Slashman
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Posts
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I was wondering if anyone else is getting a lot of weird lag lately in the game.
I'm seeing lots of NPC stuttering movement and rubberbanding. Its been happening pretty consistently since Issue 16.
It will die down for a while...but inevitably starts up again. Some of my SG mates have been saying the same thing. And a particularly bad patch caused us a team wipe on a couple occasions.
Anything going on with the servers that I may have missed? Or is my ISP just seeking to drive me nuts? -
Quote:This is true. Still, there are too many examples of missions and storylines where things are presented as being life or death for me to think that EVERYONE is under the medical teleportation system.Originally Posted by Mr. NoPants
Most people won't bleed to death if you pull out all their teeth but they would rather have a guy dressed in day glow untie them before that happens.
I would think that resources for doing something like that would be enormous...so they would limit it to vital persons. That would be the superpowered heroes who need to stay in the fight to protect the city and world from dire threats. As was stated, even the police drones are extremely expensive and rare...so they aren't used in everyday police activity.
I suppose its open to interpretation...but that's the one that makes to most sense to me. Also, why WOULD you give killers, thugs, demon worshipping shamen and mad scientists a get out of death free card? If you're living on the outside of the law...why would the city attempt to protect your life like that? -
On the subject of frequency of death...
I think that people die a lot more often than BABs is giving the impression of.
As I understood it, the medical teleportation network is exclusively for heroes and special law enforcement agencies.
If, in fact, the threat of death was so very diminished, the whole idea of needing to protect citizens with such fervor that you'd don a costume and assume a secret identity would be almost laughable.
There are several missions where death is most certainly featured and a real threat if you're just a civilian. Like Vahzilok. Finding all those bodies in that mission where you get some influence for clicking each one doesn't point to a nice, safe haven when danger threatens civilians. There are at least 15 bodies in that mission. If you consider that that is typical for a Vahzilok operation...the numbers really begin to add up.
There are many more missions where dead people are prominently featured and there is no indication that they were ever a part of the medical teleportation system.
The truth is that if the world were truly so safe in COH, heroes would be out of a job for the most part. Why would you need to rush in and save a bunch of kidnapped scientists from the Clockwork, if the most that would happen to them is a near-death experience?
I love BABs and his work and presence on the forums. But I think he may have flubbed a bit on this one.
I think consulting Manticore on the lore side of things may be a better bet. But that's only IMHO... -
Its actually silly to think there has to be one or the other with no middle ground.
Heroes saving the world is great. I like a lot of that stuff in comics and movies. But I don't ever get the sense of liking the hero if I never see how he/she deals with other aspects of being a hero.
When Rorschach tells the story of how he dealt with the child-killer in the Watchman movie, that was every bit as powerful as other saving the world moments in both that and other movies. It's just a different aspect of being a hero. How do you deal with vile scum who can turn out to be just everyday people you see on the street?
IMO, there aren't enough stories like that in the game. Saving the world stories are no more or less interesting than a well told story about any other superhero subject. The problem is that it's easier for someone to write about a ticking nuclear time bomb, than to write about a serial killer who covers his/her tracks perfectly. Its easier to cook something up about a time-traveling Nazi Lt than to write about a hero having to choose between saving a friend versus saving a group of people he doesn't know and who will never know him.
Batman, Daredevil and Spiderman aren't any lesser heroes because they don't usually save the whole earth from Galactus/Darkseid. And their stories are just as interesting.
Good stories and well designed missions are enjoyable no matter the scope. -
I've been noticing some weird lag spikes recently. I'd say they started before double XP weekend and have continued throughout my regular servers since.
I play on Justice, Infinity and Victory. I had thought that maybe it was my ISP or something similar, but all my regular game buddies are getting it as well. It actually caused a team wipe just a short while ago on Infinity. We all agreed its been happening a lot.
When you're in a public zone, you can notice NPCs sticking and rubberbanding. It's not always with the same frequency...but it seems to get worse, the longer I play.
Is this some kind of known issue that's being worked on? I hadn't heard it mentioned...so I thought I'd ask here.
Any info is appreciated. -
Quote:Change it, no. Enhance it, yes.Originally Posted by Oliin
Also, how do you propose we change the gameplay in CoH? You can't really change the core gameplay without alienating at least some portion of your established player base. So anything done would have to somehow tack itself on to existing gameplay which more than likely wouldn't be nearly enough for the folks who want new gameplay mechanics from CoH. In all likelihood the folks who want different game mechanics would probably be better served looking for them elsewhere. That's not me telling you to leave, just saying, if we tack on a different play-style this late in the game in all likelihood bad things will end up happening.
Our basic combat mechanics are pretty decent as is...actually more than decent compared to other MMOs. What's missing is more expansive mission objectives, environmental interactivity, interesting mini-games to break up mission monotony.
There are a ton of small changes that could be made, and things added that would make missions feel more superheroic in terms of execution.
We've always been missing the detective side of superhero work. The clue hunting, or breaking security systems and generally the choices that heroes and villains make in terms of how they do things.
The fact that our powers affect so little beyond NPC enemies and the occasional breakable object is unfortunate. Superheroes are always using their abilities in new and interesting ways.
Heck, I'd even welcome some new form of the Super Secret out of Combat Skill System that got canned by Jack.
Basically anything that livens up gameplay past the scope of what we have now would be welcome. It's not a matter of changing the core mechanics or alienating people...its adding new options and ways to approach situations. Freedom Force is a great game to look at in terms of superhero feel. It really allowed you to use the heroes' powers to defeat enemies in different ways. Fun stuff. -
Quote:I agree. Except that MA essentially delivers more of the same. We just get to add custom text and mix and match powers on our custom mobs.Originally Posted by Nethergoat
Uh no.
Their goal was to rejuvenate an aging franchise, which you don't accomplish by tarting it up around the edges and delivering more of the same thing you've brought in the past.
The core mission gameplay has changed not one iota.
That remains to be seen. I'm pretty skeptical myself...but I suppose it could turn out that I'm wrong. And I wish people would stop throwing around the words 'revolutionary' and 'innovative' so loosely.Quote:MA was a revolutionary step and an investment of time that will keep on giving going forward.
If those missions still have the same tired old gameplay as our regular content, what's the actual incentive to continue to play for the 'rest of our lives'?Quote:To paraphrase an overused maxim, give a player a mission and they play for a day. Let them make missions and they can play for the rest of their lives.
I don't have any complaints with it so far apart from the sneaky move to not allow my Fortunata powers to be customizableQuote:"Quite limited" my hairy hindquarters.
Pool powers & philosophical limitations aside, it lets you do just about whatever you want. And chances are they'll be tweaking it in the future.
It's freaking fantastic for a first swing.
Yes we have, but not terribly much.Quote:One, yes we have.
Obviously there are people who do.Quote:Two, who cares.
I can agree with that. I'm just not sure MA really counts in that regard currently.Quote:As noted, when your intent is revitalizing the game you need to think bigger than "here's some content much like all the stuff that's already in the game". That isn't going to entice any new players.
I really REALLY hope they're using(and enhancing them) them well.Quote:And as I've noted over and over, the MA tools are for the devs as well.
I'm guessing the upgrade from spreadsheets and post-it notes to a robust, intuitive graphic interface will net us quite a lot of 'story' content going forward. -
All weird drama aside, I have been wondering about a few things with GR.
Will redside get some additional stuff to make it more attractive to heroes who might consider switching? I know we're going to get a new starting zone or contacts probably. I would like to think that would continue for all the redside zones that need some beefing up.
I'm a redsider, and one of the players who don't seem to be greatly put off by it. But I know lots of people who are always ready to jump in and complain that redside looks awful, the contacts push you around and make you feel like a second rate villain etc. Will any effort be made to correct or even soften that part of redside?
Apart from that, new Dev-made story content is what I'm after in any case, so I can't see GR being a disappointment in that department.
Just give us more details...NAO! -
Yeah...thanks for the input folks.
I'll slot some recharge into it in any case. I'm liking the set anyway...although I'm only level 5
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Quote:*sigh* I guess I'll get used to it...but I always liked the thought of a very fast, low damage power as the staple of Rad blast. Guess I play my corruptor too much.Originally Posted by Gilia
Most of the Blaster powers are normalized across the sets. Flares if an obvious exception, but Neutrino Beam is comparable to the tier 1 in Electrical, Psychic, Ice, and Energy. What's missing? Sonic, Archery, Assault Rifle, and Fire. Why do those recharge faster / do more damage? The first set have debuffs / mitigation as their secondary. The second set just do more damage. Yeah, Sonic is a fuzzy one cause it's a debuff that lets it do more damage, that's why it's only *slightly* better than the first set.
It's not about nerfing the powers, it's about fitting Radiation to the Blaster model. The same thing happened with Psychic Blast, and with Claws on Brutes.
Still not sure if the small defense debuff should equate to that mauch of a recharge increase though. -
Ok...I'm not sure if this were addressed by the devs elsewhere, but I can't recall seeing any entries in the Dev Digest. What is the deal with the high recharge time on Neutrino Bolt? It has the same activation time as flares, does comparable damage, but also costs more endurance. Flares recharges in about half the time as well.
The defender and corruptor versions recharge in 1.5 seconds.
Is there some huge, overwhelming advantage to Neutrino bolt that made it have to get that kind of nerf? Aside from the small defense debuff which will matter a bit less to a blaster anyway since accuracy is one of our cornerstones in combat.
It just seems like a bit of overkill with the nerf bat. Most of the other powers look Ok. Neutron Bomb was always a bit of a let-down. -
Quote:Yes, but can you find those people now and begin torturing them toward a horrible, agonizing death? I think that's the larger issue here.Originally Posted by BackAlleyBrawler
It's been a constant struggle with untangling many years of work that's gone through many different people, all with different ways of setting things up...none of which has been very consistent.
Or at least it would make me feel better. -
Quote:I think that's in the works for GR.Originally Posted by Sorciere
Yeah, you do have an inherent (and frustrating) problem at the low levels with the D&D-ish design of the game. Still, it's not impossible to overcome: The key problem that you have to overcome is that playing at the low levels needs to be more interesting so that you don't feel the urge to level up as quickly to get past that. Obviously, veterans may still want to skip ahead if they've done it a thousand times, but it would help with giving new players a better starting experience.
The problem is that we have to wait til whenever it gets done. -
Well frak!
Thanks for the replies though. I simply assumed the Fortunata mental powers would be customizable. Ah well... -
Yeah I was looking forward to changing the mental powers on my Fortunata(Viridian Lynx) to green to match his colour scheme, but apparently that can't be done.
Is there a good reason for excluding those powers that's been mentioned by the devs?
Can't seem to recall any discussion on that. But maybe I wasn't paying attention. -
Quote:Which is really useful to a solo fire/fire dom...Originally Posted by Ironblade
We had that happen last night and I found a way to fix it. One person commented that they 'lost ownership' of their zombies and someone else had lost their imps. Other people on the team had them conning as blue allies, rather than green teammates. Just for kicks, I targeted one and buffed it (thermal shields) - and that changed it back to displaying as 'owned' by someone on the team. I was able to 're-convert' every pet back to conning as owned by buffing them one at a time.
Very odd.
Oh wait...
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Yeah I zoned with my fire imps yesterday on my dominator. Odd thing is, 2 of them came out with blue outlines and names as if they were friendly NPC entities(the kind that follow you when you rescue or kidnap them), and only one came out with the usual green name and outline of pets. Is that a known bug? Didn't have time to investigate it further.
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Quote:EVE has a very solid alternative to XP. However, I don't think that would work in most other MMOs. Do you really want to train your powers in real time hours, days and months??Originally Posted by Morac_Ex_Machina
This I agree on.
So far I have yet to see a decent alternative (unless I am forgetting something awesome, which I very well may be). -
Quote:Ah, thanks for the explanation. That actually does seem more intuitive than our current system. Well assuming you can move vertically as well as horizontally while in the 'ghost mode'.Originally Posted by Shadowclone
In CO when you use TP first of all the screen goes anti-color(not necessary just cool) and the enemies are highlited. To choose where you TP you leave your body behind and travel as a sort of gassious ball in the air, then you stop it where you want(under some sort of limit I assume) and your guy appears there.
Kind of a bad explanation so just youtube it. -
Quote:Well if they become integrated in the game as part of the mission system, then I could see them being interesting and fitting, instead of just something tacked on to occupy our time.Originally Posted by Nihilii
Indeed. For that, I play other games (flash games in particular).
Nothing against mini-games in CoH mind you, but development time being a limited resource I prefer seeing this game stick at what it does best, there's so many other options available (and free!) for mini-games.
The Tri-corder puzzles in Star Trek: Elite Force 2 were a really good example of how simple mini-games can enhance standard FPS gameplay and lend a more authentic feel to a mission.
If we had a few like those, I'd be happy. But I'm not so sure on having them as an entirely separate activity from the rest of the game. Because, really, I can alt-tab out and run Audio-Surf or Peggle while running CoX. -
Quote:How does Teleport work in CO anyway?Originally Posted by Doctor_Gemini
I'd like to see them change teleport entirely and adopt the CO version. That's become my favorite travel power in any game.
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Quote:You may need to stop drinking...that stuff.Originally Posted by KayJMM
*steals team from MentalMaden*
Hahahahahahaha! All mine! Only i can team now!!!
*runs around the thread waving the team over her head* -
*GASP* I'm on Nethergoat's ignore list! Say it isn't so...
I kinda feel like giggling... -
Yeah...what Neg Rogue said.
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Let me requote the post where I explained my POV and why I made the statement that I did, because obviously no one bothered to read past the fact that I didn't find MA to be a huge bag of wow(no pun intended).
This is what I said:
Quote:Then I went on to say what I felt would be something that advanced the game. My opinion, of course:Seriously. I know you think that MA is some kind of radical gameplay advancement, Nethergoat. Unfortunately for me...I still see the same tired old mission formulas and objectives that have been here since issue 1. We just have lots of stories(many of questionable quality) to go with them.
Then of MA specifically I said:Quote:Gameplay advancement, for me, is something that changes the way we execute missions. Gives us more and different things to do in them, makes environments matter, allows us different ways to defeat(or maybe otherwise neutralize) our enemies.
I'd like some things that resemble the detective work and snooping that goes with heroes in most comics. Some choices to make that affect what happens next instead of a straight ride on a roller coaster with rails. Things like that would represent an advancement in basic gameplay.
I then ended with:Quote:I suppose MA is great if you're into farming/PLing...or if you really like seeing what stories people can come up with(at your own risk of sanity and/or bad grammar overload). I gave it the old college try as I've done everything that the devs have added to the game and even have an arc somewhere that I think is still working.
This stuff has been my point from the start. But if you want to quibble about what constitutes meaningful content then I guess we can do that.Quote:Still I think there are people who are tired of the same old mission formulas and want some new things done to enhance the way we approach our crime fighting or acts of villainy.
Meh...maybe I'm in the minority.