Samuel_Tow
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:Look, even ignoring "the high road," all you're doing is giving people the right to say "Well, they did the same to ME, so why should I care?" next time this comes up. Yeah, I know sticking it to the man, so to speak, does feel more satisfying, but all it does is breed more animosity and people WILL remember. Trust me on that one. They may not remember exactly what it was that caused them to feel that way, but they WILL remember that someone went out of his way to ruin their fun, and they will be rather much more immune to reason next time.Originally Posted by Bill Z Bubba
Those that got the popup put back in requested it without even bothering to consider how it would affect other people. I see no reason to be considerate to self-centered farks like that.
I hate to be the guy doing the "violence never solves anything" speech because believe me - I don't feel it! But honestly, in this case? I don't think that'll do anything more than just make things worse and lead to bad attitude and even more problems down the line.
A lot of people came in here wondering what the quarrel was all about and if maybe the problem wasn't something more than just the prompt. Well, THAT is the problem. The prompt is no big deal, present or absent. But it's people going out of their way to kick each other in the nuts that causes these kinds of tensions, and I'll be damned, but I could sure as hell do without that kind of adventure. Especially because it turns around and bites ME, even when I wasn't the one getting revenge in the first place. -
Quote:And you will fix that by being inconsiderate? Please understand that I say this with the utmost respect for you, but doesn't that strike you as hypocrisy? I don't mean to insult, but doing exactly the same thing you feel others have done to slight you back to them is something I can't explain in any other way.Originally Posted by Bill Z Bubba
Fark you, you inconsiderate farks.
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Quote:I don't play support, but I sympathise from my experience with Masterminds. I played a Thermal Mastermind recently, and while I could grit my teeth and rebuff all six demons, twice, every four minutes. Fine, it sucks, but I can do it. However, my patience for buffing them with whatever the status protection power was even 90 seconds evaporated after the very first try. No way in HELL am I rebuffing every 90 seconds. In fact, I can barely tolerate doing it even four.Originally Posted by SpittingTrashcan
Speed Boost is why I will never play a Kin. I can barely tolerate bubbling on a FF; a 90 second duration targeted ally buff is right out, and Kins that team and don't have SB are really only hurting themselves to a degree I wouldn't be able to ignore.
So, yeah, if I had a buff that I HAD to do this with, I'd punch something, then delete the character as soon as I realised what I was playing. -
Quote:Huh... You know, I think that's probably the most practical bit of advise I've had yet. Basically, over time, attacks tend to cost about as much as each other, provide I don't let them lapse too much, therefore it's smart to slot them all and not overfocus on some. OK, I can do that. In fact, I've been doing that for some time, but I figured there ought to be a better wayOriginally Posted by Wonderslug
However, what I would really take from this example is that the longer you fight--either in terms of single encounters or in terms of multiple encounters before "hitting the reset button" by using Rest or Power Sink or what have you--the more the cost of ALL your attacks (that are balanced as attacks, anyway) tends cluster around similar values, suggesting you cram as much end reduction as feasible into everything. (Which is, incidentally, what I do when I plan a Staminaless build).
Basically, I try to single-slot all of my attacks for endurance, but some I try to double-slot, and they're usually either the most costly or those with the highest EPA... But more often than not, they're the ones with the highest cost, just because that's how it turns out.
Unfortunately, outside of specific outliers like Ring of Fire, Power Thrust, Shocking Grasp and so forth, I can't really tell which powers I use the most. I can give you a rough hierarchy of which powers I will prefer over which if all are available, but that hierarchy tends to be based on damage, anyway, as I'll tend to open with the heaviest hitters and work my way down the line, firing the heaviest attack available to me at any given moment unless circumstances require something else, such as avoiding massive overkill or abusing AoE.
Does that mean I should focus on slotting those heavy hitters the most? I realise it seems like a stupid question, but I choose not to trust my judgement in this thread, as questioning my judgement is kind of the point.
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Interestingly, you say I don't have to have the numbers to spot which powers cost me abnormally much, but it's from the numbers that I first realised they were Take Ring of Fire - not only is its efficiency crap, it actually costs a HIDEOUS amount just spamming it, more than almost every other power a Fire/Fire/Flame Blaster has access to. I guess I could have assumed it would have a lower efficiency, but it would have taken me a long time to realise it's costing me more, faster ON TOP of that.
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Quote:Yeah, I understand why they did it, and I can't really fault them for it. But when and if we ever get Blast set customization, particularly in animation, I'd like to see Sonic Blast get an alternative to shoot from the hands. That alone would make me jump ship and make a Sonic Blaster.Originally Posted by SpittingTrashcan
(De gustibus non est disputandum, but I fully understand why the devs chose to make Sonic blasts come from the mouth. There's fairly significant precedent.)
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Quote:Say, David, can you guys be convinced to add a With Skin version of the Organic Armour chest and legs and possibly make the transition between Bioluminescent legs and monster feet a tad smoother?Originally Posted by David Nakayama
Both Bioluminescent and Organic Armor have tails. They simply missed the current build, but they'll be in the next one.
I'm not really making demands here. Just asking. -
Quote:Yes, because that's exactly the right way to make people agree with you. All that will prove is that there are dicks in the game.Originally Posted by bpphantom
No surprise. Just means I can spam it at people that wanted the prompt back during combat. "How do you like your prompt now!?"
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Quote:Oh, hey, this reminds me of something ON TOPICOriginally Posted by Godpants
Regarding Sonic Blast, the only sound effect that blows it for me is the wolf howl for Howl.
"Aaah! Get this coyote off me!"
I've never had a powerset ruined for me by a single power (I just grumble a lot then I skip it), but Sonic Blast has been ruined to me because... It's just incredibly lame, in my eyes. I mean no offence to people who like it - to each their own. But to me, one of the WORST concepts is mouth-based blasts, and a whole powerset that's about shouting with your mouth is just... Well, stupid. Can't take it seriously, can't like it, can't play. I probably will at some point anyway, but not in the near future.
If I had the option to shoot my sonics out of a rifle like the Council sonic soldiers, I'd be there in a millisecond. Even something as simple as being able to shoot my sonics from my hands like how Spider-Man villan the Shocker does would be good enough, but shouting? No. Just no. Gonna' take an act of God to make me play it. -
Quote:Clever! I like it a lot!Originally Posted by srmalloy
Making dimensional coordinates map to real rather than ordinal numbers, thereby making the number of alternate dimensions uncountable, does allow a handwave to explain why every hero gets sent off to solve the same problems in the same alternate dimensions (of course, it doesn't explain why we're all doing identical missions here in Paragon City, but that's for other people to explain) -- each time a portal is tuned to a particular set of dimensional coordinates, variations in the actual coordinates below the limits of our accuracy cause the portal to open into different alternate universes, which, by the infinitesimal difference in their coordinates, differ from the 'original' found alternate dimension in an infinitesimal way, so everyone gets a 'brand new' alternate dimension to enter; only the portals that are kept continuously open -- to Recluse's Victory, for example -- link to a single dimension that you can return to again and again. If we postulate that the difference between universes does not occur in large steps, but rather as a continuous process with infinite uncountable universes inbetween, then this gives us a good look at infinite space where we can redo the same missions without too much head-scratching.
Of course, one would assume certain universes would work as hubs, changing those around them when they themselves are changed, or that when one universe is changed sharply, those around it also change to interpolate a smooth transition. But that's all academic as far as "Rule of Cool" storylines are concerned
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Quote:I actually want to make a list of things that one would expect to be in this pack, but actually aren't at this point:Originally Posted by Dispari
Really disappointed in all the opportunities the devs had with this pack that they seem to have completely passed up. Monstrous legs have been sitting for a long time, as have new heads. Tails seemed like a shoo-in given we just got new tail tech. Seems an awful waste to put the effort into creating new tail tech and then just forget about it.
*Monster Leg options. Specifically lower leg options to go with Claws and Hooves.
*Monster Upper Arms for the three Robotic Arms torsos. Red Right Hand, anyone?
*Monster Heads. Hopefully, these are coming.
*More tails. Hopefully, these are coming.
*A chest piece. we have shoulders, why not a chest piece in the same style?
*A belt. Same style as the shoulders and chest.
*A hairstyle. Infested Kerrigan would like to donate her tentacle rasta.
*With Skin options. More specifically, for the Organic Armour pieces.
*Organic armour and Bioliminescent textures for smooth gloves and boots.
P.S.
Can we PLEASE get a more human face with those glowing eyes? They're great, but either please give us an upgrade of the Glowing Eyes face that we already have, or an additional face that's just human with glowing eye. -
Quote:He has. Whether he was actually SERIOUS about it, however, is impossible to tell with his style of posting. However, given the state of monstrous parts in the game and the shape of new monstrous parts being added, you can see how one would be inclined to take him seriously.Originally Posted by KAKTOS
Not trying to be a smart *** but has JLove ever said he wont make any furry parts?
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Quote:There's a side to human psychology that makes us oftentimes more irked at the way people dismiss a problem, rather than at the size of the problem itself. Picture the following exchanges.Originally Posted by DKellis
It makes me wonder if there's some sort of deeper undercurrent to this debate, and the Mystic Fortune thing is just casus belli.
-Oh, hey, the prompt is back.
-Man, you suck! You whined and now it's back and **** you!
-Yeah? Go to hell! And you know what else? I'm GLAD they changed it to something that pisses you off. *******!
Vs.
-Oh, hey, the prompt is back.
-I wish they hadn't done that. I liked it better before.
-Well, maybe they can add a prompt at some point.
Of course, there's the inverse of:
-Oh, hey, the prompt is back.
-I wish they hadn't done that. I liked it better before.
-Go to hell! No ******' way! That sucks and you suck for suggesting it!
-Well **** you very much, right back!
You know how that goes. After a certain point, it's less about the subject at hand and more about people being pissed off at other people for being dicks.
P.S. I'm taking a poll on how long it takes for my post to get mod-smacked... -
I'm torn on this. On the one hand, what I've seen so far really adds nothing new to enable concepts that couldn't be done well before. It's just more of the same twisted demonic concept that, yes, looks a whole lot like Alex Mercer in Prototype. I mean, it's cool, but it doesn't actually add much. On the other hand, I'm still not sure how I feel about Booster Packs adding the ability to make new concepts that weren't available before, as I'm still not sure I'm a fan of microinstruction.
I'm still disappointed, though. While the costumes DO glow and that's VERY cool... This just doesn't add much in the areas where we actually NEEDED more. What did we get, to run a tally? New demonic wings, like the other three or four sets we already had, still more horns a lot like what we already had and a couple of textures that remind me of Metallic more than anything else.
I do very much appreciate the new thorny gloves, believe me. I LOVE big gloves like these, and I can't wait to use them. But the boots? Ugh... Since when do demons mutate to wear high heels? And for men, no less. The idea is cool, but the execution of the boots is just meh. Their shape is simply not very interesting.
Speaking of which, why aren't there any new Monster leg options? Seriously, a "mutant" pack that doesn't give new Monster leg options is just... Bad! Why? Shouldn't this have been the MAIN area to add? Yeah, that and heads, but heads were at least announced so we can assume they're coming. Monster feet weren't even mentioned. So, what? We're stuck with the same old hooves, claws and insect feet that we've been looking at for the past five years? Seriously? What's more mutant than digitigrade legs?
By the way, some of these options just baffle me. Women get Bio Luminescence with skin, but not Organic Armour? Why? How come? Organic Armour is basically Metal MK2, yet we can't use it with skin? Again, why? And we STILL don't get the ability to use "with skin" options on Monster legs? Come on, now! OK, I take that back, Bio Luminescence CAN be used with skin on the Monster legs... Only it doesn't match the skin of any of the legs, specifically the claws and the hooves. It leaves a nasty, nasty seam.
and then there is the stuff that, inexplicably, wasn't included. I'll skip over Monster heads and tails, and I won't re-mention Monster Legs (MONSTER LEGS!!!), but other things are still missing that shouldn't be. F'rinstance, why don't we have a new set of upper arms to use for the Robotic Arms torso? I mean, why can't we have, say, Robotic Arm 3 feature a full mutant right arm with separate from the rest of the body? The upper arms exist, the lower arms exist... Just not where you'd need them to exist to do this.
And why no chest detail? Surely a bony plate on the chest or some kind of bony tangle around the rib cage would have worked. And what about the belt? Why no new belt? Or how about ears? Why no new special ears? I mean, we already have a few pretty freakish ones, so why not go in that direction? Or how about a face detail 2? A "Davy Johnes meets Greater Devoured" tentacle mouth would have been cool. Maybe in the missing Monster head(s)?
But you know what confounds me the most? Why no new hair? I mean, we already have the freakishness that is the exposed brain. Why not give us a set of Infested Kerrigan hair? And I'm not even saying this in a "wanna gimme" context. Wasn't that OBVIOUS? I mean, they copied Kerrigan down to the wings, you'd think they'd have taken her hair, too, right?
Overall, I'm actually pretty disappointed with this set. The glows are GREAT, especially as a novelty and I love the gloves because we simply don't have any like them, but everything else is... More of the same? And not more of the same where we actually needed it, like Monster Legs or Chest details or UPPER ARMS!!!
Seriously, guys - you NEED to add some more Monster legs at some point. Sooner or later, you just have to.
*edit*
Just wanted to add - the Bio Luminescence glow is REALLY COOL! As are the eyes on the Organic Armour head. Can we PLEASE copy that over the other faces that have glowing eyes? Especially the Glowing Eyes face? -
Quote:Will do. However, I want to see all of it, first. That thread lists a few things I don't see. OK, obviously heads and tails aren't part of this, but what about "armour and sleeves?" There are no new armour sets that I saw, nor any new sleeves that I've been able to find. Am I missing something?Originally Posted by bAss_ackwards
By all means, after looking at in on Test give your feedback: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=225400
Also, don't forget to check out the new and incredibly awesome costume change emotes.
*edit*
Also, how did you get that organic armour with skin? I can't find that anywhere? -
Quote:Thanks. That explains it.Originally Posted by Zortel
US Test Server, it comes from, it's not up for purchase yet.
I'll still probably buy it, but it's not quite what I was expecting. Especially coupled with the small amount of costumes we get with issues now.
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Looking through it as we speak, I'm struck by how many things it doesn't seem to include. I mean, they had the perfect opportunity to include some Monster UPPER ARMS but I didn't see any. -
Wait, can someone please explain what's going on? Is the pack available for purchase or something? I can't see it in the PlayNC store, but it could just be hidden because it's bumping me down to the Euro version of the store.
Where are you people getting these screenshots from? And, yeah, I read the thread and I still don't follow. -
Things that require extra special textures or geometry modifications, such as X-Ray vision seeing people's bones, is probably not very feasible.
However, I don't see why we can't play with effects filters just the same. Why not red negative, like what we used to see through those red tubes in Arachnos bases? Why not two-colour monochrome? Why not a grainy filter? Why not a blurry filter? There are a ton of full-screen video filters that we could apply... Just for fun. It's no more useless than costumes, after all, and we love those
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Quote:Yeah, I do actually keep overlooking that. Given that all players run at (relatively) the same speed and most players run faster than most NPCs, allowing blasting ATs to essentially kite endlessly and never stop is... Problematic? Yeah, to say the least.Originally Posted by IanTheM1
This is something that largely gets overlooked, somehow. Forget aesthetics (though I agree about those), rooting is essential for game balance in CoH. They would have to completely rethink pretty much everything from the ground up to account for its absence.
Not to mention that the less reason games give players to backpedal, the better. I HATE the look of that kind of movement, especially running! I mean seriously!
And again - melee just looks TERRIBLE in perpetual motion. Even anime, which is known for its weird fighting styles, tends to avoid that. -
Quote:That neatly sums up what bugs me the most about Blasters. I remember someone once said something that went like this:Originally Posted by DKellis
My main problem with Blasters can be summed up as "if I miss, I die". The margin for error is a lot slimmer than any other AT I've tried except for Stalkers and Kheldians.
When I play a Scrapper and I accidentally turn a blind corner into a boss, my reaction is "Oh, a boss. OK, I guess." whereas when I play a Blaster and turn a blind corner into a boss, my reaction is more like "ZOMG! OH, no! A boss! Aaah!"
And that really is how it works. With a Scrapper, if you screw up, you have ample time to do something about it, even if that's to use limited consumables. With a Blaster, if you screw up, you're ******, if you'll pardon my English. Miss a hold, you're dead. Mis-target Total Focus on the wrong guy, you're dead. Round a corner into an unexpected spawn... You're either dead or at least running for your life. Man... They're powerful, they really are, but... A lot of the time they don't FEEL powerful. Not as much as they fell when things go just that specific kind of right.
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By the way, here's one thing that just occurred to me, and which is probably the source of my hatred for damage auras - they drop when you get held. On an AT that has no status protection, you WILL get held. For Blasters, that's not as deadly as it used to be, since you can keep firing and kill the mezzer anyway, and you can always just use a Break Free. But no matter what you did, your damage aura dropped.
Here's my experience with Blazing Aura. I'd run into melee to try and use it, and I'd be blindsided by a stun almost immediately. It's a short-duration stun, of course, no more than a second or two. But here's the thing: both Blazing Aura and Hot Feet are now GONE. OK, Blazing Aura I can reactive, but at the cost of a 2.03 seconds of activation time... Nah, not my first priority. My first priority after waking up from a stun is either Blaze, Fire Sword or Fire Sword Circle. Or the flight instinct. But then we have Hot Feet, which I need to wait for for 20 seconds, and even then I have to wait for it to animate. Most often, I'll just finish the fight and THEN activate the two powers (if I don't forget). Thing is, next fight the same thing happens. I start it, I get blind-sided by a half-second enemy-interrupted sleep and both of my auras drop. AGAIN. And since I'm already sick of reactivating them, I leave them down till the end of the fight. Put them back on, get blind-sided by a stun on the next spawn, then pull my hair out.
I highly suspect that I wouldn't hate damage auras nearly as much if they just suppressed, rather than turning off entirely. -
Quote:Huh... OK, that'll work. That's where I have most of my Blasters, myself. PM-ing you now.Originally Posted by Mystic_Cross
I'd be happy to try and help you learn how to blap, PM me and let me know what server(s) you're on and hopefully I'll have something useful there. I moved my E3 to Victory (i think) during the free server transfer period, but I have some other blasters I've been attempting to set up for blapping, mainly a fire/electric, sonic/energy and a fire/energy at 12, 18 and 24, respectively... I haven't played them in a while (alt-a-holic by nature), but I'd be willing to dust them off, or even make a new one somewhere to try and help you out.
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Quote:All right, I can roll with thatOriginally Posted by Wonderslug
Frankly, Sam, those numbers are telling you something between jack and squat. They look pretty but they don't mean much.
If you define "really fast" as fights lasting a few seconds or one application of most powers, then I'd be hard-pressed to find such fights, with the possible exception of things like Aim + Build Up + Fireball + Fire Breath + Rain of Fire. Other than that, my fights actually tend to extend to 15, 20, even 30 seconds sometimes, and I'm measuring that by Build Up's recharge, which seems to be up for practically every fight, even if I have to occasionally wait for it for a second or two (two-slotted for recharge with Commons).Quote:Unfortunately, at some point on the continuum between short-duration curbstomping and protracted firefights, things get really messy and confused; however, unless you regularly find yourself ending fights really, really, really fast you will be hard pressed to go wrong with the extended activity model.
As far as EPA being basically the same thing as DPA, I guess you're right, but does that mean I shouldn't calculate it just so I can look at it? Why not? I have basic stats written down in the spreadsheet, so the calculations are done automatically. Doesn't really hurt to have an extra column to just so I don't have assume.
But, basically what you're saying, is that powers rarely conform to their expected DPS and EPS. OK, I can work with that. In fact, it's something I've been saying for a while, that most powers will be off their cycle almost all the time. However, smaller powers with a higher uptime will tend to be off their cycle BY MORE than big powers, which are both important enough and take up little enough time that people will WANT to fire them as soon as they are up. However, that doesn't really help with calculations any.
On the other hand, what EPS tells me is that "If I choose to spam this power, this is how much it will cost me over time." And when I look at something like Ring of Fire, which looks like a good attack I'll want to spam, and find out it has easily 50% higher EPS than, say, Fire Blast... I will think twice about whether I want to use it for damage.
By the way, the other side of this, which is EPA, isn't just about exceptions. It's about what's an attack and what isn't. For instance, Chilblain has a lower DPA than Frozen Fists, but it has a higher EPA, for the simple fact that... It's not really an attack. It's a status effect with damage. I can use it as an attack, but the numbers tell me that I'll be doing that at a steep cost. Steeper, in fact, than I would be if I used something else, instead. Something balanced as a pure attack, rather than the half-way point between attack and control. This actually extends to something like Shocking Grasp, the power I got kicked in the face over. Yeah, it deals a lot of damage, but at what cost?
I guess you're still right, in that I can just look at DPE, realise it's doing less damage for its cost than pure attacks and assert from that, but having it written down for me doesn't hurt.
And then there's the other thing I use EPA for. If we view my endurance consumption as a tap, then the EPA of each power the flow that goes through it. If I continually use powers that keep the tap wide open, I'll run out fast. Obviously, using powers that keep the tap more closed will result in my doing less damage, but identifying what's keeping the tap the widest open for the longest time tells me what I want to slot for... Tap reduction...
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Basically, here's my question - if I took the powers with the highest EPA and slotted those for the most reduction, would I be cheating myself of endurance reduction which I could have better used elsewhere? -
Quote:There is that, but then there's the other side of developer motivation - making useless things more useful. Whether through developer mistake, through lack of foresight or through player habits, certain powers end up being viewed as "useless" by people at large, and often with good reason. I'm not really good with specific examples, but I'd still point to Temperature Protection, which had utility bonuses added after people complained it was an empty power pick long enough, and Jump Kick - long considered a terrible attack - got a weirdly interruptible cast animation.Originally Posted by Arcanaville
The main thing that the increase tells me is that the devs intended them to do massive damage, and increased them when the perception is they did not. The devs pattern was (and still is) to be more inclined to ascede to player requests when they are consistent with their initial intent, and resist them when they are not. If the devs intended melee attacks to be secondary to the primary function of blasters, and not terribly important if they did a lot of damage or not, they are not likely to have increased their damage just because players complained. But if they intended them to be valid offensive options and the players were saying the perception is they were not reasonable options, the devs would have been far more likely to increase their damage explicitly to make those powers appear to do what they were intended to do.
Basically, while you CAN look at this and conclude that the original Blaster attacks weren't living up to their designed intent and so they were driven closer to it, you can also view this as a case where the designed intent (i.e. Blasters scrapping for long periods of time) was simply flawed, the powers were viewed as useless, and so rather than scrap them like what happened to Gravity's T9 power, they buffed them until players saw them as useful.
This isn't really very different from what you suggested, but it has the benefit of suggesting alternate motivations, and as such, suggesting alternate original design. In fact, making useless powers useful is often as much an author's saving throw as it is an incarnation of prior design.
Ah, I got one! The original Moment of Glory was seen by many as not just useless, but actually debilitating to use, as I'm sure Evil Geko would agree. I don't really know what, the exact original design was, but it seems to have been intended to work similar to powers like Unstoppable, only with different drawbacks. When THAT bombed, Moment of Glory was turned into what has since been called "defence build up." I honestly wouldn't see that as enforcement of old design so much as salvaging a BAAAD power.
I kind of feel that that's what happened to Blaster melee attacks when they bombed in Beta, but of course, that's just assertions with no proof at this point.
That's actually the best explanation I've seen on the matter, because it neatly describes how they feel to me in one word - rushed. A lot of sets actually felt rushed back at Launch, but most of those have been retweaked and fixed. Blaster secondaries... Not so much. I mean seriously - when's the last time something was added to Energy Manipulation, say? A few things were taken out of Power Boost and Total Focus' stun mag was dropped to 3, but was anything ever added? What was added to Devices? Smoke Grenade was fixed, Targeting drone was given that cop-out buff and a laughably broken power was barely even touched in the form of the Auto Turret to Gun Drone changeover. But that helped the set exactly... Not very much.Quote:The truth is the blaster secondaries were rushed. The devs were working against the clock and tried to reuse whatever they could. Blasters were supposed to be Ranged/Melee originally, so they were given secondaries that were highly derivative of existing melee sets whenever that was possible, and to the best extent possible. That doesn't mean the devs thought that was *all* blaster secondaries should do: the time they saved copying tanker secondaries gave them time to make /devices which was totally different.
By comparison, things like Super Reflexes got scaling resistances, defence debuff resistance, a decent T9 and a lower cost on Evasion, while Invulnerability got several incarnations of Unyielding Stance and later Unyielding with ever better stats and Regen go... Changed around a lot.
Seriously, for something that feels as rushed and slapped together as Blaster secondaries, you'd think more would have been done about them over the years. -
Quote:I'm still trying to figure out where AR/Dev fits into this, but that's a story for another timeOriginally Posted by SpittingTrashcan
Here's the only blanket statement regarding Blasters I can get behind: they do a lot of damage.
I guess. But that's kind of self-countering, though. I've had a Blaster since before I1, but up until the Defiance changes, he was the only one I had because it HURT to play him. I came close to deleting him twice and just giving up on Blasters altogether, both times for the same reason. Yeah I completed my missions... At four times the time it took ANY other character I'd EVER played to that level (34 and 42, respectively).Quote:Although: one perfectly viable solution for just about any Blaster is to bring a pile of Lucks to every mission, eat them three or four at a time, and just kill everything before they run out. It involves frequent trips to the vendors, but it's nearly universally applicable!
It probably didn't help that he was an AR/Dev Blaster, so he was both doing so little damage against so few enemies (again, Tenacious would mostly spawn single lieutenants) he was as slow as a turtle riding a snail, or I was sitting on my hands for long periods of time laying down Tripmines, trying to convince myself that "No, really! I'm having fun here! Honest!" Interestingly, the only time I've ever actually let my subscription lapse has been after I was first done playing with the guy and realising that I hadn't been having fun for the past 10 or so levels. "It wasn't until I'd quit to my desktop and suddenly realised how fascinating my ceiling had become that I realised how bored I had been." to quote Yahtzee (yet again).
Issue Defiance gave Blasters balls, as far as I'm concerned. It turned them from skittish squishes which had to be suicidal and STILL barely break even into monsters who actually felt like they wielded some serious power. It's just a pity they don't actually get to USE that power because just puffing up your chest and flinging AoEs at your enemies tends to get YOU killed the fastest. -
Quote:This scares me every time I see it, and you neatly described why. "Different animations for upper and lower body" is the WORST, most repugnant way to animate any game that I have ever seen, and in any game that is not a shooter which has done this has only served to prove my conviction. There is nothing worse, I repeat, NOTHING WORSE than seeing your legs run around independent of your torso which swings around like it's mounted to sled sliding around the terrain.Originally Posted by Obsidius
Lamentably, according to BAB when I asked him about this subject at HeroCon '08 in regards to PvP, the current engine cannot support different animations for both upper and lower torso simultaneously.
Human movement does not work like this. Human bodies both in stances and in motion are not anchored to an invisible platform at gut level with legs dangling below and torso swinging above. Human bodies are anchored to the ground, with their centre of gravity shifting up and down and side to side as they move. Any move, and especially melee attack moves, need to involve the whole body, because force is transferred through the body and into the ground in a powerful strike, or at the very least into the centre of gravity if the body is airborne. You can't get that through separate animations. It just looks BAAAD!
I've been spitting through my teeth at this concept ever since I played Rune way back in 2001. The UT99 engine is great for an FPS game where your torso is basically held level and your shoulders pivot with the gun pointing at the target. It works for shooters. It does NOT work for a hack-n-slash. For a hack-n-slash, it looks and feels as if my character is stuck in an invisible walker.
I've said it many, many times before. The only way to get decent attack animations while moving is to animate moving attacks. No cheat looks good. Oni did just that, which is what makes it a great game. Rune did not, which is what makes it crap. Champions Online did not. Guess what that means. -
After about 15 seconds of squinting, I was about to ask if there was a G in there next to the M, and then I saw you mention it. Yeah, that image sucks. In fact, a lot of those really suck to read. The double-word ones (that you see in the Failblog producing things like "Beat Wife" or "Go Germinate") are even harder to read. Sometimes I have to reload them something like five times until I get one that actually looks like a human language.
There has to be a better way to prove a person is actually human than this... Because it's very depressing to fail a test of humanity. It's like showing up for an IQ test and failing THAT.