Samuel_Tow

That actually sounds pretty good. I like the ability to turn down non-team-mate buffs, and probably would, given the chance.

Wait... What?

Are you talking about Invulnerability the POWERSET, or Invincibility the power? There is no power in the game called Invulnerability. Also, how do you define "lacking in endurance ability? Both Willpower and Stone Armour have a significantly heavier endurance drain just on their toggles. Granted, Willpower also has Quick Recover, but Stone Armour does not, and it has at least five toggles plus a damage aura that you need to worry about. Or are you talking about perma Granite?

Finally, Invulnerability is one of the lighter armour sets in terms of endurance consumption. Regeneration notwithstanding, Invulnerability only has two standard-cost toggles and one low-cost one (Invincibility). If that's costing you too much endurance, I'd say it's probably your attacks doing it. See about slotting them for endurance reduction.

Yano... If you're suggesting that I'm a martyr because I get pissed off, I think you're missing the point of what a martyr actually is. A martyr would be a person who suffers pain and indignity for the sake of other people without complaint. I'm kind of the opposite, really. I get pissed off, complain and rant a lot, and any pain I suffer I suffer for myself and because of myself.

But thank you for the compliment, just the same.

OK, that answers my question.

It also shows that Ice Melee and Ice Armour are only ever available on Tankers and nothing else, hence why I know bupkis about them.

Could you offer some insight as to why the Blaster version of Ice Patch is so small, then? I mean, I don't expect controller-size Ice Patch cast from range, but the Ice Patch Blasters got is... Tiny? And why the swap from ranged summon to player-centric summon?

That's kind of what bugs me. I know David is playing devil's advocate (because he said so ), but the general feeling I'm getting from there is... Disconcerting. It's a state of "This is a bad idea, but try and convince me otherwise." which is actually a step down from "Give me a good idea and I'll see about it." In the other art threads, it was usually a case of just suggesting what you wanted and all ideas were considered. Here, we seem to have to prove not just that the idea is good, but that it's POPULAR, which is a pretty... Bad thing to ask from a playerbase with no tools for statistics.

And, yeah, looking at how many people are making animal costumes now would be a pretty bad idea. It'd be akin to trying to judge the merit of heavier-than-air flight by looking at how many people were building airplanes in the middle ages. I don't think David is falling for that, however, as that's a pretty obvious fallacy, but what he DOES seem to be falling for is the idea that "it's not represented in comic books."

Not only is that a bad criteria, given all the stuff we've been given that isn't very popular in comic books, but we've been repeatedly told over the years that "because it is/isn't like that in comic books" will never trump good game design or player request as an argument, and that's exactly what feels like it's happening here.

David did say something about a poll, though he said it within the context of the City of Heroes Facebook page, so I worry as to where that poll will be posted. If anyone spots an official-looking pole NOT on the official-looking forums, let me know!

I knew it was off-topic, so I decided not to comment on it and just plop down a link. That's what I was looking to record.

That actually looks a lot like what we got, though, doesn't it? Not the SAME, but similar.

I'm sorry, Venture, but after trying some of what you suggested, two facts became clear:

1. You and I have VERY different views on what constitutes good stories.

2. My reasons for swearing off the Architect are still just as valid now as they were before.

*edit*
Interestingly, and with no relation to the post I'm editing, Bennett the Sage seems to have something to say about this topic.

Ideally, so it should be, but human nature being what it is, that's not always how it plays out. I can't speak for other people, but as for myself, I was pissed off. Big time. I tried not to make a big deal out of it because I realise it was my own fault for building up false expectations, but I was still pissed off. And much as I try to keep a level head and stick to the moral high ground, I was still pissed off. I'm not sure if other people were as angry as I was, though I imagine at least a couple were.

Point is, what you did was a provocation. In an ideal world, we'd be able to laugh it off and all live happily ever after, but the world of angry people is often rather a very imperfect one. We get angry at things that, logically, we should be tolerant towards, but that's just how it goes.

You also have to be aware of the other side of the matter. There are several people around here, and I've started taking names, who've made it a point to act like intolerant bigots, and have gone out of their ways to insult and belittle people for so much as mentioning animal parts. I would like to punch these people. I make no qualms about that.

So please understand that when I met the (self-inflicted) disappointment from the Mutant pack AND had to suffer the fool of belligerent jackasses adding insult to injury, that your comment, benign as it is upon reflection, really did rub me the wrong way. I don't want to be ugly here and pester you with this, and I do apologise for making a big deal out of it, but try to understand why I and several other people might be "pretty upset."

What you said doesn't offend me. It pisses me off. I was pretty pissed off when I saw what I was getting and what I was NOT getting in that pack, so believe me when I say that the last thing I need is someone gloating about it. You may not have intended it like that, but you walked into a thread where you should have known angry people would congregate and proceeded to smile at their misfortune. Can you not see how that would have made us even more angry, and specifically at you? Really?

I'm sorry. Tolerance, understanding and equality is one thing. Anger is a completely different thing.

*edit*
While I suddenly don't condone or excuse football violence, imagine the following: A team just lost, and you walk into a pub full of fans of the team fuming at the defeat, then loudly proclaim "Gorhs, I sure am glad those guys lost!" Just picture this and tell me what you'd expect to transpire.

Consider this - people were expecting something, and indeed looking forward to something, that didn't materialise. They express their disappointment at not getting what they wanted, and are met with "Well, I'm glad you didn't get it." How do you think that makes me feel?

My experience with the Architect seems to disagree with this, but I'll take your word for it as I haven't done too many.

I suspect you and I just don't see eye to eye on what makes a good story, though.

Yeah, I have to say that pool travel powers definitely need a No FX (or FX in PvP Only or whatever) option when and if pool customization comes about. I don't mind the glowy gaseous stuff, really, but certain concepts just don't look good with that kind of effect.

Why do people keep saying that like it's a bad thing?

I don't mind arcs that assume my motivation as long as the motivation it assumes is self-serving.

Sometimes that's all you need. City of Heroes is such a way as to not really lend itself to literature and narrative very much, and to be honest, story arcs that get too narratively heavy rather than letting events speak for themselves become cumbersome.

It's not a question of difficulty, it's that this means they're not available at character creation, hence stifling creativity of new characters.

Let me put it this way - I would gladly earn an unlockable costume piece that required me to do all the Shard TFs ten times over, if that unlock then applied to all my characters at character creation. I feel about having costumes available at creation just THAT strongly.

Basically, yeah. That's one of the reasons I stopped trying to do TFs. Everyone seems to have done them a zillion times and just wants to fast-forward and rush-rush-rush to the end and gets pissed off if you don't know what to do.

Let me ask you this - why not say you're glad the pack had what it had, rather than that it DIDN'T have what people were expecting? It's the same thing, but with much more generous phrasing.

Regardless of people's opinion on the Statesman, I agree with this statement. David has so far done immeasurable work towards better relations with the community, I dare say more so than any developer before him. I know these threads are more a general tool to poll the people, and that things we post in them are not guaranteed to be made, but at the very least, it feels like we have a hell of a lot more input now than we've ever had before.

Even if I don't get what I asked for, SOMEONE will get something he or she asked for, and really, can we ask for more than that?

Plus, the guy has proven to have stoic patience and tolerance. We get in his face and blow our tops, and he just responds with "I see what you're saying. Tell me more." I couldn't get mad at him if I tried

Yeah, no Test server, no way to check out the new costume pieces. The best you can do is check out other people's screenshots, especially bAss' and hope to judge from there.

I kind of have my suspicions as to what you were looking for, and I think you can join me in disappointment

Still want to buy the pack, though. You can never have too many costume pieces.

Uch! NO! I hate unlockable costume pieces. I'd sooner pay money for them and have them available AT CHARACTER CREATION than have to wait an arbitrary amount of levels and do an arbitrary task to get an item that I'm probably not going to bother playing the character who needs it without.

If I never see another unlockable costume piece it will be too soon. Either make them unlock for the whole account, sell them for real money or drop them in for free. There are PLENTY of other things to earn as rewards for boring, repetitive tasks. Costumes do not need to be among them.

No. If CoV Beta was any indication, the GR Test server has its own separate client, completely unique from the Test server. The inactive shard on the US Test Server is not a separate server, it's a separate logical partition to the one US Test server.

Think of it as a hard drive. You have one drive, but you can have any number of partitions on it. The more partitions you have, the less space you have to work with in each partition. That's how the Test servers are arranged. The reason you see only one shard active most of the time is because having more shards active just splits the server's processing power, it does not add more resources.