Sorciere

[ QUOTE ]
I'm actually in agreement with the OP somewhat. Relative to the competition, this game doesn't take very long to get to the endgame and the endgame content is not very developed.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is mostly a mindset/habit thing, I believe. The assumption that a player grinds her way to level 50 and then plays the level 50 endgame over and over is something that's been reinforced by dozens of existing MMORPGs, but it's not the only way to approach play.

Consider a hypothetical variant of City of Heroes without levels. It could be implemented by effectively auto-sidekicking every player to level 50all the time; critters would also all be bumped to level 50-54 (depending on difficulty level). TOs and DOs would be replaced by SOs throughout. You would still gain powers and enhancement slots through experience gain, but in principle you could access any of the content at any time (Obviously, tanking Lord Recluse before you got any defensive powers might not be such a hot idea unless you've got lots of buffs, but in principle you could try). As a matter of fact, Rikti invasions and Giant Monsters already work based on similar principles.

In this variant, there is no distinct "endgame" anymore that is separate from the rest of the game. (I'm actually thinking that such a level-free design would have worked better for a superhero game, but that ship has sailed -- you cannot retroactively remove levels without upsetting a lot of the playerbase.)

As it happens, the "real" City of Heroes is actually almost like that if you are level 50. You can access ALL the developer-created content at level 50, either via Ouroboros or as a taskforce/trial. That does mean that you get exemplared if necessary, and you may not like that, but it doesn't mean that that content is banned from you or pointless (in fact, some Ouroboros arcs are specifically done by level 50s for temp powers and a lot of people wait until level 50 before they start on the taskforce commander accolade; that the Katie Hannon TF was a level 30-34 TF did not stop level 50s from running it over and over and over).

Personally, I do not view the game at level 50 as being particularly different from the game at level 30 (pre-SO levels are another story, of course, but they are a topic for a different thread). I would like it if level-based restrictions for taskforces and hazard zones were relaxed a bit, I think, but otherwise it's not as though the game is fundamentally different at level 50 than it is at level 30.

[ QUOTE ]
Really, once a character has hair they're already so hopelessly impractical and vain that nothing else is even close in importance. (Which is why the Frank Miller incarnation of Catwoman shaved her head.)

[/ QUOTE ]

That claim strikes me as rather dubious. If you are in a position to grab a person's hair, you're also in a position to push a knife through their throat.

[ QUOTE ]
Capes are straight out.

[/ QUOTE ]

The Incredibles and the wisdom of Edna "E" Mode aside, it depends on how they are used. Cloaks were historically used by fencers as defensive devices. Obviously, most superhero capes these days are just fashion items, but different uses are not inconceivable.

[ QUOTE ]
But what you're basically saying is... we can't have an end game thats fun, engaging and encourages us to play our max level characters cause then people would have something else to do besides level alts... and that would mean less people doing the lower end content...

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, because an endgame that is sufficiently engaging and fun so that you don't need to do anything else but play max-level characters forever is indeed a chimera. You will run out of stuff to do. No company, not even Blizzard, can satisfy the voracious content hunger of gamers. Blizzard spends more money and effort on their endgame content than any other company, and most of what they produce is consumed and spit out a couple of months again later, with players clamoring for more. The initial endgame content in WotLK lasted perhaps three months before players were tired of it.

Given that, and considering that you don't even have close to the same resources that Blizzard has if you aren't Blizzard, throwing away 49 levels worth of content is a waste. Rather, you want to motivate players to play all your content repeatedly, and not just a fraction of it (powerset proliferation is one great motivator, as is the already great variety of existing powerset combinations). That's also why you can find taskforces and trials at all levels from 15 onwards: You don't have to wait until level 50 to do what in other MMORPGs constitutes endgame content.

That's not to say that there aren't taskforces that could use an overhaul (*cough* Positron TF *cough*) or that level 50 content should be neglected. But right now, there's already a preponderance of level 50 taskforce content: The Statesman TF, the Imperious TF, the Dr. Kahn TF, the Lady Grey TF, the Mender Silos TF, the Justin Augustine TF, the Sara Moore TF, and the Faathim the Kind TF. Plus, Hamidon raids, if you're so inclined. It's not like the level 50 game has been neglected. And that's not counting that you CAN do any other TF or trial, too, if you don't mind being exemplared down. Or that there is quite a bit of AE content that is custom-made so that level 50 characters feel challenged.

[ QUOTE ]
Is that really much different than CoX now? I mean most folk are crammed into Atlas Park in the AE building. You don't see every zone actively populated even now.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes. It's not particularly hard to get a group at just about any level, especially if you're willing to do the recruiting yourself. Trying to find a group to do Shadowfang Keep or Blackrock Depths in WoW, on the other hand, can be like pulling teeth, and not just because of the stricter team composition requirements in WoW.

By the way, I don't see anything wrong with doing AE missions, too: they are a great source of new content, mostly level-neutral, and I run them all the time. I just avoid the farms.

[ QUOTE ]
Considering WoW since you brought it up... their low level zones are still fairly populated. The capital cities especially.

[/ QUOTE ]

You're missing my point, I think. It's not about how many characters are actually present in a given zone, but about the availability of players for team play at any given level (if you just solo, then it doesn't matter a whit how many other people there are in the zone). The number of people in any given capital city is largely irrelevant for any given player's entertainment, for example.

[ QUOTE ]
I tried that, my company uses it because they are cheap like that but it does really not compare with the feature set in MS Office, reason why us developers and the rest of IT and management get actual MS Office copies and Open Office is given just to regular staff.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's a matter of what your requirements are. I do have MS Office, but in practice I generally use TeX/LaTeX for writing/typesetting; I get much better handling of equations and better version control as well as superior integration of external content (use of PostScript/PDF files in MS Word always was less than satisfactory, as was programmatically generated content that didn't happen to be an Excel graph/sheet). And I tend to use programming languages rather than Excel if I have to do complex calculations, so the interaction with Excel is a moot point. MS Word is still nice for the occasional dead-tree letter, of course, even if it's a bit of overkill.

Obviously, the lack of WYSIWYG with TeX-style typesetting software is a downside for most users, but for me the downsides of MS Office (or OpenOffice.org, for that matter) are generally bigger. I still keep MS Office and OpenOffice.org around for the odd job for which they are superior.

[ QUOTE ]
So why can't we have both? Why can't we have exciting dynamic leveling and an endgame that keeps people coming back for more after 50?

[/ QUOTE ]

World of Warcraft does have a great leveling game and an endgame that makes people come back for more. Unfortunately, the net result is that the zones outside Northrend (levels prior to 70) are ghost towns where it's near impossible to find groups, so you don't see much of the great leveling game except for the solo parts.

In short, it's a difficult balance to strike so that your great endgame doesn't depopulate the lower level zones.

[ QUOTE ]
I also have a miracle +recov to help, and I use OwTS as an end recovery power Now I can attack all the time!

[/ QUOTE ]

Note that unless one slots One with the Shield for endurance modification, all of the recovered endurance will exactly be consumed by the crash. Even with three endurance modification SOs, the net recovery benefit is relatively small.

The only recent change that I'm aware of is that the taunt duration in Scrapper RttC was increased from 1.0 seconds to 1.25 seconds. That makes it actually slightly more reliable for tanking, putting it on par with that of a Willpower tanker. That change occurred before I15, though.

Obviously, scrapper or tanker, you need taunt duration enhancements in RttC if you want to reliably hold aggro on anything higher than +2 mobs.

[ QUOTE ]
Can any tankers out there attest to this?

[/ QUOTE ]

Never felt that. But then, team play is about team play for me, and I don't like hidden personal games of one-upmanship. A large part of the fun factor in PvE is being able to collaborate to handle things that the individual players couldn't handle alone. If team members start competing with one another instead, that pretty much destroys the reason for why I do PvE.

A better LFT/LFM tool.

[ QUOTE ]
Has a powerset ever changed (as in powers swapped out) when it was ported to another AT?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes. Fiery Melee (Tanker vs. Brute/Scrapper version) and Psychic Blast (Defenders vs. Blasters) come to mind.

That's not counting stalkers, where a power in both the primary and secondary always gets removed for Assassin's Strike and Hide, respectively.

[ QUOTE ]
Wow this is so obvious. Do they even play the game they make? Or maybe they don't bid at the BM or Wentworths then chat with someone. Or maybe they don't use the keyboard to move then chat with someone.

So silly.

[/ QUOTE ]

These steps alone are unfortunately not sufficient to reproduce the bug reliably.

[ QUOTE ]
wonder what Johnny Butane will say?

[/ QUOTE ]

He'll find a fly in the ointment and make a beeline for it.

Professional complainers are not that easily discouraged.

[ QUOTE ]
Tyrant: There is no intelligent reason why I shouldn't just smear you all over the sidewalk. But the script says I'm carrying the Idiot Ball this week, so okay.

Maelstrom: Yay!

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, it's not like this kind of dysfunctional behavior hasn't been observed in real-life bad guys.

I'm more curious why the Praetorians allowed Maelstrom to keep his guns.

[ QUOTE ]
(Yes, I know the most ironic part of the song is that nothing in it is describing irony. That's what it has in common with the OP)

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, the song contains some perfectly fine examples of dramatic irony and irony of fate. (As well as some misuses, but it's not as though all of the examples are misuses.)

[ QUOTE ]
Starting a willpower tank or stone tomorrow.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but ... surviving two-shots or other forms of burst damage is not exactly Willpower's forte, either.

[ QUOTE ]
PS : Are you french Sorcière?

[/ QUOTE ]

No, but French is one of the languages spoken in the country where I was born.

The underlying issue is that there are brief periods where the per-mob effect from Invincibility will double-stack with itself. It is only for a very short time, though (a fraction of a second).

[ QUOTE ]
A colleague at work says she doesn't find high-heel shoes at all uncomfortable because she always walks on her toes when wearing them, so the heel doesn't matter. I'm not sure how much faith I can put into this, but it's certainly POSSIBLE that an agile character can dash around in high heels by just not touching the heel.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, there are high heels and there are high heels. And it's not just the height.

As an extreme example, professionally made dancing shoes are made to (1) reduce the risk of injury to the wearer and (2) so that the shoes can withstand the often considerable torque and forces they're exposed to while dancing. You're looking at shoes with suede leather soles (not rubber, because its grip is too good, and not regular leather, because it lacks grip -- both of which could cause injury), are reinforced with a steel shank, and have flared heels for added stability. Turning and moving fast while wearing them is pretty much what they're made for.

Obviously, these are still a poor choice to actually fight in for a number of reasons (unhealthiness, reduced balance, poor leg support being some of them), but there's a marked difference between them and the cheap high heels you get at your local shoe discounter.

Also, of course, wearing high heels for a protracted length of time can and will cause serious problems for your feet, legs, joints, and back because of all the extra stress they cause your body (such as putting extra stress on your knee joints). That doesn't mean that they're necessarily uncomfortable (as long as they are a good fit), just as eating lots of chocolate is not necessarily uncomfortable (up to a point), even though it's unhealthy in the long term.

[ QUOTE ]
My apologies. Let me restate. Yay! Another TF that players will think needs a cookie cutter makeup. I can't wait to hear more "Need a Stone Tank" and "Need a Rad" broadcasts.

[/ QUOTE ]

You will have this problem with any TF that provides a modicum of challenge. People will look for survivability and damage to overcome it, and certain powersets are considered to be one-stop-shopping solutions for that.

And no, making fights more tactically intricate doesn't necessarily change that and can even make it worse; for example, if you take very little damage, that means you can ignore all the tactical intricacies that increase your survivability and brute-force it, making a stone tanker etc. even more attractive.

(QR)

It would be really helpful if the forums had a "notify parents" button in addition to the "notify moderator" button.

[ QUOTE ]
Do they ever ban multiple accounts if they can trace ownership back to a single person based on misconduct with a second account? And is it possible to get your game account(s) banned for misconduct on the forums?

[/ QUOTE ]

I am not sure if they actually do it in practice, but in the EULA they specifically reserve the right to ban multiple accounts of the same user based on IP address, credit card information, etc.

[ QUOTE ]
(j) Related Accounts. If NC Interactive terminates an Account, NC Interactive may terminate any other Accounts that share the same member name, phone number, email address, postal address, Internet Protocol address, or credit card number with the terminated Account.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
Like his sig says - not necessarily difficult, just a lot of work someone has to do to implement this.

[/ QUOTE ]

Pretty much. There are thousands of distinct animations in the game, each with its own script, and going back and allowing all or even most of them to be parameterized by color is going to be a lot of work.

[ QUOTE ]
Comic Brutes revel in fighting and their emotions fuel them. That is the core concept behind Fury.
Fury in many ways represents the opposite concept of what Tankers should be.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's quite a shift from your complaints not too long ago that brutes got something (Fury) that rightfully should have been a tanker power (last seen in the "tankomination" thread, I seem to recall).

As always, you bend your arguments as you see fit to further your cause. Only a month ago, you wrote:

[ QUOTE ]
That's pretty much the original idea behind Fury; that Tankers hold back at the begining of a fight and cut loose as it wears on.

[/ QUOTE ]

In the same thread, of course, you complain about brutes being

[ QUOTE ]
rampaging savages leashed to a Fury bar.

[/ QUOTE ]

and that

[ QUOTE ]
And lastly, Brutes are hardly a substiitude for thoese tough, heavy hitting heroes I refer to since those heroes are most often NOT ruled by berzerker fury and rampages. Brutes are not heroic, even if you mash them into blue side.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's the problem with you and your arguments. You feel comfortable saying both "A" and "not A" within shouting distance of each other. You take a position, then you drop it when it no longer suits your needs, and take one that's mutually exclusive with the one you had previously. Sometimes even within the same thread. Commonly within the same month.

The result is that you have a credibility problem, because you don't argue honestly.

[ QUOTE ]
I'm seeking offensive improvements to make the AT more enjoyable to everyone, not just people who get their rocks off mashing Taunt over and over. I'm seeking to make the AT a little bit closer to their comic roots for the people, like me, who expected something a little more Brick-like(which is not Brute-like) but were forced to comply to someone else's preferences and be a decoy with mediocre damage.

[/ QUOTE ]

That is what you say now. You have changed your position so often and advocated so many mutually incompatible changes (many of them not conforming to what you write above) that it is hard to believe you now.

You have a credibility gap to overcome before people accept you as an honest advocate for anything. Right now, people will assume that you will say or claim anything to get what you want.

This time you're demanding an offensive buff that is so small as not to be a balance problem yet big enough to produce a major experience in how the AT plays. Kind of like producing a number that is both very small and very big.

[ QUOTE ]
You're demanding complaince to your preferences, the alternative being exile to another AT(Brutes/Scrappers) that doesn't really match the concept of a heroic heavy hitter either.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, I don't "demand compliance". I'm pointing out that your demands are unreasonable. I do expect that players who have chosen this AT because of how it currently plays do not suddenly find that they will be playing something entirely different. I am not at all opposed to actual problems being fixed (and have identified some in the past). I do not even have a problem with damage buffs as long as they don't result in messing up the design of the AT.

What I do not do and you do is to make universal claims about things that are only my personal preferences.

As to "being exiled to another AT" that doesn't really match the concept of a heroic heavy hitter, you're the one who has explained that brutes have everything that tankers have. With their availability blue-side, you will be having everything you wanted -- unless, of course, you were dishonest as usual and you don't really think of brutes as everything that tankers are and more. I was simply taking you by your word -- it's not my fault if your word can't be trusted.