
As for the Traditionalists, they aren't necessarily bigots, so much as... Well, traditionalists. Isolationists. They come from a stable, peaceful, perfect society, and they seek to preserve that society as-is, instead of letting it evolve into something which could potentially be a lot worse. They require a 30 year education process, because they only accept Rikti into their society, and they require any converts to BECOME Rikti, rather than be converts with only partial cultural and ideological commitment. What we know of the mental network on Rikti Earth suggests that it is rather very wide-spread and offers little privacy, so errant thought would indeed be dangerous.
Look at it from their perspective - they come from a world where there is no war and there is no hardship, where everyone is mostly peaceful and happy. Why would they WANT to take us into their world when most of what we do is find still more reasons to kill each other? Remember, the Traditionalists are comprised of scientists and intellectuals - idealists, in a sense. The society they seek to build may not be entirely practical, but they're not building it for the pragmatism, but for the idealism of recreating what was, back home, a perfect society.
Finally, I don't believe the Traditionalists can be seen as bigots at all. That's how the Lost see them, obviously, but the Lost are biassed. They were poor, disillusioned people who bought into the Rikti propaganda because it promised them a better life. Once they realise they will pretty much never be accepted as true equals into Rikti society, they will obviously see that as unfair and hateful, when it is more a question of conservationism. The Traditionalists have, after all, shown no compunctions towards cooperating with humans, nor have they shown any abject hatred or mistrust towards us. They are, in every sense of the word, our allies. They simply don't want to be our brethren and, to be fair, they don't HAVE to be for us to coexist in a peaceful and mutually-beneficial manner. -
Quote:You make a good point about building codes in a city of heroes, and that's something I never actually stopped to think about. We do indeed appear to have been plopped into a modern-day city with wooden doors and plate glass windows that doesn't take super heroes into account. I actually feel that if the world felt like it took super heroes and super villains a bit more seriously in its construction, it might feel more immersive.Originally Posted by AzureSkyCiel
I couldn't agree more. Let's not also forget that Paragon, the Rogue Isles, and Praetoria are a City of Super Heroes, a City of super Villains, a paranoid police state respectively, it'd be easy to imagine that the office buildings (To say nothing about any of the other places) would have panic rooms, shutters and sturdy doors to lock areas down, people working in them erecting barricades, or even the enemies raiding the building have brought portable shield wall generators or made their own barricades to impede your progress. And then there's the idea of other security measures spawning, such as batteries mini-defense turrets, security cameras (in the form of those laser strobes from mayhem missions), or even just traps laid out by others.
From there maps can become amazingly creative in ways to circumvent these things. Like finding the security office and hacking/taking over the security systems to make things easier, busting down barricades with our raw POWAH!, or even just a clever reskin of what's basically an elevator in the form of fire stairs, open windows near drain pipes, open elevator shafts, air ducts, etc. etc.
It's possible, but this trend has existed since I1, so I'm hesitant to point to that as a cause. Missions always had front, middle and back parts even before then, which is why we called certain rooms "end rooms" even from the get-go.Quote:Originally Posted by Zombie Man
I'm betting MA had something to do with this as far as having maps with definitive beginnings, middles, and ends.
But if that is indeed a problem, I feel it's still possible to make a path that has a beginning, middle and end, just one that has multiple paths from that beginning to that end, which cross over along the way. In general, I've felt it's a good idea to introduce more layouts with each new Issue even if they don't include new tileset pieces. We should not be in a position to guess the layout of a mission before we enter it, and at this point, I know all the layouts in most of the tilesets by heart, so there can't be too many of them.
We already have the pieces made. Why not string them together in more ways for greater variety? -
Quote:In general, I'm with Bill on this one. Always been a fan of more believable maps which resembled real buildings. I keep bringing up Oni as a good example, as it had some of the best level design... Pretty much ever.Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
Frankly, I'd prefer more realistic and/or open maps. Seriously, have you EVER seen an office laid out like most of the "office maps?" And any warehouse set up like most of our warehouses - oy.
Give me an office map with cublcles, offices and meeting rooms. The "path" may not show up on the map - you've got to get around these cubicles. Or give me a good building under construction (think of getting to the roof in "No Mercy" in Left4Dead.) The "map" might be open, or have visible sections for, say, the elevators, some walls and supports - but the map itself isn't quite that straightforward, thanks to pallets of cement, construction equipment and the like.
However, I wanted to stick to something that's more feasible to tweak, which is the design of map layouts from existing pieces. Take the new Praetorian labs, for instance. Almost every on of their rooms has about four exits, and there are no less than three corridor pieces for intersections. Yet have you noticed how many times an intersection has been meaningful? I can count a grand total of ONE instance, and that led to a dead end anyway.
It is conceivable to have instance layouts where all exits in a room are traversable and all lead to different corridors which possibly converge back together later in the map. I feel that any time we come to an intersection, the decision of whether to go left, right or straight ahead should be meaningful. A player should never be put in a position to look at a cross intersection and see that two paths are blocked off IMMEDIATELY outside the intersection, one is the path he came from and only one other path is left to take. This is not an intersection. This is a curve in the road, if that.
Instance maps don't have to be more realistic or more complicated to be interesting. They just need to feel less linear. A lot of the newer tileset layouts we are given make me feel like I'm playing Final Fantasy XIII and that ain't good. -
Oh, I agree. That's the kind of writing I'd like to see, but that would also prevent the writers from putting thoughts in our heads. It's the "second way" to do things that I talked about.
In general, I feel that this is how a disembodied narrator should be telling stories about indeterminate characters. It avoids writing for them while still allowing the narrative to pass judgement on events and present its own spin. What makes this better is that this is a spin on the world in which the character exists, which still allows said character to interpret it and react to it as is appropriate for his or her concept. -
Quote:Yes, I believe you winOriginally Posted by Abigail Frost
Win?
I'm not sure why validity checks are a new feature when the NCsoft Launcher has been able to do that from the get-go, but I guess we not have a command line parameter to invoke this. And we got some stability issues fixed.
So, yes, you win, hands-down
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This is something that seems to have been bothering me for a long time, but I've never been able to put into words. But it struck me today - almost all instance maps that we've gotten since Launch have been either linear, or at most following a tree structure. And I don't mean just Praetorian maps or Arachnos bases. Maps as old as the Rularuu/Troll tunnels are almost always linear or tree-like. Let me explain.
A linear map is one which consists of a sequence of a straight link of room -> corridor -> next room -> next corridor with no intersections, or no meaningful ones. Such instances will sometimes give you a T intersection where right is the correct way, but left is an IMMEDIATE dead end 20 feet in.
A tree structure map is a map which consists of branching paths which never intersect down the line. Your standard issue maze is a tree structure like that. In these instances, turning a wrong corner even once eventually leads to a dead end, requiring you to backtrack to the wrong corner and make the right choice.
Now compare those to the oldest of our instances. And I don't even mean Oranbega or the Blue Caves. I'm talking something as simple as offices, warehouses and blue labs. These are often filled with loops and mini-loops inside those loops. A common motiff in warehouse maps is a cross intersection which leads to three diverging paths which go their own ways, but eventually converge in another cross intersection down the line. A common sewer motif is a T intersection where both directions lead to large rooms, which then exit into tunnels which again re-merge into another T intersection. A common office motiff is coming out of a lift room and facing a T intersection going left or going straight. Both paths go through a large room and then converge into another T intersection leading to the exit lifts.
This, to my eyes at least, makes the instances a lot more interesting. When you're on an instance known to have paths loop back into each other, you're always on the lookout for which direction could lead into a loop back into which path. It encourages spacial orientation above and beyond just the room or corridor you're currently in.
This has been absent from almost every map made practically since I1. Troll/Rularuu tunnels almost never loop, and when they do, it's usually IMMEDIATE, ship maps can't really loop on themselves, Arachnos bases rarely even diverge, Praetorian labs are almost all linear from start to finish and Praetorian tunnels rarely split your path for more than a few dozen feet.
And, honestly, I have to wonder why that change happened. Are loops in maps now considered a bad thing? Are we shooting for much, much simpler maps that require less exploration? What's going on with instance design to produce this? Because, frankly, linear and tree structure maps are less interesting to me than grid style maps, and by a fair bit, because they basically consist of "hug the left wall and don't think about it." -
Quote:If you inferred that that's what I was suggesting, then you missed the point. I'm not suggesting that the omniscient narrator speak in first person. I'm suggesting that the omniscient narrator NOT SPEAK. At all. When I refer to first person, I refer to letting my character speak for himself. If the game is going to tell me how my character feels, it may as well do so in his words out of his mouth.Originally Posted by Scythus
For example, if I am DMing a session of D&D and you're one of the players, and I'm describing a scene to you I don't say to you: "As I enter the tomb, I feel the temperature drop precipitously around me."
If pen and paper RPGs have always been done in second-person narrative, then that's just one more reason to not bother with them, given my general distaste for real-time roleplay. I don't enjoy letting other people write for my characters, and this is precisely what this second-person narrative does. And it isn't necessary, because the choices don't need to be explained to me. The choices can be given to me as-is. When a situation fails to give me an explanation of the morality of a choice, it forces me to come up with my own morality, which in turn forces me to explore my characters deeper and make them more compelling.
In simple terms, being told that "You chose to save these people because they're innocent and they don't deserve to die and you've sworn to protect the innocent!" just causes me to go "Oh, OK. I'll go with that." By giving me an option to save these people but not explaining why I took it, the game forces me to ask the obvious question: "So why DID I choose to have my character save these people? Would he choose to save them, really? Does it fit his personality? How can I explain this?"
Writing thoughts into player characters' heads is bad storytelling, because it corrupts one of the driving forces behind the game's fiction - creating our own characters from our own ideas. The more the game encourages people to think for themselves, the better it is overall.
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And, really - when when the game does not give us any way to make our characters speak in such a way that the game accepts it, I see no problem with putting in a little first-person dialogue. If the game needs to tell me how my character feels, then let him say so on his own. -
Quote:Martial Arts' performance may be suspect even to this day, but I'll give you that advantage easily - it's one of the most customizable sets in the game. No other set can vary by this much in its general "theme" as Matrial Arts does when you mix in old an new animations. Granted, not all new animations are actually GOOD, but even the bad ones have their place.Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
I don't have anything against Martial Arts, though I used to. I used to detest the fact that it was all kicks, and Martial Arts is much more than just a bunch of flashy kicks. Now that it has the option of some punching attacks it's a little better in my eyes, but it's still kinda meh to me.
I still use the original all-kicks variation on my teenage schoolgirl super heroine, just because they look more athletic, but I use more punches on my robotic-arm-wearing lizard girl because they're all right-hand punches that fit VERY well. I've ended up with two characters who may as well have two different sets.
Yeah, I still remember Martial Arts way back at Launch. I had a Scrapper with it - guy by the name of Jack Hammer whom I can never remake thanks to the Resistance - and his performance was... Sad.Quote:Originally Posted by Arcanaville
I still like MA: my MA/SR scrapper is by far still my favorite scrapper. But MA has had issues for every second of its existence from beta to two seconds ago. Its a fun set to play, but it has always had performance problems.
However, I don't really find MA perofmance all that bad these days. Sure, the secondary effects on most attacks may as well not be there for all they matter, but single-target damage on the set is actually very respectable now that Cobra Strike is a legitimate attack. In fact, it's one of the few STALKER sets that I didn't end up tearing my hair over levelling up, since it does indeed have solid single-target attacks. That's as compared to something like Electrical Melee, which singularly lacks any power worth using out of Hide, Assassin's Shock notwithstanding.
The set can probably use a few more tweaks, like secondary effects that matter, but as it stands right now, it's well playable and still very pretty. That alone is enough to get me to play it, personally. Just not enough to make it my favourite. Broadsword still has that distinction. -
Quote:I agree. That is a very creative, very well-balanced costume. I might have to consider making something like that in the future. I only have one Spines character so far. That character being the following:Originally Posted by VeryBadDay
Wow! That's just... Wow! 0.0!
I'm sure "ugly" still applies to this guy, but that's kind of part of his story - he's a social outcast because of his appearance and his powers, and is struggling to still do the right thing despite it all. Not a creative story, obviously, and not a very creative costume, either, but I think it works well enough. -
One thought just occurred to me after reading the entry message for the mission in the original post:
Quote:I'd really rather prefer this were in the first person, as said by my character (even if it's not technically true to his character) than this. And I now realise why - because I wouldn't mind giving my character a "voice," as it were. Have you noticed that throughout the entire game, we're essentially silent protagonists? We're assumed to be saying things, but none of that ever seems to come out in print.You never thought you'd see the day you had to take in one of Longbow's own.
It's the old telephone conversation trope. "So what did you find out? Crey is stealing our brains? What's that? Repeat everything you say?" It's a cheeky way to avoid giving us first person dialogue, but much like Gordon Freeman, this does eventually begin to grate to the point where you HAVE to lampshade it, and once you start lampshading and parodying your own game, I start scowling and taking down notes for a large-scale rant.
But really - I wouldn't mind giving my character a voice via first person text. As I said before, I'd seriously rather have that than second person narration narrating my character's thoughts to me. If someone should be talking about my character's thoughts, it should be him. -
On the note of fixing the perception... When ARE we going to fix perception for already-engaged enemies so ambushes don't ignore Stalker stealth?
I'm mostly serious
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Quote:Consider that I put my foot in my mouth yet again. That's exactly what I meant - a simple presentation/interface that belies a much more complex, much more interactive system.Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Actually, complexity is specifically what you want in a system you are attempting to fortify against min/maxing: a complex system won't have a single or small set of local minima and maxima, making such activities sufficiently subjective so as to radically reduce the advantage of doing them.
That has nothing to do with this subject, because this isn't a question of system complexity, but presentation complexity. Presentation complexity is supposed to be as simple as possible given the system requirements. I don't think the Incarnate one is all that bad, but its probably not optimal.
I remember trying to sum up what Alpha Slots did in a way that's easier to reason out, such that people could more or less learn to figure out what each type and tier did. I came out with the impression that there was no such uniform logic which could apply to the whole system, and that any of the labels meant whatever they had to mean in every specific instance, and that almost no label could be connected to a functional concept all of the time. Which is disappointing, really, because if they were meaningful, I'd have probably remembered them, and I can't even remember what the Alphas are called. I know Cardiac and Musculature (endurance and damage) but the other two? No idea, since their names don't even resemble their functions.Quote:Originally Posted by Arcanaville
But then again: I'm a dreamer about this stuff. I would have made "Core" do one thing really strong and "Radial" do lots of things weaker, and it looks like they were thinking that originally, but it didn't quite turn out that way. And "total" and "partial" don't make sense any way you look at it. How about "Focused" and "Sustained" which would imply the power was either frontloaded or lasted longer?
It really feels like the names were made up first before any notion of what the powers were supposed to do, and then the powers were made to fit the names to some degree. That kinda drives me crazy.
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On a slightly separate note (in that it doesn't derive from anything I've quoted), I HAAATE the Incarnate crafting interface. It has a zillion redundant recipes for the same thing, all listed as different entries mixed together in a list with multiple copies of recipes for other items, making for a complete mess. Salvage names are in no way evocative of their functions, Incarnate power names are in no way evocative of their particular type (and often aren't even words - "pyronic") and it's just one giant mess. Oh, and component names are HUGE! It's a see of three- and four-word names
A wise man once said that it's easier to tidy up a room if the things you need to arrange are scattered all over the floor than if they're piled in a mound in the corner, and this is exactly what the Incarnate crafting interface presents us with - one giant pile of everything, or at most several giant piles of almost everything.
It's a terribly untidy system that apes complexity by introducing confusion into what is ostensibly a dead simple system. It's just very, very cumbersome.