Slugbug

Dev created things that hooked me to start and keep me around:

• My first trip through the hero tutorial and the "Big Trouble in Little China" quote. And your first mission as a hero being "Stop this gang of drug-abusing vandals" instead of the MMO cliche "Here's a rusty knife, I think there are some rats in the basement." Got my attention right away.
• Hover on my first alt to level 6. Decided to cut from King's Row to Atlas through Skyway. Took about 20 minutes but it was awesome!
• Fly at 14.
• Holiday events.
• Giant Monsters.
• First time in the Shadow Shard.
• CoV Beta.
• When Bank Robberies became Mayhem Missions.
• Ultra Mode.

And personal memories:

• Having every name I thought of for my first alt taken. Creating a second alt and having the perfect name available on the first try.
• Talking to LadyMage on the Triumph boards. Then a week later trying to put together a Positron TF before Slugbug outleveled it (this was before you could do TFs you'd outleveled). LM came along with several of her SG-mates just so I could see the content I wanted.
• Joining Ion Force, most of whom aren't playing anymore but they were (are) a fun bunch. LM, Quickling, Warmy, Leapin Lizard, LadyGrav, CPL Mayhem, Toshi, Titan, Shen, INOA, Cronos, Mindlock, Quickening and all the rest. Thanks all!
• Forming the "Snow White and the Seven [Kheldian] Dwarves" superteam and seeing the most appropriately named villain in an early mission: Damned Quantum.
• Realizing how truly awesome Controllers could be when an unexpected Speed Boost turned "stepping a bit closer to the fight" into "flying off the catwalk and into two more groups below." Reactions from teammates came quickly: "What happened to WalkMan?" "I think he went off the edge." "Crap. Slug, are you ok?" After a few moments of sleeping, holding, terrifying, or confusing everything around me, "Take your time, I've got them all locked down."
• Convincing a PuG of one Tanker, 3 Blasters, and 2 Scrappers that we didn't have to keep searching for a "healer" and could play just fine if we didn't do anything stupid. And three missions later having them all admit I was right...
• The first response to an arc I wrote.
• The (many, many) crazy ideas I've had for alts. And the thousands of others I've seen in game.

And many more. I love what this game has done in the past 5.5 years I've been here, and I'm excited about what they've got planned for the future. Well, what they've told us has me excited. What they haven't said yet is probably even better!

Slug.

If I am a winner, I permit NC Interactive, Inc. and NCsoft Europe Limited to use my name, likeness, photograph, hometown, and any comments that I may make about myself or this contest that I provide for advertising and promotional activities. I also certify that I am at least 13 years of age and am eligible to participate in this contest.

In this episode of Extreme Home Makeover: Paragon City
So a Super-Strength Tanker knocked a hole in your wall... Just snap a chalk line, a few quick cuts, and you've got a new window!

For some reason, that trailer won't play for me

However, from the description, it's fairly obvious what happened:

In a few short months, WW show her true colors (and I'm not talking about that hairstyle...) and goes rogue. Then, using the currently existing Oroborous technology, she goes back in time to when this video is made. Unfortunately, while there her recognizable likeness is captured on camera.

Conclusion:

Right now, WW is as heroic as can be. Just watch out this summer...

I remember my brother watching Doctor Who when I was a kid, but it didn't take for me at the time. I didn't have anything like a normal schedule that I kept at the time and so when I caught an episode it was always disjointed and I never knew who was who (or if the Doctor changed since last time, who was Who...) so it never really took. I had some mild interest in looking into it again when the new series started, but that didn't happen.

About a year ago I, like Starsman, stumbled across the new series Season 1 on Netflix and started looking into what this was all about. Like Starsman, I really enjoyed the Ninth Doctor and had a hard time adjusting to the Tenth, he grew on me during Season 3, but I still like Eccleston better. After finishing New Season 3, being somewhat of a completest, I started queuing up the original series, as much as I could find, in order. I'm just finishing the run of the First Doctor and I really enjoy Hartnell.

As far as recommendations (being somewhat of a Who Newbie myself, take them for what they're worth) I would definitely watch The Daleks for the first appearance of the classic enemies, although it isn't terribly well done, it is interesting to see the first conflict between the Doctor and the Daleks. I would also recommend The Dalek Invasion of Earth for a much better Dalek story.

Probably my favorite Hartnell story was The Time Meddler which is the first appearance of a Time Lord other than the Doctor. Apparently it got a poor reaction in its time because it doesn't explain itself right away and people had a hard time seeing modern (early 1960's) conveniences in the time of the Vikings and Saxons. Coming at it with a little bit of knowledge of the future of the series, I thoroughly enjoyed this story and the Doctor's plan to deal with his rival.

While The Aztecs was alright, I liked The Romans better. I agree that if you're looking for corners to cut, I'd definitely avoid The Web Planet.

Next week I start on the Second Doctor...

I'm personally planning to avoid the Sarah Jane Chronicles and Torchwood until I catch up with them again in the normal run of the story. They'll probably be on the Twelfth Doctor by the time I'm up to date...

Health and Stamina are rarely a waste. Of my various characters of almost every type, I've only had two builds which didn't contain the Fitness pool: An Empathy Defender with Hasten, Regen Aura and Recovery Aura (every time he started to feel the bite of low endurance the Aura's were back) and one of my Masterminds (who mainly "coached" his minions for 40+ levels). When alternate builds were introduced, both got an alternate which included Fitness.

Mainly I play melee characters and I would caution against a Brute without Stamina. When WP was introduced and they were giving level bumps on the Training Room, I built a WP tank without Stamina and felt the lack dearly in the higher levels. Brutes (especially on a good team) tend to stop moving only when their health drops to zero or their endurance drops to zero. A well built WP will make it difficult for your health to hit zero, if you can keep your endurance up you will become the nigh-unstoppable ball of destruction which is every Brute's calling.

I have a DM/WP brute on his way up now and he is postponing Stamina and relying on Dark Consumption and Quick Recovery for now. Through the late 20's he's not done too poorly but I don't think even he will be able to go without Stamina indefinitely.

OK, couple quick questions and comments:

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Parodies and derivative works are not allowed.

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This concerns me quite a bit. I have one arc in the works inspired by an old TV show. And (at least) one of my friends has an arc in the works inspired by a movie. If these are "not allowed" I will be a very sad panda indeed.

How not allowed is "not allowed" anyway. If I were to publish an arc with some not-too-obscure references to a 1960's sitcom, will Niviene send me a polite e-mail asking me to take it down? Will Ex Libris delete all of my created missions and tell me never to be seen singing show-tunes in public again? Will Castle break my character's legs and tie me to the Portal Corp sign to be a victim of public scorn and a warning to others? Or will Positron ban my account and send a gang of hoodlums to my house to break my legs and string me up for public scorn as a warning to others? Or worse yet, will lawyers be involved (isn't parody protected from copyright)?

[ QUOTE ]
Bronze Reward Roll: This random reward will award both uncommon and rare recipes that are normally dropped from defeating enemies. The likelihood of receiving an uncommon recipe is 8 times greater than that of a rare recipe. This is consistent with rewards granted from defeating enemies. This reward table does not include purple reward drops, nor does it include temporary powers or respec recipes. The Bronze Reward Roll is the least expensive of the three random reward categories.

Silver Reward Roll: This random reward will award both rare recipes that are normally dropped from defeating enemies and recipes earned upon completing missions. The likelihood of receiving a rare recipe is 50% greater than that of a mission complete recipe. This reward table does not include temporary powers or respec recipes. The Silver Reward Roll is the second most expensive of the three random reward categories.

Gold Reward Roll: This random reward will award recipes that were previously dropped by completing taskforces/trials, very rare boss drops, and recipes that are purchasable with merits. The Gold Reward Roll is the most expensive of the random reward categories as the rewards granted are very powerful.

[/ QUOTE ]

This specifically states that purple recipes are excluded from bronze rolls. Are they possible in the silver or gold or will I still have to resort to "official" content for a chance at these. I don't play my 50's as much as some people but i do still take them out on occasion. While I have teamed with people who have gotten a purple recipe (and once with someone who got two in a single ITF run), I have yet to have a purple drop on me. I anticipate creating a few arcs and spending a significant amount of time running other player created content and it would be upsetting to find that I cannot have even a small chance at a purple drop in this now bottomless well of new content.

[ QUOTE ]
Characters (on active accounts) who have inventories, bids or items for sale in the Black Market or in Wentworth's Consignment House will no longer have to log into the game within 60 days to avoid item or influence/infamy expiration.
In-game Black Market and Wentworth employees will still give their friendly reminder, however if your account is "active", they won't take your "stuff".


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THANK YOU!!!

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So get your goggles on and get ready for a wild ride!

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"The goggles, they do nothing!"

I haven't read the whole thread, so I apologize if I'm missing/repeating something.

My first thought for a Capture the Flag scenario wouldn't be possible yet, but the devs could conceivably add it. Each team has a "hostage" NPC which cannot be affected by powers (no stealth, teleportation, speed boost, etc. Also no damage, knockback, slow etc). When someone from the opposing team gets within a certain range, the hostage would follow them and they would try to lead them back to their base. The person leading the hostage would have to turn off stealth, not teleport or fly too high or outrun the hostage by too great a margin. If the player leading the hostage is defeated, the hostage would start running back toward their starting point.First team to find the opposing hostage and lead it back to their base wins.

I believe something like this could be implemented with the current tech, and would be simple enough (in my opinion, I am not a dev) to do.

It's not quite as detailed as some of the suggestions I have read in this thread, but it would work as a starting point.

[ QUOTE ]
willing to park my character facing a bill board (if one happens to be near) while I take my bio breaks.

[/ QUOTE ]
I hadn't thought of it until you posted, but I'd be willing to do the same. It could be problematic on my corruptor sdrawkcaB though, as I've reverse mapped all his movement keys and swing the camera 180 degrees every time I zone. If it just tracks facing, it may not register an ad view when I'm actually viewing it, or it may track me viewing ad P when I'm actually viewing ad Q across the street. I realize that sdrawkcaB is not the usual sort of character though. Statistical anomalies FTW!

A greater concern is the low-end user. For about two years I played CoH on an ancient machine with unsupported video capabilities. Getting to minimum specs would have been a significant upgrade. Many of the in game billboards were frankly illegible. I could tell that there was a billboard, but I couldn't tell you what it said. Would the new adds force a higher minimum graphics setting, or would they even be able to tell if it was readable? Again, I don't see this being a statistically significant portion of the population, and it doesn't apply to me anymore. Just curious.

Curious, I see the redname posts in this thread, but neither Blue Steel nor Mynx are linked in either the Dev or the Community Digests. Now from the introduction, Blue Steel should clearly be in the Dev Digest. However, I have no idea which box Mynx belongs in. Could someone please tell me where the cat's box is? Right now she doesn't appear to be going in a box, and I know I'm not cleaning it up!

Anyhow, welcome to you both and many thanks to you (and all the other devs) for your part in making such a great game.

Slug.

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Which reminds me, is anyone going to be jumping out of the cake-lie?

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That will be happening at the bachelor-party event on the evening of Wednesday the 13th...

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I got 5 influence says...

Issue 12: "The Storm Arrives"

You heard it here first.

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Doubtful. Mender Silos says he comes from a time over a million years in the future, and he speaks of the storm as something he witnessed. I've seen the speculation that he's mucking about in time in order to bring this about, but I doubt even then the timeline will be shortened from 1000000 years to 4 months. Unless the storm is meant to rage for a million years, I don't see this as something that we'll see resolved (or even significant progress made on) in the next issue or two. I think this is a storyline that will be slowly played out over the next few years.

At least I hope I'm right. I'd be sorely disappointed if the eon-long build up to the destruction of the universe gets stopped in a few weeks' time. It'd be a little anti-climactic.

Slug.

K, I've read the whole thread and while much ground has been covered, the most pressing questions have not yet been answered:

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Ever had Australian Old Tuey's lager?

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Yes, yes I have. Do you happen to know a place in Arizona where I could get more?

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umm.... Is Blue superior to Orange?

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I've never had a Tuey's Orange (or even heard of such a thing), but Tuey's Red, while different, is not of notably greater or lesser quality than Tuey's Blue. Of course, VB > Tuey's Blue, but Tuey's Black > all.

...Or were Blue and Orange no longer in reference to Tuey's? In which case Blue is -1 while Orange is +2, so clearly Orange is superior to Blue. You should have gotten that much from running through Outbreak...

Slug.

[ QUOTE ]
The Eden and Sewer Trials are some of the best/most unique content in CoH. They are fun and have some interesting an unique maps. Instead of eliminating a portion of the reward, I would rather see the Devs take the time to fix and update the Trials.

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QFE

I've done the Sewer trial twice and the Eden trial once (all pre-recipes) and I found them to be some of the most unique and enjoyable content in the game. I'll add my vote to the "fix/update these" pile with a side order of "add something like these to CoV."

I appreciate that doing that takes time and resources, I11 feature set is locked at this point (maybe even I12, I don't know), there are things that you want to get done in advancing the story line (which I AM a big fan of), etc. Still, it'd be nice to know that these are things that are being worked on instead of brushed under the rug.

Slug.

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A chef costume set, an evil clown costume set

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey! I've suggested both of those! So when you say three of the 4 new costume sets for I10 are from player suggestions, are these included? Or are these not in yet but you're working on them now, so we can see them in I11?

Please?

I'll buy you a cookie...

Slug. (and more importantly, the alts Chef Mel and Motley Ghoul)

[ QUOTE ]
Gee, if there was only a hit TV show about super heroes that they could pretty much be a goldmine as a target audience for. I see your point, but this is one year that this aspect kind of fails. Before this year, it's dead on.

[/ QUOTE ]

A commercial would have been good for that show. I really think product placement would have been cool though. Zach in a CoH t-shirt, or better yet Sylar in a CoV one. It's shown Micah playing video games, have him playing CoH.

Back on topic though, I don't use myspace. A couple people have tried to get me interested by showing off their pages, but that usually turned me off of the whole concept even more. I do think that the City of myspace page was well done (certainly the best myspace page I've seen, acknowledging that I generally stay away from there unless someone I know tells me to go check their page, so my experience is limited).

An official City of page won't get me to start using myspace, but that's not the intention. A myspace page might get others playing the game. I don't think anyone is going to stop playing because there's a myspace page. To that extent it's a good thing. It will probably do more to promote the game to new people than the comic book did. I only hope this isn't going to be the extent of their advertising.

Slug.

Never mind, figured it out.

It's amazing what a full night's sleep and a cup of coffee can do!

The entire project continues to impress, good job guys.

Slug.

Only having trouble with 6 down. Yes, I'm familiar with the contact, have done all the missions and read her background. Even looked her up on paragonwiki in case there was something I'd forgotten, but I can't get anything to fit.

But then, like the Romans, I was never big on crossword puzzles.

QR

I believe Sean "Manticore" Fish was writing several of the issues. Other than that, I don't know that the comic had many of the game development people involved. However, I'm pretty darn sure that there was SOMEONE involved with the comic who's time was being monetarily compensated at least partially by Cryptic. Given that most of the players (at least most that I've talked to) were not buying the comic when it went to a paid subscription, I'm guessing that the comic was not very economically viable to continue indefinitely. So when they say that the time and energy can be more wisely spent, they most likely mean the money can be put to better use making the game better.

Personally, I have to agree. While I by and large enjoyed reading the comics, I didn't think that they were an outstanding example of that medium. Also, as has been said by others, the "feel" of the game didn't translate particularly well to the comic, neither in the Blue King nor the Top Cow runs. Honestly, when they look at their expenditures I'd rather see more money, time and energy going into the game than spending it on developing a frankly sub-par comic. They are a game company after all.

Having said that, I support the idea of having player created comics available as PDFs or some other medium on the cityofheroes website. Perhaps have a link to the company/software that was promoted with the Comic Book Creator Contest. Get some of the community team guys (Lighthouse, Ex, and anyone else that may be appropriate) to review submissions monthly and post them on the site. There are some great comic artists, screenshot editors, and story writers among us and it would be great to highlight them on the site. Further having something like this be open to anyone at any time (not just a one month contest) would give a great example of what the game allows: creating your own superhero. Any non-player coming to the site to see what the game is about before buying could get a great taste of the potential with a few of these.

Oooh, and maybe a player-made movie section too!

Okay, so maybe it wasn't a very quick reply after all...

Slug.

I'm in the pre-order beta for that game that the OP mentions. I'm also still here. I've been here for over two and a half years and I don't plan to leave soon. Many of the people in my SG have been here since beta. We've all seen all of the content. Many of us are looking for a different diversion for a bit.

Some of the people in my SG drew my attention to the other game. I poked around for a weekend stress test during its closed beta. I had fun, but it didn't grab me in the same way that City of Heroes did the first time I played it.

The "City of" games do several things very well. They do a few things poorly and they don't do some things at all. Overall, I'm happy here but I do need a break every now and again.

I tried the Insanely Popular MMO on a 10 day trial a few months back and the two things that I found most distasteful there were the graphics that look geared to a 3 year old and the fact that I ran out of missions on two different characters before hitting level 13. The game play in the new MMO is in many ways similar to that of the Insanely Popular MMO, and no, it's not great but it's not awful either. There are some settings changes I can make to make it better. In CoH, every time I make a new character I spend the first two minutes making settings changes, so that's not an argument.

Oh, and the artwork in the new MMO is breathtaking and there's absolutely no shortage of missions that I've seen yet, so it's already better than the Insanely Popular MMO that everyone says it's "exactly the same as". I've heard that there's a dead spot in the late 30's, but they've got plans to fix that in the first content patch (probably 2-3 months out). Meanwhile, CoV shipped with a dead spot in missions in the late 30's and after the first patch there was still a dead spot in the late 40's.

I agree with all of the good things that are in this game. It's why I'm still here. There are many things that are good here that are not found in any other MMO on the market, nor in any one that's in development that I know of. On the other hand, the OP is comparing a game that's been out three years and had 8 (almost 9) content patches to a game that won't even hit shelves for another week.

Oh, and I really like the pricing structure that's being proposed for the new MMO as well. I plan to pay less for that game in one payment next month than I've payed NcSoft over the past 32 months and never have to pay a subscription fee again. In another 32 months I will probably still be paying for City of, but I won't be paying for the other one. And I'll be playing both.

Good to see you back!

((Last night, I was out taking a leisurely evening stroll when I was struck by the concept for yet another alt. The character's look, powers, and behavior all came to me in a flash. The image presented in the following story was part of the same seamless burst of inspiration. Immediately upon getting home, I cranked up the character creation system and put together my first attempt at a kinetic defender. For various reasons, I was surprised that I could get the name. So if you're wandering around the Triumph server, keep an eye out for… the Walk Man.))

Two friends were out walking down the street, engaged in a heated philosophical discussion on the nature of criminal behavior.

"Fred, I'm sorry, but you're an idiot. You can't honestly believe that those acts are at all similar. I don't even think you can make much arguement for cause and effect."

"From the standpoint of the impact on society, I'll admit there is an entire spectrum in the severity of various crimes. However, from the perspective of the criminal there is an equal disdain for the rules of society no matter what particular form of legal infraction is being performed."

"So you're saying that if I were to, I don't know, drop a chewing gum wrapper on the street instead of in a garbage can, I've made the same moral deviations as a mass murderer or armed robber?"

"Not morals, Bill. Ethics. You either recognise the laws of society as a whole and follow them, or you put yourself above the law. The particular expression is ethically a side-issue once you've chosen to ignore the codes of social living. Morally, you may get a bit squeemish about hacking up corpses like Dr. V, or be offended by thievery. A serial killer could be so fastidious that he'd be outraged by littering, while most of society would view his actions as much worse. That's personal moral preference. Ethically, they're all bad because they all ignore the social contract."

"You're nuts, Fred. Positively loony."

They went on a bit further in silence until they approached the next intersection.

"Look! It's the walk signal!"

"What about it? The Clockwork haven't torn it down again, have they?"

"No! It's a message! Someone's in trouble!"

"In this town? Someone's always in trouble, Fred. Now come on, let's cross the street before the light changes."

"I need to find a place to change into my outfit. The government wouldn't have signaled me if it weren't an emergency!"

"Outfit? Government emergency? Fred, it's a street light."

"Ha! You think it was mere chance that it came on just as I approached? My arch-nemesis, Jay Walker, must be loose upon the streets again!"

"Jay Walker? Isn't he the kid that works the counter down at Major Flander's chicken? Admittedly, he isn't the most polite individual, but arch-nemesis? Fred, I think you need to go home and lie down for a bit. I'll call your doctor and you can tell him all about it."

"Lie down?!? There are things to be done! Didn't you see the signal?!?"

"It's a walk signal, Fred. They have one on just about every corner of just about every street in just about every city in the world. Trust me, Fred, it's part of a general impersonal effort to keep traffic moving safely. It's not any sort of personal notice to you. That light goes on every 30 seconds."

"Every 30 seconds? Jay Walker, you've gone too far this time! Quick, Saunter Boy, to the Mosey-Mobile! Walk Man to the rescue!"

"Fred! I'll put up with a lot from you, but I will NOT be 'Saunter Boy'!"

Will Walk Man stop the nefarious Jay Walker? Will Bill embrace his destiny as Saunter Boy? Or is Fred just a very confused individual? Find out, in the next installment of ... The Walk Man!

***************

((Comments welcome))

The Whitmoore is awesome! Seriously, one of my favorite things to do (when I can't play) is to read the RP forums and the stories associated with the Whitmoore are consistantly well written and engaging. Plus the fact that no one person dominates the storyline and the pace is very good (sometimes a bit TOO fast, I can't get to it one day and I find I'm way out of the loop).

Thank you to all who have contributed to that thread. It makes the story come alive and I find myself facing challenges in game and wondering how to work them into the RP.

Thank you also to Slipshod, for getting the whole thing started. Do you have any plans to get back into the story?