SilverAgeFan

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Energy Aura/ Tanks

and

/MA Blasters

And before someone says "LOL MA is melee." I know that. I'm thinking of a modified version of martial arts with some weapon throws worked in (customizable as knives or shurikens or hatchets via power customization) with a couple modified and balanced down tricks from Ninjitsu. Something akin to the highly blappery energy manipulation set. And one last pie-in-the-sky wish, I'd love for this secondary to somehow leverage the new power customization tech to not trigger weapon redraws if one is present.

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Personally, I find tile-matching puzzles irresistible. I count the time I spent in Free Realms sorting letters in the same category as the time I spent on Popcap's website playing Bejeweled. The fact that I levelled up in Postman is pretty much incidental.

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You sound like a Puzzle Pirate! Yarr!

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As for jetpacks, I'd like that option added as a craftable recipe similar to jet boots in a future issue, rather than as a part of a booster pack.

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I still want my bulky chemical tank to strap to a couple character's backs, complete with colorable transparent windows and animated bubbles (think warhulk fluid chambers). But the Super Science pack already came and went with nary a chem tank (or bubble helmet). So I'll just have to keep looking dreamily out my bedroom window at the rain, pining.

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Technology Pack:
I'd love to see something like tech wrist bands that fire an energy blast
Cooler looking full helmets

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Word is that the cyborg pack retroactively counts as the tech themed pack. Sorry to burst your bubble.

On a related note, I blew the dust off my self destruct power the other day on a lowbie to asplode. Good times.

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I doubt changing colors will be enough to make the bubbly energy blasts look like wind or give the energy fists of Energy Manipulation the hazy look of CoH radiation.

[/ QUOTE ]Which is why I said add in new effects. Which means more than just changing the colors. As per This Post it would SEEM that FX is customizable in the engine in addition to just color and animations. The thing is that it's just more work and takes time, so they can't do a lot of it in time for i16 launch.

The point of my post was that simply suppling new effects for various power sets is a LOT easier than making entirely new sets.

For a new set, you need to:
- Make new effects
- Come up with powers to fill up the set
- Test, balance, test, make sure it's not more/less powerful than other sets, etc etc..

For turning an old set into a new one via PC, you need to:
- Make new effects


...and that's it.

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I was talking with a friend in game regarding this very subject the other day. What came out of our conversation was this hypothesis:

We're getting the power customization tech with i16. Going Rogue, though it will only have two completely new powersets, may include new animations, geometries and particle effects for many or all existing powersets as a selling point.

If this were true, I know I'd be even more eager to buy the expansion.

Of course this was little but partially informed speculation. We'll see in time what the devs have up their sleeves.

Edit: Bad Grammar.

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And on a related note, speaking of the Platypus: it's the only mammal that does not have teats, but rather excretes milk through the pores in the female's skin!

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What about that third monotreme, the echidna? Do they have teats?

And I know I could be totally mistaken here, since it's just a passing interest, but don't kangaroos and other marsupials also not have teats but essentially lactate in a similar fashion in the skin of their pouch?

I'm asking because I don't know. And you write like you have some background knowledge here.

On a totally off topic note, it always amazes me to think that this little gal not only has teeny tiny weeny itsy teats, but also knuckle bones when she herself is just a bit larger than one of your knuckles. Silly shrew.

Back on topic: she's nekkid!

A monstrous frog head and frog flippers for gloves and boots.

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Wow. First reply and I'm going negative already...

There are a [very few] things that count as "puzzles" in this game. You can tell because players have been consistently and extensively complaining about them, and avoiding them, for five years straight. Ever get lost in the Perez maze? Ever look for a mission door that was "under the map?" Ever try to find your way to the center of the Abandoned Sewers?

... oh yeah. The playerbase treated those problems like bugs and developed workarounds.

Same with buying "power 10" enhancements. Same with unlockable stores. Same with missions where you had to travel to the end of a hazard zone, then travel through ANOTHER hazard zone (the old Rikti Crash Site). Same with talk-tos, patrol missions, tricky hunts. In fact, while this may sound bitter, the Architect Entertainment system does seem to give a lot of people what they want: travel six feet and have your critters served to you on a plate.

Matt Miller said something once to the effect of "Ten minutes after a puzzle is introduced into an MMO, there's a walkthrough on the web." It's very true.

I hope someone has a good idea... but I don't.

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great, no puzzles. what about the other ideas?

besides. everything you mentioned are examples of things that were either A: poorly implemented or B: just lame. also, those things are examples of things not ot repeat in the future. no?

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Physics puzzles. Without a doubt this is THE way to go. But due to grandfathered system reqs, I just don't see it happening in this particular title. Maybe its successor. But not here.

And if anyone has any question as to what I mean by "physics puzzles" go to any free flash game site and try the myriad of physics based flash mini games that have come out over the past few years. Almost all are 2d, but you'll get the idea. Object stacking. Object toppling. Rag doll tossing. Canon puzzles. etc. etc. There are many other physics based challenges that lay waiting to be discovered. All of these minigames could be reskinned and repurposed to fit the context quite easily. But instead of being minigames, they should IMO, in the generation-after-next superhero MMO be integrated into the larger standard gameplay experience as alternate routes to success. If there is to be a CoX2 of some title or another five years from now, it might be at just the right moment for this sort of gameplay to really come to fruition.

With just enough variables in such dynamic challenges, the results, even catastrophic failures, can be wildly entertaining. But before these things make it into MMOs, the overall reward structure and player psychology will need to be looked at quite seriously. A paradigm shift may be in order. Tie getting your "uber rare" drop to a physics game that for all but the best and most coordinated players requires what amounts to a series of "lucky shots" and you introduce crazy amounts of frustration.

Them to complete the back slot for the costume and a wide and varied array of rigid and animated costume items comparable in theme and scope to other costume elements.


Been wanting this for 3+ years now.

QR:

Very curious about what is meant by "themes." The outlier for me includes alternate animations, a variety of new power geometries and particle effects including stuff like: a full "tricorder" set of animations for empathy or is there a set of "playing cards" animations, similar to the tarot card casting that would allow me to make a fire blaster with exploding playing cards?

I know time will tell. And I'm scared to hope for variety as awesome as all sorts of new geometries and particle effects that would constitute "signature powers."

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For the Council jails, does anyone ever use the "hidden" side tunnel? It runs from the cells to near the entrance of the jail area and bypasses most of the spawns so you can actually make a break for it. It seems like it was designed for that.

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I love the side tunnel and use it simply because it exists. Even when I've not been thrown in jail.

Yes. I know. I'm a bit sad like that.

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I *really* wish they had included a tattered/ripped labcoat option with the pack, it's such an obvious piece to couple with the transformation CCEs.

Welp...still gonna buy it anyway, for the reflector headgear of all things! Curse you microtransaaaaaaactions!

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I was pining for bubble helmets. But despite my disappointment with those not being included here, I too will be dropping my $10 later tonight.

Once I tie up my freelance work for the day. Can't have any pudding just yet...

The store is currently up for me, but no booster yet.

So ummmm... if we, like, get, y'know, alternate animations to choose from, can um, we, like, get a few headbutts thrown into melee. I've long given up on the hopes of us ever getting a "head melee" set, but maybe through the magic of power customization I can fully realize my years long dream of knockin' digital baddies with my super noggin'.

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A lot of that makes sense for people who do play normal content. However, the majority of people getting sucked into AE don't care about how the PVE environment is adjusted to try and get them into more of the game. They just want their levels as fast as they can.

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You're missing the conversation. This is not about new characters, it is about new players, fresh to CoX, still learning the interface and other game fundamentals. If after two weeks into the game, a new player discovers farming through AE, decides they love it and sticks around for 6 to 18 months doing nothing but that, WONDERFUL!

What people are discussing here is not efforts to curb farming or how AE is used at all. Rather how to give brand spanking new players a little bit of breathing room before getting funneled into AE farming teams.

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Agreed, if we used to take new characters to PI to get a PL going to steel canyon or skyway wouldnt matter. Heck I can remember running level 2s to portal corp in PI with no teleport help and no sg bases and pocket D portals etc. Simply put people that want the PL are going to get to where they need to be to get it, unless you level restrict every zone and you simply just die at the gate when you attempt to enter a level not your equal.

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This response misses the point the thread is making entirely.

Moo's points are not about the PL vs. anti PL debate. He is talking about new players--not new characters for experienced players who know the game inside and out. B_I is suggesting, with support of some others including myself, that by putting a small and only marginally inconvenient gate on the AE PL farming opportunity by removing the buildings from the lowbie zones, only more experienced players in the know -- i.e. folks who have at least leveled one character the slow way into the range of Steel Canyon or Cap Au Diable -- only those folks will be rushing off to the train or ferry to jump into AE.

As you state yourself: such a run when compared to the old sprint to PI at level 2 is really not THAT big of an inconvenience. But a brand spanking new person in Paragon wouldn't know how to get there. This then allows brand spanking new people (not characters!) to be funneled into some more slowly paced and controlled developer content as they still get a handle of the fundamentals of the game.

The complaint is that many new players find themselves getting blind invited onto Atlas AE farms and learn to farm before they learn to play. If I came to this game fresh and found myself being ordered to door camp on a farm whilst I get powerleveled, I think I'd ask "Is this all there is in this game?" And I'd seriously consider extending my subscription beyond the initial 30 days.

Personally I think B_I's suggestion to remove the AE buildings a reasonable compromise to help keep the lowest of the lowbie zones geared towards new player experience and canon content.

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AE buildings out of Atlas, Galaxy and King's Row, yesterday.

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Very much agree with this. Brand new player should experience the game canon content first to get familiar with the game. Getting sucked into a blind farm invite does nobody any favors on someone's first day.

For an experienced player (who should/could have good arguments for needing/wanting/condoning farming), a level 1 or 2 run to the Steel or Skyway locations is acceptable.

Similarly, though it is a harder run--but an established SG base can make it a cinch, make Port Oakes or Cap be the first AE building.

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The CoH game designers – and other mmo designers — seem to have largely abdicated their responsibility to design a game in favor of providing a sandbox for players to use as they wish. This may be good for game designer jobs, their blog readers, and their pocketbooks, but it is not particularly good for their games. ...

...Most surprisingly of all (maybe only to me), game designers themselves seem no longer interested in their rules. They seem to focus increasingly less on game rules and increasingly more on game rulers. Rulers don’t like the game rules? No problem. Eliminate those rules.

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You heard it hear first. Positron and gang have lost interest in game rules. The worst part about it is they are giving the players stuff they want.

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Thanks for pointing out this last quote. What he writes there is quite laughable considering that there are numerous posts and threads on record where the man openly complains about i13's PvP rules recast.

There is little acknowledgment that developers confirmed via public explanations regarding the coming PvP changes of i13 that there was an internal understanding that the system as it stood was broken, demanding an overhaul. It favored too narrow a band of strategies and permitted too many strategies that when employed incessantly amounted to an "i win" (or at least "j00 lose") button. So Dr. Myers received a verdict in his supreme court case and he (and others who overused TP foe) were essentially told by dev action and system redesign, "Actually that strategy is kinda exploitative. Sorry. We're tweaking rules to apply some balanced risk to that strategy from this day forward." The rules were changed. The rules of chess were not born as a complete set either. They too evolved in fits and starts. Maybe in 1000 years, a perfect, flawless and equally elegant ruleset for CoH/V PvP will exist. But not without numerous painful tweaks that completely invalidate or lessen the effectiveness of a variety of strategies along the way.

You can disagree with the changes to PvP openly and vocally. But them's now the rules. The very rules that the dev team spent a decent amount of time reworking. And this stands in stark opposition to a rather unfair and unflattering public portrait of our developer team Dr. Myers paints.

Additionally, reading that quote makes me think that he's having a hard time separating the concept of virtual world from game. Someone more versed in formal academic discussions of cybernetic gamespaces help me out here. Somebody by now must have written some good analysis regarding how many "games" as traditionally defined for centuries can become nested within the meta-gamespace of a virtual environment. CoH/V is not chess. CoH/V PvP may be the chess or go or rockem sockem robots of CoH/V. While the social rules of the meta-gamespace of CoH/V are not necessarily the CoH/V PvP, they do have import. He's correct there. But similar to the socially defined rules of a chess tournament.

If someone walks into a chess tournament and insists on playing someone right there and then who is they are not scheduled to play and against that opponents will and begins to publicly and loudly castigating this would be opponent for not dropping their current match, many people in the local vicinity, tournament organizers in particular, would come to the victim's defense. If this looney persisted and pulled a chair up to the ongoing match and started moving the other players pieces because they JUST HAD TO CHALLENGE THIS PERSON RIGHT THEN AND THERE OMG!!1! -- someone would call security and throw this person out.

Now this hypothetical nutter could go on about the authoritarian nature of the social order and rules of the tournament attendees and that the tournament organizers simply don't care enough about "real chess matches." But wouldn't that just be crazy talk? Yes some breaching was performed by our tournament crasher. And the others present responded in manners that could be predicted by most developmentally normal five year olds. The whole ordeal sounds more like an episode of Jackass than a controlled science experiment.

Anyways, hoping the servers come up soon. I've got some time this morning and would rather play. Think I've about exhausted my interest in the good Dr.'s groundbreaking research.

Edit: First of many likely fixes for grammar. Oh, and it looks like those servers are back up. Time for an hour or two of fun before heading off to work.

Some of the requests here sound valid. And yes there was mention by Positron of a desire to get more missions available via flashback.

But that being said: there are already mechanics in place for zone invasions to be triggered normally, both zombies and Rikti.

And personally what I would prefer to see with the mayhems/safeguards as a flashback system is once you hit 50, and have successfully:

- once completed the top level mayhem/safeguard
- you go ahead, do five more paper/radio missions
- talk to your detective
- and are then, at 50, with the top level mission under your belt, are given the option to flashback to any mayhem/safeguard you'd like to repeat or may have missed

It seems like the most "fair" way to do it IMO. And yes, getting those exploration badges can be a real pain at times, especially on more veteran characters.

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A new game engine will happen, IMO, because of what it offers "under the hood" rather than because it's got a lot shiny new chrome attached. That sort of upgrade can happen at any time.

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Physics. The next true quantum leap in this genre will be a massive application of gameworld physics. When a superhero MMO allows for proper physics mini games with a range of goals and objectives, similar to the plethora of 2d flash physics games from the past couple years, then we'll be looking at something worth a new engine and a new title.

When ice powers can actually freeze some elements, fire powers burn, magnetic powers attract and repel materials tagged as metal, gravity lift and crush objects--and not for vanity sake--but in a meaningful way that differentiates each power type, even if just in instances, then we are talking something new.

A good look at the source material reveals story after story of superheroes utilizing parts of the environment to prevent disaster. Forget the rather simpleminded approach of "weaponizable environments." In good comics, not all battles are fought with fists and lamposts-[censored]-baseball-bats. The villains more often than not seek to wreak chaos on the world causing things to spill and tumble while the heroes intervene in a race against the time it takes an object (or person!) to fall and try to create the best possible outcome sparing lives and if possible even injury.

How you scale that to an MMO on today's or tomorrow's mid level machines is the question. But IMO it is THE direction for the genre to head in. CoX nailed character customization. But what I describe above is what would nail the rest of the comic book experience.

Get the physics working: be able to catch, grapple, grab, freeze, thaw, melt, burn, explode, topple, prop up, buttress, glue, bend, and grow multiple dynamic objects and characters in an environment. Get a few dozen folks kicking around together in such a sandbox like environment. Tell them to play with eachother, try and invent little games--like kids on a playground with a kickball or two--and see what emerges. Then from there, you can shrink wrap a few restrictions and formal rewards around the system. But yeah, I agree, it is new gameplay and what is under the hood that warrants new engines.

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There's definitely issues with his experiment, the IRB at his university is currently investigating it.

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@PownUnoobs:

Do you have a source? Not questioning the validity. But I am curious how someone in the general public can find out such information.

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Why is this still going on? 40 pages, and I still don't see why it's such a popular topic. I don't get why everybody is torturing themselves over this.

I've seen the same points expressed over and over again by multiple people. It's growing depressing that so much attention is being paid to something so irrelevant, both to the game and to the world at large.

Just like an inflatable Troll balloon, the more attention we pay to this, the bigger it's going to get, but that doesn't mean it has anymore real substance.

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@Mr_Grey:

Personally, I'm quite engaged by all the discussion regarding ethics, the validity of research in general, etc. Despite how that NOLA article painted our community as a bunch of death-threat-leveling-cyber-neandertals, many folks are maintaining a rather cool-headed and informed discussion on those subjects throughout this thread. One bad scientist has us all talking to each other about what makes for good science. Not a bad thing IMO. YMMV

Edit: No need to reply about the IRB. Read the rest of the thread as I should have in the first place. Interesting.

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It would be interesting for a real scociologist to take a good look at how an online game, such as ours, can positively effect the real world, and seriously ask why that happens. Afterall, our community does generate goodwill, acts of kindness, and charity in the real world. A good line of research would be why a virtual community( most of whom never meet in real life), can be compelled to help each other and help improve the real world. I would like to think that our players, even if they only play villain side, try to live up to the Heroic Idea, even if a litle bit. Has the game 'rubbed off' on us? Or is it human nature to do so?

Grizz

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To be fair, things people find ugly and distasteful can be valid topics of research. And not all science need be applied science--inquiry with specific problem solving motives. I personally find basic science, inquiry for the sake of inquiry, to USUALLY be the most interesting. But as others have pointed out, after a couple reads his experiment and paper really seem to lack the rigor required to really shed light on any of the phenomena and dynamics in which he claims to be interested. The most bothersome is the apparent continuous evolution of his "standard" response and set of strategies.

His chosen subject of research for decades has been play, electronic gaming in particular. This is a totally valid area of research. And I see nothing wrong with looking into the darker dirtier corners of this realm. But I'm disappointed both in his research and scholarship. I'd love to have seen a much more rigid set of rules which he actually adhered to, maybe across multiple environments, publishing entire chat logs (in an appendix even) including anything that may shine negatively upon the researcher and then citing those same logs as needed in his paper. I would have loved to have seen him try to stick it out after i13, once what he defined as "natural law" of the system shifted to make his behaviour more difficult to execute. And then analyze how the systematic alienation he experienced shifted, lessened or intensified when his actions (trash talking included) had a modified impact on people within the modified post i13 PvP environment. I think he really walked away from a golden opportunity to validate much of his research right there. And reading his archived posts, he threw quite a public hissy fit over the looming i13 changes. Lastly, many folks here with limited backgrounds in his field have conjectured that what he saw echoes what someone could learn when looking at children on a playground. Why is there not more rigorous scholastic work weaving this into the tapestry of existing knowledge on breaching and cooperative and competitive play coexisting or conflicting with each other.

All these shortcomings lead me to the conclusion that this professor is much more engaged with his gaming than his scholarship. And it makes me kinda sad and embarrassed for the man and the institution that is stuck with him.

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Yes Twixt knew how to PvP quite well on his LOLMelee. Yeah and no Phase on the toons I had seen prior to I13. He had superior skill, tactics, knowledge and timing.

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Oh yes,

OPTICAL_ILLUSION = Twixt

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Yay 4 puppets!

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Its not "against the mechanics or rules" for some crazy homeless guy to follow you around next time you are at your local shopping mall, shouting insults, curses and threats. He's not actually hurting you, after all. Do we not have freedom of speech? He actually has a right to tell you what he thinks of you, by dint of US law...

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Actually depends upon conduct. There are all sorts of criminal harassment statutes out there, varying from state to state. But even the enforcement of the law is left to the discretion of the judge and several unofficial gates in the court system (i.e., lawyers encouraging or discouraging you from prosecuting said crazy homeless guy). Likewise, though there are limits to what that end of the justice system can do, many (urban at least) police precincts have at least one community policing officer who's sole job is to deal with things like this that may be discouraged from ending up in courts but do affect the overall quality of life in each neighborhood. Skilled officers are really good at making themselves understood, gentle coercion and mild intimidation within the ethics of their post. This is also usually helped by the fact that many folks (both victims and perpetrators) suffer from a degree of institutional paranoia and are deeply affected, if not triggered, by the presence of a person in uniform.

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Do you LIKE that behavior though? Probably not, and you're most likely not going to look kindly upon the person doing the cussing, unless you are a literal saint.

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Speaking of victims, overcompliance is symptom of many trauma related psychological disorders. Even a saint, unless they were a sick saint, would look on this person's behaviour with disdain. Overcompliance often leads to a pattern of victimization and revictimization. For a population to get called out publicly in a weak academic paper for verbally admonishing d*ckish behaviour in a study that no one agreed to participate sends the wrong message. The very nature of the "good" Dr.'s study puts all of his subjects in a double bind. Which is BS.

But that doesn't matter. Because it wasn't really science. It's a piece of tripe rationalizing the doc's own compulsive anti social behaviours within gamespaces. After reading how he treats people on his blog, it's clear that there's a lot more Twixt in the doctor than the tone of his academic writing implies. The man should see a shrink. He's likely got some deep issues.

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And for those who want the tl;dr version: So what if it's a comic? it can be a good, realistic comic.

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Box Office Poison was a great realistic comic. Not sure if it'd work as an MMO. But it was a fantastic read.