Scarlet Shocker

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which would in turn explain why the Ouroboros travel power is a "Temp" power - something that has never been satisfactorarily explained

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It's a Temp power because that's how the game allocates powers which are not gained through sets or pools.

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then how come items like the PPD Costume power, the paid Rocket Pack and the Self-destruct are not in that class?

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This still on today?..just wonderin so i dont get embroiled in a tf between 7 and 8

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yEp still happening

Just to clarify, Defiant first, Union second both shifts (for those who asked in game)

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It's designed to encourage consumerism and adding an animation seems to be a (relatively - ie anyone who is interested in learning about animation can develop a new walk) simple task

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Hmm. Well, two things.

1. Presumably, the Second Life animation engine is designed to work that way (or was modified afterward). Of course, that same engine doesn't have to cope with some of the stuff CoX does. (Is there any combat SL?) A general rule of thumb in any code is that hardcoded values are faster than ones you have to look up.

2. If you wanted, you could design animated models for Neverwinter Nights. Anyone could do it, if they wanted to spend a fairly significant amount of time learning to use a 3D modelling program and how to implement animations using it. It could be that the SL engine has some mechanism for implementing non-cooked animations from pseudo-code or some such, but the engine will be doing a lot of work to turn that code into character movement.

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Well there IS combat in SL but it's not on the same par as CoH and I'm guessing that since it is an "override" it doesn't ever take over the inbuilt animation. It's like a "toggle" power - maybe a good analogy is the PPD Hardsuit Cossie power, you're either wearing it or you're not.

I think I got it

So you choose a set IO based on its individual characteristics, rather than looking at how it works with other IOs in that set. Slot according to each individual set - with no regard to how set IOs combine (or how standard Invention enhancements work in individual slot placements

Yes?

I gave this a lot of thought.

I think my vote goes to Lee Van Cleef.

I think this isn't a bad thread but Sapphi does have a good point. We're not the final arbiters [sic] of any decison the devs make. Ultimately they will choose a combo of what's been suggested and what's doable. Then they will mod it to make sure it's not game breaking.

We will get something unique and workable. It will [censored] some people off and please others.

Such is life

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Going rogue doesn't mean you'd be neutral - it's switching sides from good to evil, or from evil to good.

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Not necessarily

It could mean you enforce your version of good on those weaker than you by any means necessary. Regardless of consequence.

There are recent historical parallels

It was the winter holiday in Paragon City and the snow lay heavy on Ghost Widow's peaks.

The Zig was full of Arachnos soldiers who'd sworn to die, rather than be captured.

Lord Recluse was sat on his throne in Grandville and frowned. Winter was upon them and so far the only fun was to be had in Pocket D. He scratched his head. Three hours later, on his return from A&E (should've blunted that claw) he frowned even harder and pulled his stitches.

He was feeling morose. That's not dissimilar to feeling a moose, but it's a) legal and b) has an extra "r" in it. It was time to be proactive during the festive season. The Gamester was getting all the rave reviews, and nobody was getting any serious Seasons Beatings.

Much as it pained him, Recluse needed advice. Who else but his compatriots, comrades and compadres. (Yes... lots of C words that you don't read on the forums very often, despite your dearest wishes.) He roused himself and headed off to see one of his most trusted lackeys, Barracuda.

"Barracuda, I need your advice!"

Barracuda looked out from his aquarium and idly munched on a plastic plant with a vacant look in his eye. Recluse frowned and wondered, not for the first time, how he managed to have a mutated guppy as a side-kick.

He grinned as a brainwave struck him (not too hard though since most brainwaves are respectful of despots in authority.) Who better to help him than someone who was an anathema to cold. He paused at the word Anathema and got lost - but only for a moment. He raced off to see Sirocco.

"Sirocco... buddy... I've had an idea."

Sirocco looked at him, stony faced. "Ah... winter holidays again right?"

Lord Recluse looked crestfallen. (Trust me, when you've got big scary spidery arms and a metal mask, that's pretty good going. Looking crestfallen in that kind of outfit is like, well trust me it's a major challenge. It's as much as most people can do to stand up in that lot, I tell you. What? Yes I HAVE tried it as a matter of fact. No it didn't hurt, but it was uncomfortable. Well of course I looked cool, I was Lord Recluse... well I looked like him... for a little bit. Well I'm sorry about the spidery arms thing. That was the first time I'd ever worn the suit. How was I to know if I scratched there it'd go off like... oh. Sorry. Ok let's get on with the story.)

He put on his deepest, gruffest voice. It would have been deeper and gruffer but Darth Vader (courtesy of James Earl Jones) had got that one down pat. Recluse had to be slightly more muffled to sound villainous. Besides he didn't have the Force (tm Lucas Arts or something... whatever, it's old dude! Jeeze get with it. I mean, what other religion lasts more than 30 years? Oh... ok apart from Jesus & Mohammed? Yeah and Budha? Who else? Oh... Thor said to mention Hannuman? Okay... so the Force is a modern sociological representation of how western culture interprets modern theology? Good glad we got that sorted. Anything else?)

Recluse: Excuse me. Hate to interrupt. Narrative please?

(Sorry)

Deep. Gruff. Muffled. If you want to obtain the best effect you have to eat a load of cotton wool and talk into a beer glass. Seriously don't kids! No.. it tastes foul. Unless the glass had beer in it and the cotton wool was minuscule. But seriously, don't. Cuz that'd be bad if you inhaled beer soaked cotton wool or something.)

Lord Recluse: Ahem

(sorry. Again. It's late)

Lord Recluse: Late. As in, the Late Narrator.

(point taken. Won't happen again M'Lord.)

Lord Recluse: Make sure it mmphponh...

(cotton wool?)

Lord Recluse: Git

(His Lordship is too kind. But now we mention it... how do you get to be Lord? Are you British?)

Shut up.

___________________________________' ' :O )_o' ______________
[/em total change of narrator, this one is broke]

His most gracious, powerful and all-seeing Lord Recluse surveyed his domain with the majestic countenance that so few could muster, not even that wimp Vader. (How am I doing My Lord?) Scirocco looked at his liege with a fearful start. (Actually it wasn't that fearful and truth be told, he looked pretty ticked off but I have just seen what happened to the last Narrator so make of it what you will.)

"What do you want?" asked Scirocco

"It's the winter holiday," grinned Recluse (wasted effort there. Metal mask + grin? Meh ) "Let's go partying."

Scirocco looked at Recluse. "Is it sunny?"

"Well it's rarely cloudy in The Shadow Shard."

"Is the bar free?" enquired Scirocco.

"DJ Zero is in charge. Of course it's... not"

Scirocco stood up. It was apparent he'd been sharpening his scimitar when Recluse arrived. His blade flamed menacingly as the desert warrior stood and gazed face to face with the leader of the Rogue Isles.

"My lord Recluse" enquired Scirocco "how warm is it there?"

Recluse was taken aback. "Well... in a universal scale, given that absolute freezing is very cold... I'd say it's reasonably warm."
Scirocco sneered (sorry m'lord, but it really WAS a sneer. I could have said 'cowered in terror' but that would be telling a different story wouldn't it?) and brandished his sword. "Let me ask a different question then: is the ambient air temperature within 20 degrees [Celsius] of the flames on my sword?"

Recluse frowned (doing that clever display of emotion through the metal mask thing again. Face it... the bloke has to have something about him, after all you don't get to have an entire Rogue Isles to yourself, propped up only by four hard working lackeys who are tougher to take down than you are and a bunch of soldiers that you named after you... ack)

(Hello this is your new Narrator. You can call me 'Number 3, but for the older readers amongst you please don't confuse me with any TV series starring Patrick McGoohan.)

The Mighty Lord Recluse looked at his unworthy lackey. "We are going to change the world and we start with Pocket D!"

Scirocco sneered again (yes, he really did. Damn I hate my job sometimes) and waved his sword a bit in front of the mighty Lord's face. "Well if it's not as warm as this, then I'm not going and if you don't like that I can park it where the sun don't shine."

The Mighty All Powerful Magnificent Benevolent, Beneficent Lord Recluse..

LR: ahem

(sorry my lord)

The Mighty All Powerful Magnificent Benevolent, Beneficent, wise, wonderful, kind, Lord Recluse

LR: No kind

(sorry... ok [sigh])

The Mighty All Powerful Magnificent Benevolent, Beneficent,Wise, Wondeful, Lord Recluse sneered [behind his mask] at his former lackey and vowed to deal with him later. (Dear Mr Scirocco don't read to much into this, it's just a story.)

LR: No it's not.

(I know my lord, but you can understand my willingness to hedge my bets)

LR: fair point. I still need you to big me up a bit more.

(very good m'lord, it shall be done.)

The Magnificent Lord Recluse stood stoically and stared down his minion Scirocco, who physically quavered [isn't that a kind of crisp?] in his boots. (Well if you mean quavering meant turning your back and staring down stoically meant pouting lots.)

Lord Recluse crossed his arms, and in so doing stabbed himself multiple times. Scirocco seized his chance and brandished his flaming scimitar waving it in front of Recluse's face. "Ah HA" he cried.

Recluse merely watched and waited (because he is so mighty) and the flames in Scirocco's sword died, to the surprise of the sword master.

"What?"

Lord Recluse merely handed him a piece of paper. "You failed to pay the gas bill. I am going skiing. Happy Holidays"

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well the base walk is a bit poo but that's to encourage you to find an improvement I suspect.

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I rest my case?

AFAIK, animations are generally seperate 'code' which is attached to a skeleton. It's certainly not impossible for a given engine to provide the facility to supply the animation code with dimensions, and then for the code to be complex enough to allow timing to be changed dynamically based on those dimensions.

However, there is no evidence that the CoX engine currently has that capability, and adding it would likely be relatively complex, and certainly more resource hungry.

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I doubt it because it's less moonwalk and more duck-waddle. It's designed to encourage consumerism and adding an animation seems to be a (relatively - ie anyone who is interested in learning about animation can develop a new walk) simple task

I've seen the walk emote in action in CoX and it wasn't half bad. My guess is the code exists in game in a similar way to the way the "huge female" is said to exist in the game. It looked great although I only saw the animation with no forward propulsion, and I accept the timing might be awkward to achieve to look reasonable.

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for AFAIK, the leg length doesn't have to make a difference, it's how NCsoft/cryptic designed the engine to work.

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You are absolutely right that it doesn't have to make a difference, but not that it's 'how they designed the engine.'

If you use the same basic animation for walking on a 4-foot model and an eight-foot model, it would look like one (or both) were moonwalking. To make it look right, you need to take the length of the legs into account. It isn't uncommon for height not to be considered for walking animations, but it does look odd even in LotRO where the height differences are pretty small. With the variation available in CoX, it would start looking stupid.

Running is pretty much entirely different, or at least, the difference is slight enough that it isn't as noticeable. It's all down to the kinematics of movement, and different stride types. Anyone with horse riding experience should know what different stride types do.

As for how it should be achived, I'd do it as a power, like Sprint. If you want it on a key you can always bind it yourself.

But that, as they say, is likely to be a long way down the road.

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Ok so how does it work in something like Second Life where you have models of different heights, with variable leg lengths and then the additional complication of an AO (Animation Overide)? The Walk looks ok there... well the base walk is a bit poo but that's to encourage you to find an improvement I suspect.

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being a hobby animator my self, i know how easy it is.
i can't say the same thing about coding it, but the animation is cake.

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Plus... it exists!

This is an idea that I've yet to put to the test but it occurs to me that if you are relatively low level, and outlevel an important arc or mission that you want to revisit, would it be possible to switch your build and do the said arc/mission?

Seems to me that this potentially has the ability to make Ouroboros redundant (which would in turn explain why the Ouroboros travel power is a "Temp" power - something that has never been satisfactorarily explained.)

With 2 builds, the ability to turn off XP and levelling pacts, you could, if so minded do almost all the content in the game on one toon.

Just wanted to wish all the GMs who deal with our many petitions and bug reports and general whines and rants in game a very merry xmas and great 2k9.

I guess those guys often get forgotten - and yet they have one of the toughest jobs in the game.

So guys, just to let you know, you've not been forgotten - have a great one!

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Don't know about the terminals, but as for the badges, I'm sure they are... as long as people meet with the required conditions.

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Sadly Rabbit, not the case. I wrote:

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I have been trying to craft the "Unknown" invention badge: The description for which is "Invent level 45 & 50 Damage or Knockback Enhancements."

It has registered 23 of 28 (82.14%) complete. I have made to my knowledge at least 5 additional badges. Last night I checked to confirm whether it was working and crafted 2 level 50 Damage IOs, and they failed to register.

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I had a couple of mails requesting more info etc and on supplying the info I received this:

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The problem you have reported is a known issue and the development team is already working on an appropriate solution. However, we are going to forward your enquiry to our Quality Assurance (QA) department in order to provide the development team with as much information as possible.

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The response was very prompt the guys in the back are doing an excellent job but it's sad the bugs don't seem to be fixed that swiftly.

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I asked about the city terminals ages ago.. no reply though.. This post

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Sounds "terminal" to me


I know several invention badges aren't being awarded so I'd advise agaist crafting for the time being

I suspect that would be defeating the purpose. That means that everyone who ever did a TF/Trial/SF etc would have a bucketload of Merits to cash in. That means they get all the goodies... and besides, as has already been pointed out... you had the reward

nah doesn't work

/unsigned

I'm kind of ambivalent (but whereas most who don't care don't post) because I can see an up and downside.

Sure we'd get to talk directly to the Devs - but actually that's not necessarily a good thing. When the Devs do look in this direction and they see a concensus (or what amounts to one in this environment) they can say "look the guys in Europe want 'X', is that possible?" and see a significant and important part of the player base asking for something. As part of a single forum I'd fear we'd lose our distinct voice. Granted the Devs don't post every day but I'm pretty confident that the com channels are open enough that they have a pretty damned good idea of what we want.

I cannot think of any other advantage tbh.

Ok well scratch that. I've had a pretty radical rethink.

I've redone my first build and will be redoing my 2nd very soon. I've gone for a "blanker" type on build one and a far more ranged-based 2nd build.

Ps what IS frankenslotting?

Some really good stuff there.

I have just been a tad frustrated with things going wrong on my base so I'm kinda playing it safe as I rebuild. But I'm full of admiration for what I've seen here

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Do you recall if he said that before or after the staff increases at NCNC?

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that was before.

Positron said I14 would be the MA because it was sufficient to stand on its own in a recent (ie just prior to I13) interview - check massively/recent threads here?

But... will the current crop of Devs be maintained consistently? I suspect that once I14 hits the shelves there will be a cutback and a smaller core will look after I15.

Big crash on the ITF... back up now

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When I say Experience I mean that which I have gained as a player

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Well then... that's nice. So what about the poor shmuck just staring out? You want the game to get harder because you've learned to play it, well.. um... boo hoo.

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Defiant 2.0, Temp Powers, Zone revamps all fall under the category of "general game enhancements" to name but 3.

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Okay... can't say much about Defiance (I assume you mean the Blaster power, not the server), but that's one AT, not the whole game.

Temp Powers... I'm going to assume you mean the travel powers available from Safeguard/Mayhem missions. They do indeed make the game 'easier.' By this I mean that lowbie characters can get from A to B easier without discovering what's down the bottom of the Hollows, etc.

However, that reduces debt, it does not make it easier to kill anything.

Now, there's the Vet Powers. Those make it easier to kill things. But, of course, you have to have been playing for several months, if not years, to get those. So we're back to a Veteran winging about times long past if you're talking about those.

And there's always the point that you don't actually have to use any of these Temp Powers if you don't want to.

Zone revamps... have made the game easier? No. Zone revamps made the game more interesting.

Faultline was a waste of space you went to because the mission system forced you to do one hunt and kill there. Now it's a nice place to go spend time in with a series of interesting mission arcs.

The Hollows... don't make me laugh. People have avoided the Hollows for years because you get forced to go there, you had to have a team to do anything much, and it was just a lousy place to go near. Yes, people who love Zerging things enjoyed getting an 8-man team and hitting the place, but that's not for everyone. A lot of people visit Wincott and then never return. I went back there recently for the first time in 3-4 years, and actually spent some time doing missions there.

If you want to go Zerging mobs, there's still Perez, Boomtown, Eden....


So. You say the game is easier due to temp powers, I say don't use them then. You say it's easier due to zone revamps, I say it's more interesting.

You say I'm trying too hard. I say you have no argument, but you're desperate to prove you have.

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Actually I do have an argument but you're not reading the bits that are inconvenient to your counter.

For the record, I and several others have suggested a number of methods of making the game more challenging aas an option, not mandatory. If the game works for you as it stands, then fine. For me, I want something with a bit more spice. That is my opinion and clearly as this thread stands I'm not alone.

I'm not asking for a game re-write, nor am I asking for something that affects everyone universally.

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Was a deviant, but have been turning into an onion.

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A deviant onion! That's shallot.

/em getcoat

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What..... Like an eternal battle of the gods that continues to rage through time. They surround themselves with their re-icarnetd comrades of the era to bring the battle into a new decade/millenium etc etc.

Will we see a future zone with similar characters ??


mmmm I love copy and paste. Especially the edible paste

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Didn't States and Recluse get their powers by drinking from the Well of the Furies? Greek Mythology at its best

I suggest reading Fables: Legends in Exile by Bill Willingham, pencilled by Lan Medina

Gives a geat insight into what you're trying ot achieve I think

Nice idea tho