Samuel_Tow

Yeah, that really pissed me off when I couldn't find it on women. I realise it'd need an updated texture, but come on! Women need tattoos, too!

Speaking of which, we really need a more robust system for applying tattoos that fit with tight clothing, specifically tights with skin. Currently, the Yakuza/Tsoo tattoos are the entire texture, but men get the extra option of applying patterns to their bare chests that women don't, by virtue of not being allowed to walk around with bare chests. Right now, these tattoos just use the regular pattern mask layer, of which the entire game only ever supports one.

Well, I've always wanted to see at least two levels of patterns, with the upper level concealing the lower level, as well as a system that could mix textures over each other. Right now, Tights with Skin is just a bare chest with colour patterns applied to it, and they sort of look like clothes because the chest skin texture is so smooth and, more importantly, uni-coloured. However, try putting patterns over, say, Armour Plate and you'll see what I'm talking about - the pattern only tints the armour and looks like a coat of paint, NOT like a shirt.

And, again, I have to ask - would being able to do that be a bad idea? Is it bad to wear a tank top over your fish scales? Is it bad to wear a beaneu over your rocky skin? Technically, that's a large problem, obviously, but I mean conceptionally. Is it really wrong to want to put a character who has non-human skin in clothes?

Mind you, I'm not saying that "locked behind a TF" is a good solution, only that it's better than "locked behind months of work." And even then, the things that are locked behind a TF are actually locked behind a highly popular one. Suppose, for instance, that Tech Bot armour were locked behind the Bastion TF. How likely is that to "just happen?"

The problem with Vanguard merits is that they basically require you to either fight nothing but Rikti, or take part in the kind of events that grind my computer to a halt. Seriously. This isn't even a question of "don't want to." It's excruciating to see your game chug down to the speed of your average PowerPoint presentation. Just doing the War Zone Arcs and then Angus McQueen's missions in their entirety will still barely earn you enough for a pair of pants.

I don't mind having options, but I do mind lumping in cosmetics into the same vendor pool as functional items. You end up with ridiculous situations like a pair of pants costing almost as much as a giant robot. Vanguard temporary powers and other functional purchases are, indeed, very powerful and they SHOULD be expensive (other than the Curse of Weariness cure, which should die in a fire for even being needed). But the costume pieces really shouldn't be considered as high-price items along the same lines. All this does is make them artificially too expensive.

As I said, two of them did. The rest didn't. Samuel Tow got to 50 in I3 and Ezikiel Bane got to 50 in I7, soon after 40-50 villain-side was introduced. But that's it. I didn't get another 50 until... Oh, long after the Blaster Defiance changes. Which Issue was that?

Of the remaining five, I had an old Blaster I made and got to 34 in I2, then to 42 in I think I6, then to 50 probably an Issue after the Blaster changes. The next one was another Blaster I'd made when I was in the UK, which would put her at some time between January and June 2007. I'm not sure what Issue that was. However, her I got to around 16 and didn't touch until after the Blaster changes. I got her to around 35 thereafter and actually got her from there to 50 last years.

Then I got a Brute to 50. Her I got to 38 in I6, but didn't really mess with for a year or so. Actually, she might have been between my two Blasters. The next one was a Mastermind I got to 50 recently. I made him very early on, but he spent the bulk of his life at 24. I've played him since Inventions in fits and starts and I got him to 50 some time early last year.

Since then, I've gotten a relatively new Scrapper I made at around the time of Inventions to 50. This one was almost entirely levelled up with Inventions present, and she ended up, if I recall correctly, with around 60 million INF after I upgraded her to level 50 Commons. After that, I got a REALLY old Scrapper to 50. Her I made in I1, then remade in I3 when I got Sam to 50, got her to 28 and didn't touch her again. In around I6, I think, I got her to around 4... 46, I think. I got her to 50 towards the end of last year.

Only a single one of these has more than 100 million, and that's the second 50 Blaster because I sold either a unique heal recipe or a purple something, and I think she had something like 101 million or 110 million. Nowhere near 200, at any rate. I also have a fair few characters in their 40s, including a Blaster I absolutely, positively made AFTER inventions. Sitting at 46 now, she has... I don't remember. Somewhere between 40 and 80 million, around 20 of which are going to disappear as soon as she hits 50. I have no patience for playing the market, so chances are I'll buy expensive ready-made enhancements or make them myself, and at half a million per Invention AND half a million per recipe, 80-ish slots are going to run for a lot.

I don't know how people are making BILLIONS and, frankly, I don't care. I'm never going to need that much. But, again, IT IS NOT A SAFE BET to assume that people are going to have hundreds of millions on every one of their 50s, because I'm living testament that that is simply not true.

Calling an enemy group "the ghouls" is a lot like calling it "the warriors." You're bound to run into one exactly like it if you look hard enough for the simple fact that it's a fairly common word to use.

If you mean costumes, I think I have so many costume tokens on my characters that I haven't had to pay for costumes for... Oh, years or thereby.

It's EEEEEEEEEEEEED... When we were nerfed that day...

That's what this comes down to. As our story arcs are to be viewed as independent standalone stories, having them end in utter failure is an exceptionally bad idea, and the Techbot pins the reason down perfectly. A story that has you fight like a devil, struggle, persevere and soldier on, only to end up telling you that even after all of that, you STILL fail... It causes me to yell at my screen and as "Well what the point of that?!?" I've watched entire movies seeing the hero struggle on, all the time thinking "OK, now he's going to turn it around. OK... Now. OK... NOW! Well any time now, sunshine!" And then they end in a stupid "you suck" ending and I'm left just staring at the credits as a realisation slowly sinks in: I just wasted two hours of my life, and for what?

Hero dies, everything goes to ****, evil wins and... Why, exactly, did I have to sit down for two hours to see this? Evil wins by default. This isn't interesting. If I knew evil was going to win, I'd have passed on the movie and gone to watch something else. It's like the story of David vs. Goliath if Goliath had simply toyed around with David for two hours and then stepped on him. Ugh... The story of David vs. Goliath is interesting because it depicts an underdog who fights against incredible odds AND WINS! Underdogs lose to the world all the time. If we made a movie every time it happened, we wouldn't have time to sleep. A story where the strong oppress and defeat the weak is not an interesting story. It's snuff porn.

Speaking of this, having actually seen a fair few comics of that nature (again, because I kept thinking they'd turn around before I realised the author was fulfilling his snuff fetish), I'm determined to never watch a movie, play a game or read a story that mandates a "you suck" ending in a crapsack world. This is simply never written well, because it's written either to someone's mental break down or to someone's hate fetish. If this is written well, then it's not the end of the story.

So, no. No, thank you. I don't want to see any more stories that always give you the bad ending.

Wait, you're supposed to be a robot?

I have to disagree with you here. I find large and banded boots to be about the best the game has to offer outside of a few special occasions. Practically half of my characters use them. Sure, they have flat feet, and yes, the ankles do approach the size of the foot, but considering I've had an artist friend of mine design a boot reminiscent of a hoof, I honestly don't see a problem.

They certainly don't look robotic, and to be honest I DO wish we had more options of boots with a larger foot and ankle, rather than larger calves. Currently, only the Enforcer Heavy boots fill that role, and I'd love to see more do that. But as far as using them for boots... They are, in my opinion, significantly better than the Smooth boots, especially for armoured costumes that are supposed to be anything above the Grey Fox style cyberninja.

But I have to ask: Suppose I like that kind of art style? I don't like this particular pic, no, but I've seen some of Leifeld's work and I don't share people's hatred of the man. His stories... Yeah, not even going to go there.

To be honest, our Huge model is about as Leifeld as you can get without actually involving Rob Leifeld, so it's not like the art style isn't already part of the game.

Besides, I wouldn't exactly quote Rob on muscular women, as his seem to be more folded than actually muscular. Not even as much as most other writers, or indeed not even as much as our own Top Cow comics. Oh, that reminds me...

*edit*
There we go! I had a look through a few of the Top Cow comic books, and here's what I found. This is Miss Liberty's back. I'm a guy and even I'd kill to be this ripped. But that's not all. This is Dominatrix's front. Just look through that and note that it's not too far removed from the original screenshot. We have precedent for this stuff.

OK, that settles the question of whether they'll be player usable, but how much do you want to bet there will be some *** backwards, irritating cost to unlocking them? I'm thinking long TF or thousands of some kind of new merits or a kill badge for extremely rare creatures or some such.

I'm sorry to be so negative, but that's pretty much what my experience with unlockable costume pieces has always been, and I've no reason to expect that these things will be made unlockable through a civilised activity. I COULD hope they'll be as easy as unlocking the Roman axes, but that's like hoping the dumpster you're diving into is full of flowers and pillows. I could tell myself it will be, but that won't change the fact it's probably full of rusty nails, broken glass and Hepatitis.

I'm fully prepared to write a formal apology for assuming the worst if they end up being obtainable in a way I couldn't describe as about as much fun as pulling teeth (someone remind me), but I'm not in the slightest afraid I'll have to.

I've played a lot of games that did that, too, and without exception I've hated all of them. Granted, not JUST for this reason, but when I log into an MMO and the first thing I see is three people with Dude@Some Random Guy above their heads, that pretty much guarantees I'll be off to a BAD start and subsequently get pissed off at every little thing. It's that ugly a naming system in my eyes.

That's precisely how I feel. Once I start getting into the "better" and more expensive stuff, really any illusions I might have had that any of my goals would be achieved go swirling down the drain. The sheer impossibility of certain goals makes me less likely to just work harder and more likely to just say "Screw it! I'm doing something else!" In fact, and let that reflect upon my character as it will, the harder, more cumbersome, more time-consuming and more unpleasant a job it is, the LESS I am likely to bother with it. Upon reflection, this ought to be logical, but I know far too many people do things "not because they are easy, but because they are hard." And I just don't roll that way. Hard I can deal with. Consistently hard? Screw it. I have better things to do with my time.

To quote Yahtzee YET AGAIN:

"A challenge is one thing, but trying to break down a ******* cement wall with your forehead isn't a challenge, it's grounds for getting ******* sectioned. Although I suppose succeeding in breaking down the wall will give you a great sense of accomplishment, which is just as well, because you'll have lost all your other senses by then."

And I'll be damned if I can ever quote the guy without getting hit with the language filter.

I could only agree with this if you routinely get presents wrapped in cast iron and ten layers of kevlar. It's not the moment right before getting the thing that's the pain in the ***, it's all the time before that spent grinding out resources that really, really bugs me.

This was largely in relation to Aquaria's resource management, though. On this playthrough I avoided it, but last time I really DID have to trek through half the world, kill a bunch of fish, trek some more, harvest a bunch of eggs cook a few pies, then trapse all over again, all because the various ingredients are in different parts of the world, some fairly rare and because I can only carry eight at a time. THIS is needless, annoying busywork that I have no love for.

And again, as Tenzhi says... Ugh, I should have hit multi-quote. Hang on...

How do you figure? I've been here since May 2004, I currently have 7 50s and not a single one of them has more than 100 million. Actually, one might have 107, I'll have to go check. Trying to mock people because of how much money they "should" have is both insulting and presumptuous, simply for the fact that not all of us play the same way. Ignoring the fact that three of my 50s were made before Inventions, meaning that two ended up with around 20 million at 50 and one with around 40, this notion that you make money just by existing is flawed to an extreme. The one character I have who may or may not have 100 million got there via selling a purple recipe that netted me 50 million just by itself. I've sold a few purples for around 40-ish million and in six years, I've gotten all of ONE respec recipe, and that sold for 20 million at the time. About the average of what my characters have at level 50, minus any absurdly lucky drops, is around 60 million, give or take.

I have never, EVER had enough money to so much as even imagine bidding 200 million on a recipe.

As far as the original point goes, abilishing the market, much as I hate using it, isn't really the ideal solution for new players. As a matter of fact, it's a very hurtful solution. Certainly, not everyone enjoys farming. I don't, but then so why not have someone farm for me? People get rich, they make large bids on stupidly common items, and all I have to do is pop by the market every time my inspirations inventory fills up and I walk away with a nice lump sum because someone was bidding 50 000 for Alchemical Silver an 15 000 Inert Gas, and I just happened to have four of each. It happens a lot, actually. So, really, removing the market removes a serious source of income for said newbies, and indeed for anyone who doesn't farm or grind. The only reason I have the millions I have on my characters is because I've taken them from other people. Without the Market, I'd still be back to barely affording my SOs.

And the whole premise here is questionable. It assumes that Set Inventions, especially the more powerful ones, whatever those are, are intended for common use as something people are naturally going to need and upgrade into as they level up. As far as I've seen and as far as developer intent can be read, this doesn't seem to be the case. Sets are loot, plain and simple. They're meant to be rare, expensive and difficult to obtain. That's their whole reason to exist - so people have loot to grind for. I may not have any love lost for loot, but it seems that it's such an integral part of MMOs that people will simply not shut up without it, so there you go.

Personally, I stick to Common Inventions. They use salvage that drops easily and the recipes are available for purchase at the University. You don't need absurd amounts of money or grinding to get those. Just other people's money gained via the market.

It does nothing for anyone, partly because it does nothing in general. Which is why it perplexes me why it's so difficult to obtain, specifically when equally iconic things like Romulus' shield and sword and the whole Roman army's uniform are available for the cost of a TF.

Mind you, I'm not a fan of locking things behind TFs, but locking them behind insurmountable cost is actually WORSE.

You know, I'd sooner see new costumes introduced through paid-for Booster packs than locked behind something amazingly stupid like this, and that's saying something coming from someone as stingy as I am.

I would very much agree with the suggestion of robotic chests. I realise we have armoured costumes, but what we need is a more skeletal or truce-frame chest with lots of open air to demonstrate that this is not armour covering a body, but literally a ROBOTIC chest. The Praetorian Clockwork chest is a pretty good example, with a large section of its abdomen being open-air. Given that Jay delighted in explaining how we won't be getting certain pieces for our characters, I'm hesitant to suggest we'll be able to use the Praetorian Clockwork parts, but such a chest would be VERY welcome, even if it's not that exact one.

As a slight note, what we have now is not robotic LEGS, but rather robotic FEET. There is no option currently to use robotic upper legs, and that, to me, is a disappointing. The Cyborg upper legs come close, but not quite. Off the top of my head, we could use skeletal robotic legs like what the Necris women had in UT2003, and we can work from there. Again, an open truce frame with wires wrapped around it would also be pretty cool. Just basically anything that doesn't look like it could hold a human thigh inside it.

I've never looked at the mannequins closely enough before (my characters tend to be rather a lot taller than them), but that was the first thing I thought of when I saw this: "Yano... This looks like the male texture!"

And you know what? It looks good. The only give-away is actually is the pectoral muscles as they have the striations of skin stretched over dense muscle that a flat male chest would have. Everything else is in surprisingly correct places.

I gotta' say, I'd love to see that texture expanded to women a bit more. Our females are already dangerously slated towards the photoshoot model ideal to such an extent that making a female warrior is an exercise in frustration (specifically since their ***** increase more than their arms and rib cages with practically every slider), and a more muscular texture as an alternative would go a long way towards mitigating that.

A couple of idle facts:

1. Any half-glove texture that females get uses the male skin texture. Easiest example is the fingerless glove texture under Smooth/Bare, which has male bulging forearm muscles which don't flow well into the smooth female upper arms. In a sense, it's already half-way there.

2. For a while, the short-sleeved shirt Jacket sleeves used the male skin texture for the upper arm. Questions of why sleeves alter skin textures aside, I tried the variant and it actually worked pretty well, leading me to believe that, as an option, this would not be a bad choice.

In general, I've always wanted to see a choice of base skin textures, of which "smooth" and "ripped" can be two, along with scales, fur, granite and so forth. More precedented, however, is the approach Champions Online uses, which is basically a full-body bump map shader which defines muscle relief and allows you to control its strength via slider. So, you can pick either smooth as a shaped balloon or as ripped as something out of Rob Leifeld, and everything in-between. And, best of all, all shades, patterns and textures would apply over (technicly, I believe that's "under") that shader, so you wouldn't need different textures for ripped and not ripped.

Either way, I sincerely hope we get some more musculature for the Female model. That's a direction in which it has practically zero variety.

Hmm... You know, this I can actually work with. I still don't like how the system looks, but it has the potential to be wholly unambiguous, and it would be ugly only for people who choose to go that route. I honestly have no complaints on the matter. Sure, it'll be silly to see the odd phone number hero, but as long as I know they made the choice to look like this, then who am I to judge? It's certainly no more weird than xXx 5up3r h3r0 xXx, and we can do this right now.

Something else occurs to me with this discussion, though - a lot of people may, and even right now do, end up with a name that may look good on an ID card, but isn't necessarily as fluent when people call you that when they speak to you. For instance, I'd say being named John Spartan is really cool, but when people address you as "Good night, John Spartan. Be well." it just sounds WEIRD. And... Well, have a look at my screen name and imagine what a character like that is like when being talked to. "Thank you, Samuel Tow, those people would have died without you!" Ugh!

To that effect, I've always wanted to see a different kind of AKA field. Specifically, one where I can type in what people call me when addressing me, as distinct from the name I have typed out if necessary. It's kind of like in the old Civilization games you could specify what people called you in several different contexts because some languages add suffixes in different situations. For instance, I'd just axe the last name in direct address and just go with "Sam" or "Samuel." Given that that's how people tend to address ME in most game-related situations, I'd say it has merit.

I just got done playing Aquaria... Again, and this time around I was able to forgive all the game's minor irritations. Backtracking, cheap enemies, TEETH-GRATING controls on land, etc. But the one thing that still bugged me to no end and that I'm simply never going to be able to get past is resource collections, and in Aquaria they are simply evil. You need food to survive some of the tougher boss fights, and you need ingredients to cook this food, but each ingredient type is limited to 8 items carried at a time and many of the ingredients required for many of the essential recipes are obtained in different places in the world. VASTLY different places. And, to make matters worse, some places don't actually drop ANYTHING in the way of ingredients.

What you end up with is resource management hell. You can never stockpile a lot of one resource in case you find the corresponding one since you're limited, which means that even when you find the "scares" resource, your "abundant" resource runs out almost immediately. Only certain enemies drop certain resources, and they can be literally the world apart, requiring massive travelling. And, to make it all the more funny, you may end up without enough food to survive and having to go back through three quarters of the game to shoot energy blasts at fish for fish oil and fish meat. I hate this system, I really do.

How this relates to City of Heroes is in terms of the annoyance factor. Aquaria, like City of Heroes, is a GREAT game. However, when you have to basically drop what you're doing and go trudge through half of creation to gather resources to basically pay the toll to be able to continue... That sucks. Even just taking things as they come doesn't cut it, because you don't get the resources you need when you need them, and you have a limited inventory. For instance, in City of Heroes, it would be pretty easy to look at all the Commons I'll need, write up a list of their needed Salvage and just stockpile that salvage until I can make them all in bulk. But if I try to make them one by one, I end up collecting 50 Boresights and not a single Silver bar, so I have to sell the salvage I need to make room for other salvage I need. And to make matters worse, I end up having to fight enemies of an origin different from the ones I had in mind.

It's annoying, irritating busywork. I realise some people have an easier way about this, and some even enjoy busywork as a general thing, but for me, it just hits the pause button on my game until I can sort it out.