Samuel_Tow

I had a lot of "fun" chucking barrels at scuba divers underwater. I'm reminded of Spoony reviewing Final Fantasy X Blitzball, and players' ability to kick the ball underwater like it's on an open field: "I don't care if you're Harry ******' Potter and you fired the ball out of a bazooka! The ball ain't flyin' like that!" Same feeling - I don't care if I have super strength. A barrel ain't flyin' like that!

You still don't remove a step people are expected to take in favour of an option step people have been told they don't have to take. Especially considering the effort of getting Inventions is not trivial for everbody, whereas that of Trainings, DOs and SOs is.

I disagree with your assessment of what constitutes "complicated" and what constitutes "unnecessary." I feel the entire Inventions system is far too complicated and utterly unnecessary and would very much like to see all of its enhancements being store bought. This is not likely to be taken seriously by anyone ever, but that doesn't change my assessment of it.

I'd rather the progression be in three stages than in two stages. You really can't argue around that. And I'm not sure who those "most players" you speak of are who never slot Training enhancements, but I don't think you have any grounds to claim that other than anecdotal evidence from the total of, like, 15 people who've brought it up on the forums over the years and your own experience. My experience and that of people I know, however, contradicts this.

I enjoy the experience of getting decent enhancements at level 12 and receiving a factual power-up, and then feeling the same way at level 22. You are proposing to remove one of my power-up levels, and I disagree with you completely.

You keep neglecting the central theme here - progression, and progression in an upward fashion. As you level up, enemy health increase far outpaced your damage output. At around level 1, you can one-shot minions with an unslotted heavy attack. At level 12, even a slotted heavy attack with Build Up won't always do. However, because the strength of your enhancements increases at level 12, this marked drop is mitigated.

As I level up, it always feels like my enemies are getting tougher and tougher and I can't keep up. Then at level 12, I replace my Training enhancements with DOs and suddenly I race ahead of them once again. Sure, my damage just keeps on dropping, but by the time it's dropped very low again, I'm already using SOs, allowing me to race agead once more. From around 25 onwards, player damage to enemy health remains largely static, so everything from then on is a gain.

What you are suggesting is starting with really strong attacks and then progressively watching them suck more and more and more until they're just BAD at level 21, eliminating one power-up which makes this downward spiral of player ability much more tolerable. And I HATE HATE HATE games where you start out strong with "beginner's luck" compensations and progressively get weaker as the game goes on if you can't keep up. And this is precisely what would happen without the step up from Training to DO.

I think this is where a lot of the schism is. For you, these are the exception. For me, they're the norm and "descriptive" names are the exception. The only real super hero name I have is Captain Indivisible, and I designed him as a bit of super hero parody, a kid who gained super powers from playing a lot of video games who picked the name because it was the first thing that came to his mind, and basically grew up with it.

My names beyond that? Grimwall. Morten. Iprit. Ezikiel Bane. Crash McGuier. Kyle Young. Slime Girl. Pandala. And, of course, Samuel Tow. You can see the pattern here.

The chunk you lose from enemies taking "world" damage, which counts against their experience reward.

Personally, I would be satisfied if locations proprotedly underwater would display glass windows looking outside into the ocean. Longbow bases are supposed to be underwater, yet for all it matters, they may as well be underground with no windows looking out. In fact, bringing up rapture, I would LOVE to see glass tube corridors with ocean on all sides. That would be AMAZING, and it doesn't have to be any more specific than what we can see outside your average Arachnos map.

-Well, in that case, I would like to have missions in space.
-Done! Earth is already in space, you are on Earth, therefore you are in space. Enjoy!

Incidentally, wouldn't being in the Netherlands count as being underwater considering the entire country is quite a ways below sea level?

And on that note, aren't we "under water" on a rainy day? Or, hell, just a cloudy day, considering clouds are made of water vapour?

Considering what I've seen work and what I've seen not, the very least we can ask for (I dare not say "expect") is a muscular texture added to the female form. I'm not sure how that would happen, since Tights with Skin have no texture dropdown, but I know for a fact that the technology to swap textures exists, because Tights with Skin is nothing more than Tights with a fixed texture and a specific subset of patterns, plus a few wholesale textures. It's just a matter of giving us skin multiple skin textures while only limiting pattern selection to the patterns which over the nipples and the crotch. So, no. No muscular skin with the Stars pattern.

I could, come to think of it, actually see this done by simply doubling up on options by including, say, Sports, Sports Muscular, Hacker, Hacker Muscular and so on. It wouldn't require any more texture work than what I described above, but it could bloat the dropdown.

However, I would agree that it's unreasonable to expect things like Hearts Plus, Angellic Plus, Excess Plus, Leather, Metal or the Bridal Lace to have a muscular texture associated with them. In fact, we shouldn't expect the Tanktop to have a muscular texture to it. The only things we can hope for, at least with any chance of occurring, are muscular skins with with the "clothes" which double up as patterns. Things like Athletic, Angelic, Tee, Tanker, Holes, Savage, etc. Nevertheless, that should be enough.

Things I WOULDN'T expect are new models or tweaks the the muscle sliders. David basically put his foot down on both, and they won't be happening. To be fair, a muscular texture can make a lot of slider configurations work, and I happen to know that for a fact.

Something else I'd like to see eventually is the ability to use alternate arms, using the Robotic Arms mechanic, but for monstrous and alternate human arms. You can already see this in action on Foreshadow in the Hollows, and in fact even on player characters with the majority of jacket short sleeves. They do, in fact, come with their own unique upper arms that just happen to match the regular arms. But once upon a time, they actually gave the male upper arm texture to females. It's been fixed since then, but it proves a point: Women can be given unique and different arms independent of their upper body, which means it MAY be possible to give them more muscular but still very much human arms.

Two things:

1. You assume Inventions are the next logical step from SOs, when the developers have made it clear that the game is balanced to where SOs are sufficient.

2. The distinction between enhancements is in the manual. You don't need to remember anything nearly as complicated as you describe here. You just need to figure out which border corresponds to your origin (which is in the manual) and then use enhancements that have this half-border.

I don't feel this is needed, especially since it removes a lot of the progression from Training to DO to SO and the improving percentages. The way the game scales with level, I'd rather have that sense of progression. Moreover, putting down DO level enhancements at level 1 where enemy stats are balanced essentially against having no enhancements at all would mean your performance would start out higher and decrease a lot more obviously than it does now.

Not a fan, I'm afraid.

My names would probably not apply (I used an X-Com ripoff of T'lerth and a Warrior #1 sound effect of Shaffakoom), but as of Going Rogue, I've actually snagged at least a couple of names that should apply. One was Brutticus, which I brought in from another game, and the other was honest-to-god Leningrad.

Oh, and I also managed to snag Duriel, which surprised the hell out of me.

We each have our own approaches, it seems. Myself, I tend to approach everything I experience as THE writer. "How would I write this. How would I tell that?" I'm perfectly capable of tolerating a villain who's a complete hideous, unlikable monster, and to be fair, some of the most basic, most satisfying storytelling devices is including a complete monster villain that the audience hates with a passion, cheering in vindication when he suffers the humiliation conga or the self-disposing villain death. We hate the ******, so we're ecstatic when he suffers and dies. Yeah!

But that's a one-sided story. It's basically hero vs. elemental evil. The villain in such a case gets very little characterisation beyond "He's evil, yo! Hate 'im!" The villain doesn't come off as a real person, he comes off as the polar opposite antagonist of the likeable protagonist. It's satisfying, but it's also very simplistic, as well. Instead, I try to give my villains context, and I prefer to experience stories that give their villains context, as well. You can still make a hatable villain by the end, essentially by having him drop the act, run out of patience, get desperate or otherwise show his true face. That suave, smooth-talking trickster may finally suffer glamour failure, break down and show himself as the psychotic wimp he truly is, but that doesn't mean that he can't be the dashing plotting mastermind for the previous rest of the story.

I enjoy villains who feel that they've earned their right to be evil. An evil overlord who built his empire out of nothing, learning that people are weak and need to be led by a stronger individual along the way feels like he deserves his ambitions. The momma's boy who inherited his empire and spends all his time whining about how nobody likes him and they'll all pay DOES NOT deserve to be the antagonist. He deserves to have heroes storm his castle and slap him on the mouth.

In essence, if I watch a story with a villain I hate, I want it to end as fast as possible, because I want to see the dude get his comeuppance. If I watch a story with a villain I actually like, then I want to see it run on for a while, just because I like the guy and I want to see him get as close to success as possible. Because he's cool. A hatable villain I'll want to be tricked and killed in a moment of weakness. A cool villain I want to see reach the absolute peak of his power and then be defeated honourably. That's the difference, I suppose.

See, I don't specifically mind "everyone dies" endings as long as it feels like everyone dying somehow accomplishes something at the end, something that the rest of the movie had a hand in. For instance, the entire plot of all three Soul Reaver games (well, two Soul Reaver games and Defiance) centred around Raziel trying to change the past and fix things, save himself and avoid going into the blade. Right at the very end, he realises that the one thing the world needs saving from is the late Tony Jay, which requires that he is absorbed into the blade. Thus, the culmination of three episodes of Raziel trying to save himself from the Soul Reaver ends up with him being consumed by the Soul Reaver. It feels like a downer ending.

Only it isn't. The entire plotline serves a purpose in shaping, then reshaping Raziel's outlook on like and his understanding of events, transforming him from an angry spirit into a true hero. Sacrificing his existence right at the end, while not a happy sunshine and raibows ending, is still a culmination of his character development, and it achieves something - it gives Kain the tool he need to combat the Elder God, but beyond that it gives him the awareness he lacked all these years to know what it was that he needed to combat. The protagonist dies, but his death had a meaning which his past experiences gave it.

By contrast, something like The Last Exorcism, while being an otherwise good movie, has an ending which invalidates the plot entirely. It raises the question of "if the protagonist had never existed, what would have changed?" We wouldn't have had the "authentic" footage to sit through, true, but would events have changed? Because I don't think so.

I'm actually reminded of the Nostalgia Critic's review of the Flintstones movie, where about half of his review consists "...aaand another pointless scene..." Pointless scenes are what I HATE in movies. That's not to say everything should have plot points in it, but no scene should ever exist for no reason. To set the mood, to provide characterisation, to provide development, to move the plot, to give us something cool to look at, just SOMETHING! But when everybody dies at the end, here's what is instantly invalidated and rendered pointless:

*Their character development - no-one is alive to remember it.
*Their adventures - no-one survived.
*Their emotions and romances - all participants are dead.
*Their revelations - no-one will ever know.
*THE MOVIE - because if none of these events had taken place, it would not have mattered one bit.

The underdog is interesting because he defies the odds and wins. The survivors are interesting because they survive when they shouldn't. The hero is interesting because he achieves what others couldn't. If I see great danger that looks like no-one could survive it and, sure enough, no-one does, my reaction is "Well of course! Why did I need to watch a movie to reaffirm what I already knew?"

Again - this is my bias showing, but I want to watch a movie, read a book or play a game that defies expectations and defies the odds and gives me something that realistically should not happen.

True, but that assumes "an average team," which is very little consolation to those of us who simply don't. But I respect the endeavour all the same.

Fine, let me give you just one, then: I don't like how it turned out and I wish it had turned out less like City of Heroes and City of Villains rolled into one. Think you'll find a way to attack me over that, too?

*edit*
It's interesting how you completely avoided a possible discussion for the sole purpose of telling me I'm wrong. Let me make a proposition to you - if I admit I'm wrong and write a passionate apology, would that make you feel all fuzzy inside? Because I will if it will.

Considering your argument consists of throwing insults around, I dare say one isn't needed. You don't get to make a statement and demand counter-arguments to it. You need to make a convincing argument for your own idea, and I remain unconvinced.

*edit*
I've nothing against a non-unique naming system, provided it satisfies two conditions: 1. Unique identifiers to specifically differentiate between identically-named characters exist and 2. The system is not fugly and in my face, such as the Local Name@Global Name approach.

I actually meant to say "single-shot cannon," if I didn't already. And the reason I say breech-loaded is because at least half of the cool facto of the Harkonen was that *shwing* sound as the barrel levers down and a HUGE cartridge case is ejected out of the back, hunting rifle style. That's kind of why I'm so keen on seeing such a weapon spit huge shell casings when it fires, so you KNOW what's going into each shot.

I am, however, heavily against auto fire or even semi-auto fire. The only way I can stand behind something like this is we're talking about a howitzer-style single-shot cannon. This doesn't have to have a graphic for being manually reloaded after each shot, but by the same token, no power can feature more than a single shot. You don't "double-tap" with a 120mm cannon

Now, I don't want to go out of my way to figure out power stats quite yet, but here are a few things I could see being used, such as:

*Canister Shot - as a cone
*Armour-Piercing Discarding Sabot - as single target, possibly a snipe
*Solid Shot - I mean, why not?
*High Explosive Shell - as AoE
*Incendiary Shell - either as an AoE or as Assault Bot style burn patch spam.
*Cluster Bomb - possibly as a a "nuke." Which reminds me...
*Nuclear Artillery Shell - because it's cool And while we're at it...
*Depleted Uranium Shell, possibly as a tier 3 Blast, and because at this point, we may as ell.
*Gas Grenade, possibly as AoE control, maybe sleep in the way Siren's Song does it.
*Run-of-the-mill Missile - because you can fire a missile out of a sufficiently large gun barrel.

Wikipedia links added to demonstrate that I'm not making this up, and because some of those are just cool

As someone who did a write-up of a Pulse Rifle set before, I disagree. There are already enough powers in the game to make that happen, between Mastermind attacks, Mace Blasts and the various blasts that Arachnobots posses, plus a copy of Barret's Satellite Beam from FF7

And it's not a case of "more interesting" as it is "more different." Which is my problem with your set. You are advocating another set which consists of automatic machine fire and greandes, which is what Assault Rifle basically is. I know it's not EXACTLY the same, but it's close enough. Legacy sets notwithstanding, the developers haven't really even come close to duplicating old concepts so far. The closest we have is Dual Blades to the other single-blade sets, such as Katana, but even that is still two blades.

That's why I suggested a non-auto cannon, one that doesn't do any auto fire, but instead acts more like a potable howitzer. I feel that would be sufficiently different from Assault Rifle to qualify, as we really don't have a set like this. But you have at least three auto-fire attacks in your set, and I just can't get behind those. I don't know if Resistance Heavy Barrels ever used auto fire, but even if they did, I don't feel it's appropriate if you want such a set to be uniquely different.

I suspect you're thinking something more akin to a 20-30mm autocannon, whereas I'm thinking more akin to a hand-held 120mm. I don't want to bring up Hellsing's Seras, because I know she carried around two autocannons at one point, but I'd sooner see something of the rate of fire and mechanism of her original Harkonen, which was a single-shot breech-loading cannon, though I don't remember what its measurements were. In fact, I would LOVE to see a portable howitzer longer than the character is tall, producing one HUGE shell on each shot. And I'm talking beer can size shell, if not more. In fact, I'd like to introduce a deliberate reload mechanism into such a powerset somehow.

By the way, I don't think the Heavy Barrel cannon is anywhere near 120mm. It's probably around 20, if that.

*edit*
And please don't try to shoot me down, Alpha. You know I'm not trying to shoot your idea down. Cut me some slack here.

Ha! I completely agree with you there I know it's probably a stupid reason to pick one language over another, but I just stick to what I can do with the least amount of re-learning. I haven't programmed in either Java or Perl in probably a year, but I still remember most system keywords and even a lot of the in-house class names and methods. I don't remember jack squat from Perl, because it's all machine text in my head. I could re-learn it, sure. I have a few books on Perl lying about, but I... Don't want to. Not unless I need to use it.

What's more, a colleague of mine who uses Perl more often says it's best used either for direct command line mini-programmes or for very simple 5-line programmes, whereas pretty much anything you do with Java ends up with a LOT of code, much of it for basic structure. Then again, the kind of programmes he asks for help with kind of require exactly that sort of complex programming, such as tracing through a list of RNA fragments and looking for "clumps," which was the latest I had to do. You can do it in Perl, but you turn it into Java anyway.

I don't know if Java is a the best programming language out there, but it's the one I'd suggest to novice programmers, because it's the easiest I've seen to follow the logic of, especially if you name your variables right. I moved from Pascal to C++ to Java, and it seemed like each was more clearly designed than the last.

Plus, Eclipse is AMAZING. If you let it, it can write half your code for you. It can do such things as auto-generating basic methods like setters and getters, it can do a global variable rename, where you can rename one variable and it replaces that name everywhere it's called, and it's very smart about making "suggestions." In fact, I find it good practice to ALWAYS ask Eclipse for suggestions, both so that I don't make a stupid typo and to check if it actually offers anything. If it has nothing to offer, it means Eclipse can't follow my logic, which more often than not means my logic is wrong. I just love the thing. And, just as a bonus, there's an addon for it which allows it to handle Perl programming, as well

Well... I kind of wish we could. I mean, why can't I play the Dr. Vhaz or Nemesis of that world and just have my own hideout hidden from BOTH factions? All I'm saying is that they did indeed replace a black and white morality with a yellow and blue morality. They replaced ethics with faction politics, and while it's less cartoony and cliche, it is no less restricting.

I honestly don't know what I was expecting from Praetoria, but I kind of hoped that this would be the land where we would finally be bale to make OUR decisions. You know, not be pawns of the establishment in the way City of Villains portrays us, but what I got was even MORE servitude and faction politics than when I swooned after Arachnos. At least in the Isles, I can work for the mob, work for the Circle, work for the Freakshow and, yes, even work for myself via Dean McArthur and Leonard. It was all railroading, but at least I felt I had a choice, because ultimately, it didn't matter who I worked for.

By making choices in Praetoria matter so much more, they've actually made the choices LESS enticing, and at the same time boiled those choices down to only two - Resistance or Loyalists. Hell, I can't even work for the Syndicate. And why not? They seem to be the major third player in the game. Why can't I work for them? Why can't I work to overthrow Marcus Cole, only not in the name of anarchy for the masses, but with the aim of replacing his overt fascism with a puppet democracy secretly governed by Syndicate leaders? Seriously, does that not strike anyone else as a viable and meaningful third option? I mean, yeah, it's still serving someone else, but it still makes for a more than "yes or no" conundrum.

Here, I have an idea: Help Washington kill Cleo in the name of order, help Cleo kill Washington in the name of freedom, or call up Wu Yin to send in some muscle to help you kill them both so that you weaken Cole's regime by undermining White, weaken the PPD by removing a high-ranking Interrogator and open the door for infiltration by the syndicate in filling the power vacuum. Yeah, it's still a "kill" option, but hey, it's one more option. And an actual grey option, to boot.