Samuel_Tow

Exactly. I don't know what went into the creation of Champions Online, but that game's graphics offend my senses. I'm not sure if it's bad quality or ****** artwork, but if there's one central reason why I hate the game, that would be it. Like World of Warcraft, I just can't stand to look at it. Forget City of Heroes. I would pick Oni over that, and that's saying something.

Pinnacle, actually, but considering I've been seeing it trailing Virtue and Freedom recently, it might be a population thing.

It's not an obnoxious side effect of me being a noob, though. It's an obnoxious side effect of me being a wise-cracking ******** with a penchant for posting odd experiences.

Like that time someone called me out of the aether with the words "bridge?" or the time someone gave me... What was it? Something like "join brute 45". What And, yeah, I made a thread for both.

Just on a slight note about the "snark" thing, by the way. My first response was "No, thank you." and my second response was "Precisely." as in that's exactly what I'm saying. It wasn't until the guy kept chewing me out that my THIRD response was snark. And, really, I'm not exactly the sort of person to just say nothing, unfortunately.

That's one of the primary reasons people complain that the game's engine is old. It was old even when the game launched in 2004. Through a series of delays and rewrites, the game managed to launch a few years after it was supposed to, and it's been an uphill battle since then. It's easy to understand why people keep clamouring for "a new engine," impossible as that may be.

I'm gonna' hate myself in the morning for agreeing with GG, but I agree with this completely, having actually gone out of my way to get screenshots and make the same statement before. I want that stance, either as part of some new system for customizing our running and jumping animations, or at the very least as a stance emote. Seriously, this is not half bad.

That doesn't excuse them for being crappy, nor makes your winking attempts at justifying them any more "cute."

There was a nice sketch from an old cartoon I've long since forgotten that comes to mind:

- You will do it and like it!
- I'll do it... But I won't like it!

You know, at this point probably the WORST thing they could do to Going Rogue is make Incarnate Levels heavy forced-teaming content. Seriously, if this is Recluse's Victory AV-hunting in the streets or Mothership raids like what I think it will end up being, there better damn well be a solo alternative, or I foresee a few VERY pissed off people in the future. Heaven knows I'm a fanboy for the game. Always been one. But a dick move like that would seriously make me consider dropping out.

*edit*
As far as having faith in the developers goes, this is NOT an area I have much reason to have faith in. Everything else I'll give them the benefit of a doubt, but they've been treating solo ability like an annoying side effect in most new content for as far back as I can remember. They DID remove all the factors that make solo play PHYSICALLY impossibly, such as simu-clicks and some AVs, but beyond that, it's been a case of "Can't beat it? Team!" I have no reason to believe Incarnate levels, which seem to be sold as epic loot and epic raids, will be any different.

Believe me, I am MORE than willing to eat crow if it turns out I've been speaking out of my *** and the system is entirely solo-friendly. If that's how it turns out, then I'll be glad to have made a fool of myself over it. But they've been pushing for team play so hard recently I'll only believe it when I see it.

*note*
For years I've been saying that the 5th Column will never be back, and I'll only believe it when I can zone into an instance and punch a 5th Column soldier in the face. As of I17, I can freely admit that I was wrong, and I am now a believer.

People keep saying this, constantly neglecting to mention what this involved - getting your villain over to hero-side, taking an Epic, waiting a week, taking that villain back to villain-side and NEVER DOING A RESPEC.

Sorry, in my book that's still a "can't."

I honestly think this may have been written by a Rikti, because it assumes such an insultingly low level of intelligence from the players as can only come from an alien who views our entire race with contempt and scorn. Seriously, try this:

Do Kelly Uqua's arc. Finish it completely all the way to the end. Now check your pockets. That small, round object you feel in there is known as an idiot ball. Toss it away. Feel better now?

Could you quote that or link to it? I can't seem to find the source material and I could be missing something.

Yeah... Keeping INF and Accolades would be a big no-no, definitely. As someone who's against veteran/purchasable powers in general, I agree with you there. I would be against keeping anything that is of a practical benefit, such as powers, slots, stats, boosts, accolades and the like. I do not, however, have any problem with keeping items which do not have any direct contribution to performance.

This obviously does present a problem with accolade bades, more specifically with re-earning them if you already have the pre-requisite badges. But those are technical problems which may make the idea less practical, but still do not make it philosophically errant.

As far as "internal reroll" goes, as long as you're dropping yourself down to level one and having to re-earn everything which actually made you strong to begin with, it doesn't really get much more complete than that outside of cosmetics. It'd be like someone who wanted to reroll his Broadsword Scrapper but keep his Rularuu's Bane. I would support that without a shadow of a doubt, and wouldn't really hear otherwise.

No it didn't. Seriously, is that how you want to do this? Is not/is too? Numerous people, myself among them, complained that we didn't find +1, +2, +3 enemies and above challenging so much as cheating, and would much rather fight enemies our level, but more of them. The old difficulty settings never let us do that. It was either x1 or x2, and then mission level went up by one, so you ended up at +1x2, which I HATED.

Seriously? It doesn't help sub-level-10 players? Wanna tell me how I can manage running at -1x3 from level 4 onward? Or do you feel that x8 and NOT x8 are the only two settings in the new difficulty options? Because that's how you're treating it.

I play at -1x3 all the time with all characters. In terms of difficulty, this is at around the same level as +0x2, otherwise known as Tenacious/Malicious, which is what I used to play before. It looks a hell of a lot more impressive, however. It's harder for some characters, typically those that used to have an easy time of it, like Scrappers and Masterminds, but easier for others, typically the ones who used to have a harder time, like Blasters.

Furthermore, the new difficulty settings allowed me to play a non-sissified difficulty setting and still turn off bosses, which therefore allowed me to up the number of enemies I fight, producing much more memorable experiences, without getting beaten into the dirt by intentionally overpowered bosses. In other words, it allowed me to tailor my experience to my preferences, and if you want to keep insisting it does nothing for anyone who isn't farming, then you can go to hell.

Better than ever, actually.

Yeah, that is just you. The game jumped in entertainment value by a factor of at least two after the Difficulty changes. This may well have been the single greatest systemic change to the game that has happened since AVs started scaling down into EBs. I've ALWAYS hated Tenacious/Malicious, because they tended to give me a lot of spawns of just one orange lieutenant or just one red boss, or just three yellow, lonely minions. I don't want every fight to be a boss fight. In fact, I don't want almost any boss fights at all. I want every fight to be a rush of large numbers of weak enemies because that's what looks cool.

What's cooler in a movie, game or comic book: A hero who fights one single nameless mook who turns out to be unusually problematic, tough and resilient, or a hero who fights two dozen nameless mooks at a time and virtually walks over them to get to the actual boss? Opinions may vary, but I choose the latter. Before, the game didn't allow me to play that way. Now it does. And if you want to insult my intelligence by trying to suggest that these improvements didn't make a difference, then you can go to hell.

Yeah, right. If you respected my opinion, you wouldn't be presenting your opinion as fact and my opinion as... I don't even know what you're suggesting. That I'm lying? That I don't know what I want? That I'm imagining things? Because I told you in straight text that these things changed the game for the better in a BIG way, and your response was basically "No they didn't." Yeah, so, what? Did I just THINK it got better for me when in fact I'm much more miserable without realising it?

Next time you try to hide behind "opinion," make sure you don't state it as fact first, because after you have, you no longer have a leg to stand on.

Yeah, pick the ONE instance when we're treated with respect that I and several others have been bringing up as the sole exception over and over again and you will indeed not see the pattern. Here are a few other things to look for:

*Hardcase's interference at the end of Vivacious Verandi's arc.
*Daos' interference at the end of Ghost Widow's second arc.
*Just about anything from Darla Mavis.
*Just about anything from Operative Kirkland.
*Kelly Uqua's INSULTING arc.
*The Golden Roller's missions.

And that's just to name a few. The whole business with lacking actual, real Epics and having to make do with power from Arachnos is just the cherry on top. As far as I'm concerned, Arachnos can GO TO HELL! I don't want their powers. I want a real Epic like heroes get.

No. Because that doesn't happen in all version, but more than that, because the whole game bills the guy as the person to follow. Even after having beaten him, it STILL has you serve him in the Recluse SF.

Like I said, the original plotline may or may not have been conceived as you describe, but this most certainly fell through the cracks when it came time to actually make missions for City of Villains. It may sound like splitting hairs, but this IS the kind of tone all of City of Villains has.

And besides, Time After Time is little more than (a very much appreciated) ego stroke. It'd be believable that half of his followers defected to me even if they were mindlessly devoted to him.

Given that Ghost Widow is bound to Arachnos itself, rather than its current leader, that may well be the case. At the very least, it lends credence that such a line of thinking actually exists. It also makes Recluse that much less compelling. For a guy who fell over backwards into super powers (exaggerating, obviously) and took an organisation ready-made, from the The Weaver, I believe, he really hasn't done much to integrate himself into Arachnos. He basically yanked its previous leader out of his seat and sat down on his spot, but Arachnos remains an entity unto itself ASIDE from him.

Put it this way - Recluse is chasing his own agendas, often ones that don't feature a bright future for the rest of Arachnos, and he's using the whole organisation as one giant pile of red shirts. Fitting for a villainous plotted, of course, and I dare say quite respectable in its own right, but this REALLY isn't the kind of guy anyone with all his brain lobes intact would want to follow. He's not after a brighter future for Arachnos. He's after a brighter future for himself. Which makes our obsession with serving Recluse - a narrative device which tells me the mission designers were trying to paint him as the end-all, be-all - so confounding. It's almost as if whoever wrote the story bible about the then-unnamed spider-themed villain group and its leader didn't leave enough source material behind and whoever actually did the villain-side content completely missed the original intent.

All throughout City of Villains, blatant clues in the plot structure point to Recluse as a selfish fraud who's using Arachnos for his own ends, right down to Operation: Destiny. His head is always in the clouds dreaming of Statesmen jumping over a wall, and all of Arachnos ends up bending to his will. And for what? No-one seems to like him. And yet the narrative not only paints us as Recluse fanboys, it actually seems to assume Recluse is the man to strive to work for, hence why I feel there is a serious disconnect in story bibles here.

Basically, the game is trying to sell a guy riding the coat tails of The Weaver as a magnanimous leader we should all want to follow? Go to hell! Recluse doesn't deserve to be the Mary Sue that he is.

That's out of context, Bill. What Positron said "No." to was the question of a respec that allowed you to change your AT and powersets BUT KEEP YOUR LEVELS. His response was that they made the game alt-friendly for a reason, and rerolling does fit within that reason. You're playing the game all over again. Any new AT or powerset you reroll into, you have to play from scratch, hence why it doesn't violate Positron's statement.

You mean fudge it? I guess I could see that, but the problem is that, as far as I'm aware, the powers system can't pull an exact duplicate of your costume to spawn on target. Of course, with the advent of doppelgänger, that may well have changed.

At which point I'd still ask for a Multiple Selves Mastermind first, but that's neither here nor there

Shield Charge WAS this in Closed Beta. They changed it to what it is now because this simply didn't work out. Castle seemed pretty bummed out about it at the time. I don't know the mechanics behind this one, so I'm going off precedent - what you describe is something they tried and ended up rejecting for technical reasons never actually stated (to the best of my knowledge).

[quote]You seem to be stuck on the idea that since teleport functions one way there is no possible way you could do anything else. I believe this could also be done with the mini pet AoE system already in place just instead of 30 caltrips you could have 5-8 clones. They don't have to be dead on target just enough of an FX to make the AoE army of me attack look good.[/qute]

I have a sneaking suspicion that Teleport works in a way similar to a summon, it just summons you. As such, multiple teleportations on a single power activation is something the powers system currently cannot do, or at least has no precedent of doing. The only power that comes even remotely close to that is Chain Induction, which actually summons a pseudo-pet for each target struck, and it's this pseudopet that actually fires the next attack.

This seems to take a LOT of time, however, something in the neighbourhood of 5-6 seconds for all three jumps, if they all occur. And I'm not convinced this is trivial to minimalise.

Of course, you could be looking at another fudge with an effect-only body double appearing near all of the enemies affected, but then I'm not sure how that effects script would even work. The effects that play on one target cannot take into account the effects that play on another, and as such this fudge will have no means of ensuring only one of you is visible at any given time to jump between the different targets. What you're likely to get is a dozen versions of you simu-punching all targets.

I'm not a developer, so I can't say something is impossible, but what I CAN say is that it's unprecedented. We can only assume what the engine can do based on the things it already does that we have precedent for. We can infer about things it can't do either by past problems with them, like Shield Charge was, or by game mechanics obviously designed to get around said limitations visually, but not mechanically, such as Fulcrum Shift using a pseudo-pet because it needs to repeat the same buff multiple times on the same person per enemy affected.

I CAN say that teleportation "next to" an enemy is unprecedented. Powers don't do that. Tsoo Sorcerers do that SOMETIMES, but I highly doubt this is player-usable, since it still relies on the AI to point the way, not on the power's structure to auto-decide it. I can also say that teleportation attacks can only be achieved via pseudo-pet, and pseudo-pet attacks cannot be targeted. All pseudo-pets have either PBAoE clicks or PBAoE auras that do not require the pseudo-pet to have a target of its own.

Now, Mastermind commands CAN be used to order pets to attack a specific target, but no precedent exists for these commands having been written into powers as power effects. Even the Mastermind macros just use /petsay. And even if they could, there's a delay between when a pseudo-pet spawns and when it becomes receptive to AI commands, and while that time can probably be minimised, I doubt it can be minimised enough for the speed with which the system executes effects from the list.

Basically, from the precedents we have, I see many technical problems. We very much CAN ask for more functionality, as long as we accept that this is a tech problem that will likely take more resources to fix than just more powerset powers. After all, they add new functionality all the time. Swap Ammo's function simply didn't exist before Dual Pistols was added. I just wouldn't pin my hopes on adding new powers system functions.

That only works up to the point where GG turns herself into Chicken Little. I'm already there, because it's not worth arguing with someone who simply ignores arguments and restates opinions as fact. I just have to wonder how long that effect will last. How long did it take for Friggin' Tazer to lose his edge?

That's kind of what I've been saying all along. Let us plot our plots, let them fail. Straddle us with the consequences and let us fight our way out of them. Isn't that how villains in comic books tend to work? Start out with a plot, almost succeed, fail completely, escape, start over. Solid foundations for solid villainy.

Again, stop THREATENING me that bad things are going to happen. DO them and let me fight them anyway. The game shouldn't be so afraid to have me thrown in a Paragon City jail. That just means I'll break out again. It shouldn't be afraid to give me the wrath of Arachnos, either. Be a fun change of pace to get into a few SERIOUS scrapes with them from time to time, not just lopping off cells that Recluse doesn't care about.

Surprisingly so. When I first met Dean, I was rolling my eyes so hard they left skid marks on my skull. But by the end of his arc, the man actually delivered in spades. And not only that, when the arc is over, I STILL go back to him for information.

Hell, yeah, I high-fived him!

See, this is kind of what makes content great for me. Sure, the cynics among us will point out and say the arc was nothing special and the fudges it used very predictable, but so what? I'm not some hard-nose critic who has to analyse every snippet of my entertainment. The writing made me care about the dude, his antics made me laugh a few times, and by the end of the arc, I sympathised with him. It's the overall feeling that mattered, and that arc left me with a good feeling overall.

Besides, my character is a goofy, cheery demonic kid. It's in his nature to laugh out loud and high-five.

As a child of a totalitarian state (former Soviet block here), I can testify that the more oppressive a regime becomes, the greater the power of the people the regime actually favours. If you have "connections," then the rules don't apply to you, you don't have to wait in line, you don't have to pay, you don't have to go through usual channels. This remains a MAJOR mentality problem of the old Soviet republics even to this day, to the point where we have a word for it that I just can't translate.

As such, I can easily see how, while the common folk in Praetoria are oppressed, the more privileged few who actually have Tyrant's favour would have a lot more operational freedom. Basically, the "one death is a tragedy, a million deaths are a statistic" approach, where the few in power matter and the many underfoot simply don't count.

Clearly, a totalitarian regime will do its utmost to make loyal citizens content as long as they toe the line. However, and I have seen this first-hand, a totalitarian regime will never shy away from breaking its own rules for its leaders and would not shy away from just throwing people in jail if they felt like it.

Hence, good writing permitting, there's no reason the chosen few loyalists (that is, all of us - the players) can't have amazing freedom of action similar to what a Spectre would get in Mass Effect a Grammaton Cleric would get in Equilibrium. Again, it comes down to writing, and if D-Mac is any indication, the writing is there even now.