Samuel_Tow

That's the big thing with this one. Bases, as introduced into the game, are a colossal waste of resources, partly because their full function was never realised, but largely because so few people have the ABILITY and OPPORTUNITY to use them. Opportunity, because it takes significant amounts of prestige to buy and maintain an even barely functional base (and even just BUY a fully cosmetic one), which needs to be gathered by many, but used by a few. Ability, because the editor is HORRIBLE, like something someone stepped on before it shipped. And making it "more powerful" has actually only made it worse.

See, bases were once compared to the costume editor, but they have NEVER been anywhere even remotely there. The editor works so well because it's fast, simple and easy to use. You want big boots? You put on a pair of big boots. No need to worry about picking a left boot for the left leg, no need to worry about aligning them to within the millimetre, no need to put them together form half a dozen different parts. You pick a piece from a drop-down and BAM! It's there. The base editor... Not so much. I mean, yes, it produces some pretty cool things, but it is just. So. FIDDLY! Every little frikkin' detail needs to be set down by hand, every little light, every odd floor tile, every god damn little test tube on ever separate counter top. Every flag, every chair, every vent, cable, every panel. And all of that crap aligned to a grid as fine as a grain of sand over a wall the size of the Great Wall of China. Forget aligning things if your eye is not sharp enough to shave on. And even the lighting is terrible, with most of it coming from ambience and very few lights providing very little light. I've fiddled with the editor several times, and I always give up after a single very cool room, because it's such a pain in the ***!

And again - you don't get to show it off, you share the space with a couple dozen other dudes with no room to have your own, err... Room. And what about the regal ones among us? My vampire is supposed to have an entire victorian mansion. My inventor is supposed to have a whole gigantic laboratory, all to himself. And on the flip side, my reclusive emo dude needs a run-down apartment off the beaten track. They all need personal housing, but there's no such thing, at least not at an affordable level.

Basically, before we start selling base booster packs, we're going to have to put base building on the radars and within the hands of a lot more people.

And you know what? I'd STILL take an Ufo:Enemy Unknown style base building interface where you pick only separate buildings over an area over hand-placing every god damn potted plant.

That reminds me - about the only problem I can think of with the new custom colours is that several powers have IDENTICAL effects, which in the original powersets were different in colour only. Since people tend to make all their powers the same colour, you end up with multiple powers that all look identical. For instance, two fire shields you can't tell apart. It's not problematic in a practical sense, but it just looks bad.

Here's the thing, though - I couldn't play never looking at my bars or my buffs. Ever. Even if I know I just got healed, I need to know my health is good, not just that it went up. If I'm in deep enough trouble to need a heal, there's a good chance once wasn't enough, and I need to be aware of that. I never remember how long shields last, and as I play melee characters more often than not, I can't rely on obnoxious graphics to tell me when they expire. I rely on flashing icons and my buff bar.

Basically, even with perfectly good power recognition, I still need my health, endurance and buff bars, because just what's incoming isn't wholly representative of what's already there.

Running about like a child... I love it I've never really been able to put into words what bothers me about running everywhere, but I think this sums it up pretty well.

In practice, this is what it often ends up doing. By design, however, it was a response to a specific player complaint - AVs are not interesting. All you need to defeat one is enough manpower to essentially power through his mountain of hit points. That, and AVs needed a big team - four or more, usually, which was a real punishment for people in duets or trios. Essentially, EBs were designed to allow for small teams to have a "small team AV."

We've been told repeatedly that, while soloing EBs has never been a problem, we are never guaranteed to be able to solo them. Which is kind of a bummer, really, but that's probably the biggest reason I don't play support characters.

Just like Statesman is a compound name of State-s-man, so Reichsman is a compoind name of Reich-s-man. I know you don't care, but it's not a lot of effort to put into it, and the payout is decent.

As far as Nosferatu goes, he is incredibly tough for two reasons - one, he hits very hard, as Midnight Grasp is one of the strongest attacks NPCs have access to, and because he heals by a lot. Basically, he does a lot of damage and heals off you. Defence is important so his heal can't hit, beyond which you want damage. He likely has the same nasty auto-hit Chill of the Night as the Envoy of Shadows, but that alone isn't enough to kill you if he can't hit you. Keep in mind that his Soul Drain probably gives him extra to-hit buffs.

He's one of the nastier ones, but he's far from alone in that. Vindicator Infernal and Valkyrie are inordinately annoying, and solo Statesman just simply cheats.

Gah! Where's the fun in that?

See, this is kind of the sticking point for my characters, especially my villains. I remember I made a thread about it back in the old CoV forums before they went poof, and it became evident that my... Shall we call them "aspirations" for greatness in a villain were much higher and more unrealistic than those of most people. Granted, City of Villains doesn't really lend itself to anyone with any gravity, as the game consistently treats you like a brainless oaf of a lackey. Intelligence, charisma and dignity don't really feature into it.

Even so, most of the villains I've made who actually matter to me all have a certain sense of... Well, yeah, gravity, such that running around and fighting for their lives like weakling spazzes just doesn't befit them. Sure, I have "worker" villains who are basically designed to do that, but they typically serve one of my OWN villains. The big bads, the ones typically in charge and on top of the power curve, they're just too powerful to be running around and fighting like fighters. Ideally, their style of fighting would be 90% slowly strolling around and overpowering weaklings in their path. After all, what good villain DOESN'T make time work for him? Why should I be in a hurry? You need to hurry up and stop me before I get there, but the longer you delay, the closer I get.

This really isn't a criticism of other people's ideas, more an explanation of my own. As someone who continually forgets that other people like other things at times, it's a good idea to remind myself that my way is not necessarily superior all of the time. So, with that in mind, to each their own. But I still don't think I have many capital villains who would rather run than walk, were it not for the limitations of gameplay.

So, some time between four and five years, which would put it at some point in 2005. Hmm... Wasn't that about the time when the Shadow Shard Mole Point interiors disappeared? I mean, they were gone for YEARS, and I know they were already missing by about the end of January 2005, but from what I hear, they were there at some point.

Well, you say "years," but I have to ask "how many?" The last time I did it was winter 2004, September or October, I think, which would put it at over five years ago. I'm not saying this to boast, just trying to pin down when the bug happened.

Actually, that's what it's most usually applied by as a combat stat, but untargetability itself is a game-wide function which is very capable to exist on given target. For instance, Rikti beaming in during raids are untargetable for some time, despite standing in full sight. Mastermind Henchmen, as well, are untargetable until their complete their summon animations, but WILL be caught in AoE effects, both positive and negative. So they are able to be affected, just not able to be targeted, and again, only by us. NPCs seem to have no problem targeting things we can't. My Medic, for instance, will buff my Commando before he ever lands.

You know, I've suggested Mastermind attacks be buffed in the past, and people got nervous breakdowns over it. But how about we go the other way? Fine, they keep their crappy damage. Can we at least slash the COSTS of the attacks? They do diddly squat. Why do they cost so much? As it stands right now, Mastermind attacks are nothing more than sucker traps, actually REDUCING your performance by taking, slotting and using them. I have no problem with them doing very little, but they shouldn't cost so damn much. A fifth of my endurance bar for barely any damage is just absurd.

And hour's investment isn't much, and well worth it. The four days I spent begging people to help me... That was rather more significant.

OK, let's count them. Go to hell count: 1.

You are in no position to tell me what I should and should not do. I cannot play a character that I am not happy with. I play this game for fun, and a character I am not happy with is not fun. My physical ability to get through the tutorial does not grant me the practical ability to suffer through unpleasant gameplay to get through it. I don't play games I don't like and I don't do things in games that I do not like. And without the right sword, this character could not and would not have existed. And, frankly, if you don't care, then you can go to hell.

Go to hell count: 2

You keep asserting that you are capable of reading and comprehending, yet you continually fail to do so on the most obvious count. The very point was that there is no objective, quantifiable way to make costume pieces which are "better," so the result is "prestige" pieces which are, in pretty much every definition of the word, not better in any practical or theoretical way. They are different, granted, but we have plenty of variety, and unlike other locked sets, like the Cimeroran Roman armour, Vanguard pieces don't actually offer anything even thematically different. "Sleek armour" we have three sets of, including one called Tech Sleek.

The result is that random costume pieces are fished out of the pool and arbitrarily deemed "prestige," which achieves absolutely nothing but bestow unto some the feeling that they're somehow better for having them. Because if these costumes were as treasured on their own merit, the fact that they are not available to others would not be even enter into the discussion.

"Prestige" costumes are not better. Either find conclusive evidence to prove this as a general assertion, or drop it. Or go to hell. Your choice.

No, we do not. You forget just how much of this game's costume creator is locked away by one means or another, either by veteran reward, booster pack, special edition or unlocking requirement. Trenchcoats, a good deal of the female tights with skin patterns, kilts, all wings, a bunch of boots, the only decent shorts for men, one of the few decent boot designs, samurai armour, one full set of tech armour, Justice, Enforcer, the only decent jacket for women, probably the best jacket for men, one of the coolest capes, probably half the hoggles details, almost all the gas masks we have, probably 70% of all Half-Helmet options, easily half of all custom weapon options, and that's just without me actually thinking about it too hard. I logged into the game on a brand new account once, and the costume creator was DEPRESSING.

As well, I've been hearing the same claptrap about "Oh, it's only this one little thing!" for five years. But every little thing adds up. First it was capes and auras, then the DVD capes, then that damn Witch Hat, then more and more and more stuff. I don't even remember where everything come from, but a big, sizeable chunk of the costume creator is off limits for one reason or another. Hell, I made myself a character whose uniform we decided to use for a SG uniform. Turns out half of it was plain unavailable for a lot of people, because I'd unwittingly used Justice pieces and a trench coat. Yeah, that 1% isn't as singular as you see it as.

Go to hell count: 3

Go to hell. That... That's pretty much what I have to say here. Yanking random pieces and labelling them as "prestige" is the height of stupidity and, in fact, a massive cheat, as well. While we're at it, why not make hair be a prestige item? Just one more run-of-the-mill hairstyle that's nothing special other than "different" and call that "prestige?" It accomplishes just as much of a big nothing, but to make me roll my eyes and make you run afoul of the language filter.

Once again, go to hell. Oh, wait...

Go to hell count: 4

I'm not going to debate the obvious with you.

You may want to learn to read, then, if that's all you got out of it. You "insult my intelligence" not by calling my intelligence an insulting name, but by treating me like some petulant child who knows nothing and needs to be taught a lesson and shut up. You've shown clear disregard for opinion and a clear disrespect for pretty much all, so I no longer feel the need to state my opinions as opinions, since all that does is paint a big target over them for you to trot over. You're not going to bully me into submission just because you're taking a stern tone. So, yeah, count it - you can go to hell. At least I have nothing against admitting to it when I lay down the insults.

Go to hell count: 5

Straw man or critical reading comprehension failure? You decide! I'd really love for you to quote me where I said any of that stuff, especially where I aid everyone "needs" to have every costume piece available at creation. I might want that, but I've long since given up on making that argument in the face of thick heads. What I DID make as an argument, several times, in fact, and what you have conveniently overlooked every single time, is the fact that I'm not against unlocking things. I do, however, want them to be unlocked on a global basis. If they are, then I don't care how hard they are to get or how long they take to unlock. In fact, I'm going to quote myself on this, just to see if you'll read it this time around.

Address it or drop it, but if you're going to keep pretending I never posted it, feel free to go to hell. Which reminds me...

Go to hell count: 6

I'm skipping this, since it's difficult to insult you when you take a break from mouthing off and make a decent, agreeable point, even if these suggestions weren't really ever my own. Let me just correct you - I find the Vanguard pieces to have a pretty high value, just nowhere near enough to merit their cost. Specifically, their opportunity cost. Since I don't feel that's either fair to the costume pieces, or actually justified in comparison to practically anything else unlockable (I'd need a heck of a lot more than 100 Chief Soldiers for that set), that's the basic argument I'm making. Vanguard pieces are out of scale with everything else in the game, and there is no reason for them to be. There's no reason a pair of pants should cost as much as a Vanguard Heavy.

Ah, that's better. It's so much easier to tell you to go to hell when you simultaneously completely misread me AND act like a jerk. See, that didn't last too long.

Go to hell count: 7

Oh, I have an idea. How about something that, the obvious road to get it would be to get kicked in the nuts ten times? By golly! It exists, so I must definitely be a big baby for not wanting to take it, right? Either that, or I actually want to have babies at some point, but that's besides the point. And the point is that the primary method of acquisition sucks. Plain and simple. OK, not entirely, it's decent if you enjoy raids. But if you don't enjoy raids, it sucks. And unless you want to drive an argument that everyone should like raids or go to hell (this one doesn't count), which I doubt even you are going to want to commit to, it just doesn't work.

Suppose they were locked behind a badge that required 1000 hours spent in the war zone as an alternative. This takes ZERO effort, other than your ability to pay your Internet bill. Would people not committing to that be derided and berated by you as I am? Because I am not going out of my way to avoid raids. Yes, I've turned down a raid (once) that occurred just as I was leaving with work in the morning, by and by, I don't avoid raids. I just don't have the opportunity to get involved in them. So why not start my own? Same reason I don't lead classes for free. It's work, and I expect to be paid for it with real money, and real money Vanguard pieces are not.

Am I to translate that to mean that you will be losing the enjoyment of knowing other people don't have what you do? Because, last I checked, I'm free to put in as much work as I want into something despite how much it actually costs, but I'm thinking that doesn't work for you unless those who DIDN'T put forth the work DON'T have it. Gee, remember when games used to be fun? Man, those times rocked.

I'm also unwilling to get punched in the face in return for $10, but can you really blame me? This is a game I'm already paying for, and while I'm not going to tout my subscription and demand everything be handed to me, I'm far and away not going to put in MORE work to earn trivial rewards. The design isn't there to spite me, but the design is simply not good. All it does is deny the pieces to people who could potentially use them while giving the people who CAN earn them now nothing they wouldn't get if they were easier to earn. Well, nothing other than the satisfaction of others not having them, but I don't really accept that as a reason.

I want to add one more to the counter, but I'm just scratching my head here. The reward for unlocking a costume piece is having a costume piece unlocked. If the costume piece is easier to unlock or, in fact, already unlocked, that reward persists. If the achievement is so important, the achievement is still there. You can still do the things you needed before and that would be an achievement. If you're really hardcore about it, you can even keep yourself from using the costumes until you "unlock" them.

Just like everything else in this game - you can take on high challenges and feel satisfaction in being strong, while I can just drop my difficulty and pretend I'm strong anyway, and neither hurts the other. Just because the game is hard for you doesn't mean it has to be hard for me. So why do my costumes have to be hard to unlock so that they may be hard for you? That I may suffer for your satisfaction? Specifically since they're not exactly hard for you by admission?

The only "satisfaction" I feel from unlocking new stuff in this game is usually "What? I did all that work for THAT? I was ripped off!" The rest of the time, it's more along the lines of "I put all of this work forth to gain this, it's pretty neat. Now what? This? It takes HOW much work?" And then I log out to watch a movie, then forget to log in for a week, then play a completely different character. Save for probably some of the more expensive Inventions sets, very little in this game is actually worth the work involved in unlocking it, but a lot of things are at least locked behind a token effort. I don't use capes, but I always do the cape mission in case I change my mind, and because it's not half bad, even better now. I don't need auras almost at all, but I always do the mission, because it's short, simple and actually not bad. I most decidedly DON'T do the ITF every time, in part because I don't always have the opportunity to, in part because I'm tired of getting yelled at by people doing unannounced speed runs.

Most things are tolerable. A full set of Vanguard gear is not.

I don't dismiss them, I disagree with them. Specifically, I disagree that the "carrot on a stick" approach actually works for people interested in making costumes, both from empirical evidence of talking with people, and as a principle thing. People who are more interested in making costumes than anything else most often treat the game as a vessel for these costumes, and obstacles put in their path are not pleasant. This is inherent in the nature of costume design as a vocation, which is more about the act of creating said costume, said character, said concept, than specifically playing through the game for hours and hours and hours. For such people, making costumes is the actual gameplay, and unless you can attach benefits to that, "carrot on a stick" doesn't work.

This is kind of like the old PvP argument, where people claim they play for PvP, so why should they have to play through the PvE game to gain levels. The state of PvP in this game notwithstanding, I agree. Benefits to one aspect of the game need to be put behind actions related to that aspect. You get more powerful by being powerful, you earn more badges by hunting badges, you get more exploration by exploring. Now, you CAN put some immensely powerful permanent buff behind, say, massive exploration of the entire game, but all that's going to do is get the people who don't care about power to shrug and the people who care about power to vent because they're put through an activity they have no interest in.

I have no interest in end-game raiding and massive teaming. Why are costumes - the thing I AM interested in - locked behind that? It won't get me to engage in them. It'll just piss me off. Value vs. cost and all that.

Hmm... I haven't insulted you in a while. This is disconcerting...

Oh, wait. False alarm. Horror of horrors. Someone is wrong on the Internet and it's your duty to shut them up. Yeah, go to hell. All you're doing is strutting around like a bully, belittling people and hiding behind a false moral high ground to justify it. I, at least, don't pretend to be so morally superior about this, because you've shown me beyond the need for proof that you're perfectly capable and very willing to step on anyone you disagree with. For this, I don't feel the need to treat you with the respect you've refused to show since the start.

Go to hell count: 8

So, in essence, the costumes are available via an activity that you enjoy and are easily capable of taking part in, so the people with other preferences or abilities can just go to hell? Hmm... So, I guess when you say "I can get it, so can you," you mean that quite literally. You expect that, just because it works for you, it has to work for other people? Yeah, to hell with other people's likes, preferences, sensitivities and obligations. If you can do it, certainly ALL of us can do it.

Hey, guess what? I can speak Bulgarian. And if I can, then so can you! And if you you're unwilling or incapable of, then that means you're either stupid or lazy, or possibly both. Kind of like those people complaining that they can't spend hours in-game because they have demanding jobs, or the people whose geographic location puts them far outside any prime-time windows. Or the people who play the EU version. To hell with those guys! They're just big babies! Anything I can do, you BETTER be able to do better, or you're in deep trouble, Mr!

This is absurd. I ended up with, what, 8 instances of telling you to go to hell, and that's with biting my tongue half the time. I sincerely hope there's enough in there for me to get modsmacked, because this whole thread is in need of moderator attention. I'm not quite yet ready to report my own post, but feel free to report it for me. Let's see what happens. It's been a while since I've been mod-smacked, anyway. I'm not taking it back, though. I have no qualms being the bad guy if that's what it takes to respond in kind, and while I don't exactly take pride in it, I find no shame in it, either.

*edit*
In fact, you know what? This is pointless. It's fun, but it's time-consuming and, again, pointless. See if you can have me moderated if you want. I'm not interested in this discussion any more. I'd backspace over my post, if it didn't take me an hour to write up.

This is very much how I feel about it. These things are such chores because you have to unlock them all over again every damn time. It's not a problem if they're easy to get, but when they're a monumental effort, how many times am I going to bother with it? I have around 30 characters, probably around 20 of which are applicable for the Vanguard pieces. But that means, by average estimate, 80-100 raids. Not good.

Like I said before - if these things need to be expensive, make them unlock account-wide. That way, you can make them even MORE expensive, but I'll know all of this "hard work" isn't going to waste and I won't have to do it all over again. That, and I'll get them at character creation. It's not the work I'm as opposed to (even though I feel work and game are incompatible), but more the fact that it's a lot of work to do over and over again.

Either make them cheaper, or make the work in unlocking them mean more.

And if people have too many Vanguard merits? Costumes aren't the solution. More and more exotic Vanguard temporary powers, or even accolades, are the answer. Seriously, with a single-use Vanguard heavy at 250, how much Merits does someone need to have to have too many? I'd think that if I were sitting on 10 000 metirs, I'd buy and use Heavies all the time. Isn't that like Scrooge McDuck, who's constantly saying how rich he is, yet all he ever seems to do with his money is keep it in a vault and swim in them.

*edit*
Money is singular, not plural, damn it!