Soul Train

Wow, Sorah, that's a wonderful gesture, thank you!

And yeah... its pretty amazing how much this 'game' has affected people's lives... for the better.

Guys... you took something good, and made it AWESOME.

Nevermind that it never took off to the degree Warcraft did. You didn't have the marketing machine or the budget to do that. you accomplished wonders with what you had, you made us all feel part of the game, and helped build a community that I hope will endure past the passing of this franchise.

If you all decide to form your own game dev biz, speak up. We'll be happy to help you out, be it crowdsource funds, game testers, content writers, designers, video cutscene and sound, whatever you want.

Considering I drop upwards of $250 a month on online trivialities, and won't be spending a DIME of that on NCSoft products after this...

Post the plan to resurrect CoH and I'll gladly chip in.

I'm happy to hear they'll be replicating purchased stuff to the shard servers themselves.

The fact that they haven't been doing this all along, is distressing.

It is rather annoying that 'unlocked' items and slots are unavailable when the Store is offline.

Can't you folks set up some kind of read-only/failover database, so that when you have to maintain the Store, or upgrade it, or what have you, we still have access to our purchased items?

It's not like it's HARD to do this - most databases offer ways of replicating to a disaster-recovery or read-only version. I could do it in MSFT SQL 2005 rather easily - set up a second DB cluster, configure replication between the two (snapshot and transaction logs, most likely)....

... and then it's a matter of patching the game clients to use the primary DB for Store Purchase functions, and the read-only DB for ongoing verification of prior purchases. As someone purchases something new, the data gets pushed to the read-only server, usually within minutes if you've got transaction log shipping turned on, and voila! it's reflected in the game for that player.

If you're doing an upgrade, you do the changes to the live version first, leaving the read-only in play so people can still see their stuff, then when you've tested the integrity of the (new format) live data, you do a snapshot backup of it, upgrade the read-only, import the backup, grab any interim transaction logs to make sure your DB's are completely sync'd, and bring the read-only back into production as the verify system. You still have player-affecting downtime, but it's a lot less than if you're relying solely on the primary DB.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Replication: http://www.sqlserverclub.com/essenti...plication.aspx

Oracle Replication:
http://www.orafaq.com/wiki/Advanced_Replication_FAQ

MySQL Replication:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/replication.html

Having designed several characters from the Original "Carnival of Light" (in the high-level Portal Corp missions where you rescue 'good' carnies), I must say, I am glad the Carnie refugees have gained members from other oppressed groups and become such a thorn in Cole's side!

Doctor Kashaye Parker-Blades, also known as the heroine Soul Train, stood quietly to one side of the congregation. Instead of her white-and-gold cutaway, she wore a demure black dress and sunglasses.

"Damnit, Doc. You were one of the good ones, sugah. I guess we'll see you on the other side, someday."

She tosses a red rose into the grave and turns on her heel, and instead of bounding away in a storm of subatomic flux, simply walks away.

Awesome, Scoob!!

Add "daesechan" for my Stalker, Daisy Chain.

Kinetics can also be worked in as TK, as if your mental 'will' is enough to impede movement (or assist it). Repel is especially effective as a mental "get offa me!" type power. Not sure how you'd RP the heal/endurance effects, but hey... this is just a starting seed for others, yah?

Oh wow. This is good stuff, Gale. It should be stickied.

Also, I see I'll have to update a few bios, now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transsexuality_in_Iran

Not that I'm tooting my own horn or anything...

http://www.formspring.me/soultrain0217

(Warning! questions and/or answers may be NSFW)

Seebs, that's a rather interesting conundrum.

How best to let someone 'see it coming' without actually, you know, being overt about it?

This calls to mind a rather strange fact about Iran. See, Muslim law has a REALLY BIG PROBLEM with homosexuality, to the point of throwing gay folks in jail or outright killing them. However... there's no real edict about switching genders.

This makes Iran a rather progressive country when it comes to people getting sex changes. Many get the procedures/hormone therapy/etc paid by their healthcare coverage.


Something to think about - if someone was born a man, and switched to a woman via hormone therapy and surgery, do we still think of them as male, or female? Or are they 'in between' (intersexed)? What about F2M changes?

Personally, while I am very happily 'taken', if I were single I'd not let something as simple as a y chromosome get in the way of a good relationship, as long as my partner had the looks and personality that attracted me to them. The 'wrong' parts downstairs might be a bit of a squick, but not so much that I'd run screaming. Others may have more of an issue with it, tho'.

... oh snap. Now how do I keep the change in my pockets?

*rezzes in and sashays through the 8-bit game, in full EGA dithered colors*

"Ooo. This one's DIFFERENT."

I'd leave the topic entirely out of the bio. As you've noted already, it just invites the wrong kind of attention, either from the hump-legs crowd or the militant prudes looking to burn their latest witch.

Instead, save the disclaimer for when the RP develops to the "getting undressed" stage. At that point, go OOC and offer to "fade to black" or keep going. How the RP will progress will be the same as what happens IRL when we meet an intersexed person. By that point you should also have an idea of how mature the RP partner is (if you don't, why would you be getting even slightly intimate with their character?) and how well they'll deal with it, both from the OOC player perspective and the IC perspective.

*happily agrees with this topic*

Yes I have Speed Boost keybound. I also have teammate selection keybound.

So unless you say "no you don't want it", you're getting it.


And yes, stay in melee range for the heal and the end top-off.

Up until this point, I've thought my Bots/Traps MM was an unstoppable bulldozer.

Not so.

Do you know how HARD it is to keep your own pets out of the frickin' lava when you're sending them around the room to kill the clones? GAAAH! Meanwhile ... Trapdoor does the Energy Transfer thing on me. Ouch.

I'm gonna need to pair up with somebody on this one. Maybe on my Stalker, it'll be easier, I can keep my own butt out of the lava and manage the clone/boss aggro.

Perhaps then the issue isn't with the stalker powersets, but the "AoE is King" issue.

Seems to me that people are falling into a "herd and obliterate" mindset. If you can't contribute to the overall gathering and nuking of entire maps worth of spawns, then you're no good for teams.

I see little reason to change them, honestly.

I do agree that there should be some kind of team buff that is connected to a successful AS, OR a Stalker in Hide (kind of like a "Scout the Enemy" bonus a la Tactics). Instead of the self-buffs blasters get for successful attacks, the buffs stack on the teammates as the Stalker pops out of the woodwork and administers a beatdown.

But as far as surviveability and damage? It ain't broke, don't try and fix it.