Schismatrix

Amusingly, as i read this response Beautiful Girl by the Gadjits started playing.

Whoa, this is a bit much to sort through this time.

The thing is that i find the drop rate for Dagger and Serum is actually somewhat lower that what i would enjoy, but past the early levels the drop rate for the attack powers is probably at least three to four times what i would like simply because i usually delete them anyway. Quite often i still have charges left from crafting them in the early game that have been sitting there unused since the late teens. Past the early twenties i usually have little to no use for the weapon powers. Although if the Devs did add craftable chaingun and shotgun powers i might use them more just for the sheer fun of it.

It's not that the option is lacking, it's just that he refuses to wear them.

Actually, i've found that you can do most emotes with a weapon drawn if you have Ninja Run toggled on.

Well, like others have mentioned i sometimes skip useful powers because they don't fit the character concept, but i've only made one character that would be focused around a particular zone or level range. Although i am now considering a remake using newer powersets that would better with the theme.

Well that's at least one thing you and Arcanaville agree on. ATs cannot be designed by spreadsheet alone. However, i think you two would diverge again at the part where Arcanaville would see that as a reason to employ a more comprehensive approach to the math and modeling of the game, and you would see it as a reason to take the original Dev approach of using whatever numbers seem vaguely right and praying it works out somehow.

The funny thing is that i don't have any particular objection to a damage cap increase for Tankers, but after years of reading J_B's posts i simply cannot believe that's all he wants, or that getting that would satisfy him for more than a couple picoseconds. He would simply see it as proof that every half-baked demand he's made since forever should also be implemented as well.

However, that is not an area where i'm prepared to do the analysis myself regarding an increase in the Tanker damage cap, even though i would enjoy reading the results of any who did do the work. Still, outside of a few powerset combos when solo, and a decent number of team combos when not, it doesn't seem that a damage cap increase would have that much effect on regular Tanker play.

On the other hand J_B did then proceed to mention other game changes he would want to see to leverage the change, so it's already pretty much what i anticipated in terms of whether the increase would actually be satisfactory. "All i want is this and i'll be all good. Oh, and a few other things of course to make it more useful. And if you're already doing that..."

This, this made me laugh out loud.

*snerk*

For those who wonder why he doesn't make a Brute i think at this point it's pretty obvious that this isn't about anything that might be viewed as being somewhat based in reality or logical thought. The whole J_B Tanker Crusade is literally that: a purely emotional, subjective crusade based on an early impression of the game, not even necessarily the game that existed at the time, but a hazy, emotionally charged impression that instantly became locked in his mind as How Things Should Be.

He really, truly doesn't care about game design, rules, balance, or how the game actually works. When he first read the Tanker description he formed an image in his head of what they should be and that's the only thing that matters. Well, that and the fact that the AT doesn't fit the fantasy in his head. He won't play any AT that actually fits what he wants because it really has nothing to do with actual gameplay or the actual game, but him wanting what he wants.

To that extent his quote about being unable to be reasoned with is spot on. Someone starts a thread discussing Blasters? J_B shows up to whinge about Tankers. Someone starts a thread discussing Scrappers? J_B shows up to whinge about Tankers. Someone starts a thread about Assault sets? J_B shows up to whinge about Tankers. Someone starts a thread about drop rates? Yeah, you get the idea.

If he was slightly less polite or slightly more repetitive i might consider using the ignore feature, but so far the spectacle that occurs whenever he shows up outweighs the annoyance. J_B sort of reminds me of this comic.

Edit: Also the comic has a treat bag labeled Beef Tensors. Win!

You can still cast Vengeance multiple times on a target if it's queued by all users and someone teleports a defeated teammate into range. Presumably because the uses happen in the same server tic before the defeated player is flagged by the use of Vengeance or something.

i don't know about yours, but my furryless Tanker is pretty deadly. Probably because i try to avoid Butane exposure when i can.

Rude as he was, he did say "n00b", not "newb", so your start date is actually somewhat irrelevant. n00b (the third definition being most relevant) and newb have two fairly different meanings.

Personally i have difficulty finding room for all the powers i want on most alts, but i do tend to dip into the pools a fair bit. While most all of my characters are built around concepts that in no way keeps me from finding useful powers that work with the concept. On the other hand i have had a couple alts that sometimes run low on desired power pick in the twenties, but that goes away by the mid thirties. Especially since PPPs and APPs are accessible sooner now. i almost never take powers and then don't use them outside of the first Fighting Pool pick.

Incidentally, what do you have against the humble question mark? i've noticed that you never use a question mark when asking questions. Did one bite you as a child, and ever since you've had a morbid fear of them?

i have a few on a couple characters. i've left them in each character's enhancement tray for sentimental value. When they dropped they were either white or already yellow, and to make things better most of them were from back when the Titan Os were inferior to using regular SOs. Not that i'm sure they're noticeably better now.

i can't recall the last time i bothered looking at the stats of an enhancement that would probably be outleveled in less than a day's play. As far as i'm concerned they're purely novelties with little actual use beyond confusing other players by gifting them. Well, i guess with global email now i could email them to a character just as they reached the level to use them, but then i'd have to use an unslotter to recover them a little while later.

Or that sonic attacks have a 100% proc rate on their res debuff.

i usually just toss the Achilles Heel proc into one or two AoEs and call it good.

i suspect they mean the Space Suit Hat thingy with the optional antennae/rings.

Yeah! Everyone knows that what drives most heroes or villains to lives of virtuous/wanton violence is overcompensation for *ahem* deficits!

Especially in spacesuits where there's no need for waste reclamation equipment since everyone knows that in a vacuum or other hostile environment you just need a handy space bush to unzip and enjoy the caustic/superfrozen breeze as you relieve yourself in private.

Ignore tha haters and preach the gospel of an end to offensive bulges that are unlike anything found in nature!

Coincidentally enough, shortly after when the pack was first released Power Slide received the nickname "n00b scooter".

Oh i did, but i figured it was Zwillinsidevoice yanking the chains of all the forumites who try to read deeper meanings into every detail of a redname post. Not that the Z would ever do such a thing.

i'd be happy to be proven wrong.

Considering the character nearest and dearest to her heart, the character she built around the concept of non-stop blasting, is an Energy/Energy Blaster i have no idea.

*shrug*

Really, i don't know.


Not especially looking forward to BM in its current form, but then Masterminds are one of the few ATs i've never gotten past the low thirties. Demons seemed good for a while, but the constant noise really started to annoy me after a while. At this point if BM isn't all that and less noisy i will have to go give my Necro/Storm more attention.

i screamed and wet someone else's pants when i saw that post. But then i call the times when that happens "A day ending in 'Y'."







(Not really, but i did smile a little bit.)

We're not, but there are many well known ways to shoot bows incorrectly. When your stance is mechanically incorrect so that the bowstring will smack your forearm with every shot, and also prevents you from using your full strength to draw the bow then you're doing it wrong.

io9 also posted the article on Hawkeye's archery techniques a couple days ago, which is where i first read it.

Addendum to the article: Honestly it's been years since i last did any archery and i was only a casual archer at best, so it probably won't bother me at all. i have to admit that with decades experience of building things what tends to annoy me more about movies is when they put in scenes of someone welding things that should never, ever be made using a welder, like MIG welding the interior of small electronic devices. *facepalm* But it's so ubiquitous in movies and other visual fiction that i just mentally wince for a fraction of a second and continue on. (The weld spatter just from MIG or arc welding somewhere near exposed electronics can easily damage or destroy them, much less welding directly inside them.)