Sir_Helm

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[censored] it, fold.

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Darn it, I had a straight flush of persecution complexes.

Imaginary poker aside, some of the rebuttals posted did seem a bit 'vigorous'. Kudos on the linkage to prior art though.

Sometimes I would like to see a server merge just to see the line of mouth-agape emotes it would generate on the forums, but like the majority that have spoken (and borderline ranted in a few cases) I agree it's unwise (e.g. it's the twighlight manoeuvre of a subscription game) and unlikely (e.g. there's still new features and content being generated that are consuming dev time, not to mention support).

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Yes... and?

Shuddup, dinosaurs are so cliched it's not funny any more.

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No, you're a cliche!

I wholeheartedly embrace any contrivance that allows me to nut a giant reptile with my flying broadsword/invulnerability Scrapper. In fact given the some of the recent pernicious whinging about the Hammi Raid why not retool it into a Dino Raid? Fight your way through packs of raptors and then fight a Godzilla-knockoff at the center of the map.

"But what about the backstory, how do you justify bla bla bla...?"

Easy: "Giant Dinosaur Eats Giant Jelly Monster."

And frankly if that doesn't sell you on a server event get the hell off my planet.

Using the Mayhem Mission: TP Team power may well have done it. I wonder if you have enough pets on the team you can telefrag allies...?

VEAT launch was a good time. I remember a solid run through a story arc or two with my Crab Spider on a team made up of 4 VEATS and a varying team composition that usually had 1-2 MMs, 1-2 Brutes, a Dominator or a Corruptor. I think we did the Freak/Shaper arc in a Saturday arvo on max rep with several of the team trailing a level or two.

A villain SG I am part of runs a VEAT night - a 6-8 person team (including a Cold Corruptor) typically shreds regardless of difficulty, can punch above it's own weight on Relentless, and hold s no challenges as long as the team stays mostly in LOS. It only becomes challenging if more than 8 ppl show up - at which point we split into two smaller teams and still chew pretty well.

A similar launch effect was had when Dual Blades/Willpower went live - it was possible to join starting level teams with 4 DB/WP scrappers, and once they started getting their first pair of combination in the team became a lawnmower with legs.

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This thread's back from the dead, like someone beaten half to death by a shield toting vigilante

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You're not even trying to hide the flamebaiting now, are you?

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Absolutely, let's get straight to the GG bashing. How constructive.

Nice story, little bit emo maybe. Not always sure that humanizing more or less inhuman baddies works.

Posters. Black and/or white t-shirts with symbols.

I'd like to see non-trashy novels, but I doubt NC has the budget to get in profession writers.

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How about we stop disecting someones post based on your own levels of anal retentiveness.

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You have failed at internet! lol!

Also you may find it difficult to base an argument on anecdotal statistics. 20,000 x 20 = 400,000 proves you can do multiplication, but not that you can accurately predict trends, or present a risk assessment based on an extreme alteration of subscription economics on 3rd highest earning game for a company that has just axed a wedge of staff.

There is no land beyond the law
Where tyrants rule with unshakable power,
'Tis but a dream from which the evil wake
To face their fate, their terrifying hour.

Stay well, big man.

Had a bit of a fiddle with the costume pieces last night - they are very pretty indeed, almost to the point that it's tricky to use them with older, duller costume pieces. As pointed out above it's immediately obvious that bulkier characters benefit from these parts - I am looking forward trying it out on my brute-model, max-sized Crab Spider.

I have a range of characters that can benefit from these parts, though it's going to take time to work out some interesting combinations - nice tip on the Samurai armour, think there's probably room for blending in Vanguard.

Self destruct is a good laugh and made out of 90% drama - the warning klaxons and visual fx are great. It's particularly funny on low level Stalkers.

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Is it cynical to fully expect a minor I13 announcement in the next week to try diverting our attention from the loss of EU staff?

If so: Is it more or less cynical to think that if there isn't one it's because a few EU players griping about losing good staff doesn't even register on the NC radar?

Maybe we should adopt US accents...

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I could not say. It does strike me as being cynical to make the above suggestion and grind the same old 'why does daddy love america more' axe.

Or is that cynicism on my part on being cynical about cynicism?

Given the pettiness of some elements in this thread (regardless of position on RP) I can guarrenty that the Galaxy Girl statue is going to be the site of many robo suicide bombing runs.

Makes an interesting RP challenge...

Am I the only one that finds the idea bitterly ironic given the recent staff cuts at NC?

That aside - it's not a foolish suggestion, but you are suggesting a radical paradigm shift in both development cycle and payment structure. That's not a reason to not discuss the idea, but it's a little more complex than "merge/traverse servers, works for guildwars", which is a somewhat unforgiving boiling down of the OP on my part.

I see CoX as a game in it's Autumn - the playerbase is unlikely to grow significantly on the dated core technology, but the existing community is solid, new content and features continue to be provided, and CoH still provides the best character customisation and mentoring system I know of. I see Winter (server merging, abandoning subscription) still someway off as long as impressive issues and regular patches continue. The Mission Creator may reignite greater (new subscriber) interest as it evolves, though I see that more as a tool to consolidate the existing playerbase unless it turns out to be something truly spectacular in the history of Gaming.

I do dislike multiple quote posts, so I apologise in advance.

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What really has to be considered here is the attitude of the boards themselves.
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So it's very difficult to really get a clear proportionate response here.
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Then why dont you go through the posters that have spoken to me in a civilised manner and post my responses there? You know full well I was being flamed and you also know I dont like being flamed or the people that do it.

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I do think your posts get treated more aggressively than the average, but I also think your posting style can be most aggressive at times. Prove yourself the better debater, and indeed person, by not rising to it. Apply your superior communication skills - this is not sarcasm on my part, in your job I know you must possess these qualities otherwise you would be unemployed.

mereman:
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Why do I get the feeling that anyone who disagrees with you is wrong?

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Be fair Mereman - that's a natural human condition that takes a great deal of self-knowledge, wisdom and willpower to overcome. I do not see it happening often in this thread for instance.

back to Lionsbane:
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Ironically it doesnt match it at all because the primary reason for SKing (aside from teaming with friends) is power levelling.

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I must disagree on this point - I sk primarily to play with RL friends and friends I have made through the game and allow others to do the same. Secondarily I sk or arrange sks when I cannot join or form a team of the appropriate level due to either playing at a slow time or at a busy time with lots of full teams - making do as it were. Certainly my RL friends and a majority of CoH friends sk for similar reasons.

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the game will only grant me aprox 3,000 xp because it will treat the 53 as if they were 16s for xp purposes.

So how can you power level on that basis? Am i missing something?

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I use this quote to refer to the argument that xp earned would be capped - the problem is that though the amounts of xp would be the same, the rate at which two high level toons could accrue it would dramatically accelerate the xp earning of 6 much lower level characters over time.

I see the rational behind the suggestion, but it is flawed. In addition to being one of the more elegant mechanics in the game it can also promote a sense of bonding in teams. The engineer in me also says that the system more or less works - I don't see the benefit in terms of development compared to spending time on creating new features and content.

One point of yours I am unclear on - if sking can lead to PLing, is it valid to assume auto-sking-by-mission would not?

On an off topic but unrelated note - do you drink much caffeine? Your posts seem to me to have a sinusoidal aggression curve sometimes.

It's sometimes a problem on PuGs when a quarter or more of the team go afk without warning. Otherwise it's fine, though I fully support kicking and immediately sending a friendly tell and a reinvite to anyone afk in a mish for more than a few mins after a mish has ended.

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PRAF, is this thread the place for this stuff?

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Yes, absolutely: yes. It is related - it's important to analyse and understand unfortunate events rather than falling back entirely on the wailing and gnashing of teeth, not to mention venomous bickering.

But you can rotate your camera? Forgive my bluntness, but this sounds like a suggestion for its own sake.

As an alternative I like the suggestion Mantodea had a while back: a feature allowing you to make any changes you wanted to a costume and pay when you leave Icon - in other words you get run around in Icon 'trying out a new costume' like you would a pair of shoes IRL to see if your costume has clipping issues before shelling out inf/tokens.

Plus you'd get the opportunity to ask, "Does my bum look big in this?"

Technically possible - but the animations could risk looking a bit too generic (i.e. stone mallet, bigger stone mallet, mallet's stone mallet, etc). Plus it'd be a lot of animation work.

If there was a way to hoof out the animations for the gaps then I'd be up for this. On the other hand I am running my Fire Scrapper atm and like the variety of animation

You know, I'm half sold of the thematics of this. Parallel universes are a mainstay of comics, and we've already got Portal Corps in the background as a handy background foundation.

Instead of making the prequisite a string of Shadow Shard TFs I'd go with a Portal Corps TF possibly.

You still have to find a way to resolve the issue of people having *paid* for server transfers not feeling they've been jipped out of cash though.

Easy on the melodrama, folks.

Kerensky: I really enjoyed your stint on the English boards. Like RJ and Aero you are a class act. Good luck with the future old chap.

Not as much as I used to since Inventions got implemented - I usually make enough cash flogging off recipes and salvage to kit my toons up to lvl 30 in SOs. If I've been lucky and picked up something that goes for a few mil I'm then able to kit out a lvl 32 toon in lvl 35 IOs, otherwise I'll spot them a few mil from an alt via a sg or global chum. Then all remaining funds get saved up for kitting out the toon with sets, shipping in inf from other alts if I am looking at expensive sets.

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Paintings. I would like to be able to set screenshots as paintings in my SG base. I know that this could be abused by some people wanting to post all sorts of pictures but it would have to be self-regulated by a SG and Coalition, or maybe enter a queue so the image can be pre-approved.

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Baggsie I don't get that job.

"Oh look, it's Statesman fighting ******. Again."

Can I join your gang?

Not sure I like this for the extra grind. I mean that's great for folks that like unadulterated grind, but... when my heroes hit 50 there's a few reasons to bring them out:

1. Task forces - fits the comic book genre nicely. "There's a big threat, and only Alpha Boy, the Human Fish, Copyright Violation and Banging Donk can stop it."

2. Laughs - stopping a lvl 1 mugging with lvl 50 characters can be funny. "Help help I'm being mugged OH MY GOD YOU FRIED HIM WITH HEX VISION AIIIIIEEE!" Gets old after a few mins, depending on how drunk you are.

3. Ding Assist - helping someone else get a toon to 50 that's nearly there. It's quite refreshing to be on a team of 50 or nearly-50s, though making a movie of it would burn ILM's budget for the next decade.

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Some general advice: learn to play the game for longer than a month before you start making suggestions about making it better.

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Harsh - but fair.

Hero ATs get a limited form of shapeshifting. Also check out the button on the far right of the text box for chat - there's quite alot of emotes in there you may not have found. As for costume diversity - hit random a few times to see the range of possibilities.

Warning: you may need eye protection with some of the colour combos the randomiser picks.

Rockjaw, Aero - you are class acts. Good luck to you both and anyone else affected. I have no doubt you can and will move on to bigger and better things.

Peace and Good Hunting!