Samuel_Tow

Will this world have a NetherGoat in it?

City of Heroes as a mythos does not have a hell, but it does have at least two contenders that come to mind instantly. One is, yes, the Netherworld, the place where darkness powers, shadows, ghosts and life-force-draining powers originate. I would assume it's linked to Lughebu in some manner, as I believe that's where he and his pantheon were banished.

The other contender is the fire and brimstone hell of the Prince of Demons, the source of much of the Oranbegans' powers. This is characterised by fire and fire-based powers, as well as less traditional, more gothic-christian-hollywood horned, hooved, scaly fire-breathing demons. We don't have any real contact with the Prince of Demons outside of his Envoy of Shadows, whom despite possessing darkness powers is still a rather large fire-breathing Behemoth. We also have Baphomet, who is basically a souped-up Behemoth Overlord.

Outside of actual alternate dimensions, I'm not aware of another "plane of existence" that has potentially evil powers as its defining characteristic.

However, it's interesting to define the many many mathematical dimensions by which settings can vary. On the most basic level, we have the three physical dimensions - length, width and height. We can also include time as a fourth one, as that has been well-travelled now. We also seem to have "plane of existence" as possibly a fifth dimension, though that might just be a discrete set of different planes, rather than a continuous progression. And, of course, we also have "dimension" as an actual... Sixth? Sixth dimension, and that one does appear to be analytical, rather than discrete, as scanning through the dimensions, we can almost track changes from one to the next as they progress. And the funny thing is, there isn't any guarantee that any of these factors add just ONE dimension. For instance, dimensions don't have to be linearly aligned in a single progression, they could be planar, or even spacial and above. It's fun to theorise with this, since you can make all manner of aliens without repeating yourself that way.

Yes, I have very high hopes for more back details with Going Rogue, and my reasoning is that, technically speaking, it's about bloody time!

Come on, now! Give us our backpacks and our metallic power packs and our fixed-wing packs and jetpacks. Of all the places we should be able to hang things but can't, the back is the BIGGEST missed opportunity of them all. They don't all have to be huge. A subtle Lara Croft infinite space mini-pack would really help expand a lot of concepts.

But then, why NOT big? A bulky, angular power plant on the back would really complete my giant robot.

And while we're on the subject of backs, will we ever get Integrated Shoulders like they have in Champions Online? The problem with these is that they clip with other costume pieces and head pieces (I think), but why not have them as a separate upper body type akin to Armour? I don't even care if they replace a back slot. It would still be cool.

Agreed. I don't want mystic fortune buffs cast on me.

On the flip side, can I have an option to always accept revive prompts?

I see. So, basically, 9800GT is low-range, 260 is mid-range and 285 is high-range, as far as Posi has mentioned. Got it. I'm not some kind of hideously successful business tycoon, so price ought to be of SOME concern, which means I'll probably shoot for a 260. I'm not really looking to go maximum everything, anyway. I hate Bloom and Depth of Field, and I highly suspect I'll turn something off of Ultra Mode, too. That, and I've specifically picked a 1280x1024 LCD for the express purpose of having a lower native resolution just to combat this specific brand of problems. I'm looking at something at least remotely like 60 FPS in most circumstances.

I honestly can't say I'd even consider nVidia's latest greatest, as that price point is just out of scale with my country's standard of living altogether.

I'm also probably going to be looking at a new tower altogether, come to think of it, since the one I have now is some kind of "mini" tower that has everything riveted in and crammed together to the point where I have only a single PCI slot in there. I'll likely be looking at Windows 7, possibly x64, with it.

Thanks a bunch, guys!

You know, I read the announcement, and what I got out of it is that I don't have to get hold of a physical copy of anything, which means I can buy them all online, which means I'm a happy panda. I'm sorry to be selfish, but that's all that I really cared about

More practically, you can get the expansion prepurchase and get dual pistols and demon summoning, or you can wait for the complete version and NOT get dual pistols and demon summoning early. Since you can grab an upgrade to the full version later anyway, I fail to see why I'd want it. I don't care about the cost at this point, just the availability, and if I can go Expansion Only -> Expansion + Item Pack, then what else is there to think about? None of us posting here are new players anyway.

More of an audio upgrade thing, but:

Westin Phipps would need to have a deep, orchestral score surrounding him, possibly with faux latin vocals and an evil, demonic laugh in the background.

Doctor Forrester and Vernon Von Grun ought to have a laugh track every time you accept their missions.

Dimitri Krylov and Boris the Russian should have an appropriate soundtrack play around them, just in case people can't quite figure out what they're supposed to be.

For some reason, I keep thinking Terrance Dobbs really needs to have Darth Vader breathing sound effects in the background.

And Dalra Mavins' experience would probably be enhanced greatly by having the sound of a baby crying when you talk with her.

Yeah, who necroed this thing? I remember posting in it quite a while ago

I usually tend to upgrade my PC only when I can afford it, but this is a special occasion. I managed to salvage a rather important file my boss had lost recently, and this allows me to upgrade rather a lot sooner than I would have expressly needed to, and I want to ask you guys what to get. Now, yes, I know this sort of thing has been asked plenty of times before, and I know Positron has talked about it, but the thing is... I'm REALLY out of the loop when it comes to video cards, especially since nVidia seem to have abandoned their old numbering system. I already got shafted with a GeForce 8500 that worked worse than a 6600GT once, so I know I'm not a good judge of cards.

Basically, I'd like to stick to nVidia for the moment, as I'm not really comfortable going with Ati, having never used one of their cards, but if the difference is too great, then why not? I ought to have everything else, including a sound card I don't have an extra PCI slot for at the moment, but the card just... Concerns me. I have a 9800GT at the moment, which Positron mentioned as practically the minimum system requirements for Ultra Mode. I like to think of it as a powerful card, and it does run things reasonably well, but every so often something will strain it, and I STILL can't run 2008's Cryostasis with a decent framerate. To boot, City of Villains still lags me in multiple zones, dropping my framerate from the 60 it normally is down to 30 and below, where I can SEE the slowdown. And that's just looking around the zones. I can't imagine Ultra Mode would run faster than this.

I've heard talk of GeForce 200-something, but again - I don't want to get shafted by a "next generation" card that's nevertheless much weaker than my current one. So which one do I place the order for?

Huh... Does that mean we should be moving all discussions there?

I'm sorry, but I still don't see what I'm supposed to see. No developer comments on it, no announcements that I can see. What am I missing?

Personally, I don't see why we can't use Pulse Rifle Burst, Pulse Rifle Blast, Photon Grenade and a few powers pilfered from the Arachnobots and Mace Blasts to make a decent set out of this.

Battlefield 2142 has an interesting take on this one. Squad leaders get extra points, but only if they issue orders and only if squad members follow those orders. This actually caused squad leaders to want to give orders (as supposed to ignoring their squad) and, make sure their orders were such that COULD and WOULD be followed. Of course, that meant you wanted to have non-brain-dead squad members, which in most FPS games is a luxury, but they got extra points (practically double points) for following your orders, anyway. With players that had brains instead of butterflies in the skull, the system worked well.

Commanders, by comparison, didn't get any bonus points beyond what they got for doing commander actions, but the winning team's commander got his points doubled, so if anyone had anything real to gain from his team winning was the commander, which tended to incite most commanders to even try. Those who weren't voted off for just using their commander status airdrop supplies to themselves, at least.

When players were thinking, this created interesting dynamics. Commanders and squad leaders would quickly develop a rapport, with commanders so desperate for squads who would follow orders that they'd shower you in supplies, scans and all kind of artillery support for so much as doing as you were told, while thinking squad leaders really wanted to follow the commander's orders because that meant they'd get more support. In-squad, squad leaders were encouraged to give orders that would be followed, which required a squad leader to know where his men were and typically give them objectives in the vicinity, which were more likely to be followed. Squad members, on the other hand, had reason to follow orders, both for points and because only squad leaders could make requests for support from the commander, so a squad member had to have his squad leader's favour in order to get any support.

Of course, in practice this rarely worked. Idiot commanders would give you either stupid orders clear across the map where you simply couldn't move your squad in time to matter and you'd have to abandon an outpost for no reason, or they'd give you move orders that didn't award points (I learned to just accept his stupid orders and then fix them on my own right afterwards). And, of course, requesting supplies or a scan would often go unanswered completely, because the commander is an idiot and currently asleep. I don't mind being denied support, but god damn take the time to say no! On the flip side, squad leaders would refuse to even acknowledge orders, or acknowledge them and never actually act on them, or just keep refusing. They'd demand supplies over and over, or you'd offer them supplies and they'd never actually request them. And I tell you, it's a lot easier to just approve a drop request than to try and figure out where the guy might need this dropped.

In-squad, the biggest problem was brain-dead squad leaders who never gave orders. Ever. I lost track of how many times I've been silenced for demanding orders over and over again. Or even if they gave orders, they'd give one at the start of the match and never change it when the battle has moved so far away. And forget about squad leaders requesting drops for you. You might as well be yelling to the wall. And forget about them being tactically minded. You could spawn at a squad leader, but instead of being tactical and standing back, the idiot would get himself killed first. And leading squads was no walk in the park, with squad members simply refusing to acknowledge any order you give them. They'd just keep on spawning wherever they feel like, having little duels with the same one guy, while you were repeatedly ordering them to hold a vital point. Schmuks!

Basically, all that giant tirade was aimed to say was that, even if you reward the creating and leading of teams, you don't actually get more people to do it. In fact, all you get is idiots looking to be in charge for the benefits, but never doing anything useful with it.

The story is interesting, but it doesn't really work. The only reason the Etoile Islands remain in the hands of Arachnos and Recluse hasn't been Sadamd yet is because they're under the protection of the UN as a sovereign state, and the US is still reeling from the Rikti War. The moment Recluse declares war on America, he basically declares war on the entire world, and he simply does not have the resources to do that. He's campy, but he's not stupid. Not THAT stupid, anyway.

That, the overall hatred for PvP, which I share mind you, and the mechanical difficulties related to instituting PvP zone rules in PvE zones without totally inducing mag 100 knockup on PvE means that I can't stand behind this idea. Moreover, I see neither a need for it, nor a point to having it.

Sorry.

You know, "the next morning" you're trying to forget all the stupid things that happened last night and doing your best to NOT have to explain why you have your underwear on the otuside of your pants. Then a week later, everyone's moved on with their lives, forgotten all about it and life goes back to normal. Then suddenly someone strikes a conversation like "Duuude! You were, like, so wild at that party! When you started taking you pants off, it was like... Woah! Dude!"

That's kind of like how I feel with this thread.

Call me crazy, but I've seen a lot more villains do evil for the sake of honour than heroes have done good for the same reason.

Anything that's not enhanceable doesn't need to be on the enhancements screen. So I very much support this idea.