Steampunkette

In my defense, I was actually interested and intrigued by the fact that Praetoria -has- cloudy days. I wasn't trying to make a big stink about doom or anything. And the i20 thing was a joke.

I often look up and realize that Sharkhead is always cloudy, and Atlas is always bright and sunny... But Praetoria has an actual changing sky that, on occasion, looks like rain.

It's a really cool thing I noticed and wanted to bring up.

-Rachel-

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...69#post3211969

That is all.

-Rachel-

Is it just me, or does it look like it's going to Rain on Imperial City..?

GASP! the Coming Storm! That's what i20 is! Weather effects!

=-3

-Rachel-

If the system worked exactly how she describes it, it would defeat the purpose of the system. It would just take up more space on the server for no reason whatsoever, since the people in the queue would otherwise have those slots.

It doesn't work that way. That's what should really be taken from the whole discussion. The nitpicking is just pointing to her conspiracy theory for what it is.

-Rachel-

No. That's not how the Queue works at all. A Queue is a line for people to wait in while hoping someone logs off. As soon as someone leaves, the next player in the Queue is allowed in.

It does not "Reserve" slots for the Queue, it allows you to wait for a slot to open.

It should also be noted that, at least twice, the server population cap (and the hardware behind the server) was increased to handle the larger than average loads they were getting on 2x XP weekends, specifically the gigantic loads on Freedom and Virtue.

So Red Dots doesn't have anything to do with the Server Queue taking up slots, and actually means MORE than it used to, since the server capacity was increased more than once.

And I thought -my- suggestions were crazy... Geeze...

-Rachel-

My Crazy Theories!

Non-Unique Naming. Could be a huge change for better or worse! Use of Global names to locate individuals with the option to Hide global handles in the Chat Options.

Semi-Serverless Environment. The ability to swap between servers while playing, making Non-Unique names a requirement. Still retains the flavor of different servers while allowing players to shift to where the teams are.

Additional powers in sets, rather than new powersets. Expansions to allow players to make characters who hold tighter to themes, such as Fire Melee getting a pile of flaming sword attacks and Non-sword attacks which "Black out" their tier.

New Base Archetype(s) for Heroes, Villains, and Praetorians. Assault/Defense, Melee/PBAoE Debuff and Control, etc.

New powersets: Staffs, finally! Or perhaps some new ranged sets. Dark Control, anyone?

Powerset Proliferation: Tons of it.

Complete revamp/duplication of all existing costume pieces. High Resolution versions put in the tailor right below the original pieces.

Fingers for all Models.

New Models: Animal: For cats, dogs, etc. Muscular Female. "Huge" model renamed "Muscular Male"

The Coming Storm finally Arrives, Begins a massive storyarc which results in CoH/CoV both getting graphical updates equal to Praetoria after a dimensional conflict results in a more "Perfect" Earth.

All old Villaingroups get a Model Update using the Character Creator 2.5, which unleashes all the NPC-only costume pieces to player control.

Mission Architect given additional tools to add dialog options, branching stories, and Power Customization for Enemies!

PvP Rebalanced by eliminating Diminishing Returns on anything except ally-buffs. All ATs gain an "HP Boost" on entering into a PVP zone to give them AV equivalent health (Scales based on AT HP Scalars). Travel Suppression applies only when making a ranged attack or struck by a melee attack.

City of Heroes adopts the DDO "Free to Play" design, with level 1-40 free to play, EATs as pay-to-unlock, And Zones added after CoV unlockable. New powersets, too. Current "Booster" Packs purchaseable through NCSoft points in-game or through the website itself as normal. 5 Character slots for free, 10 for "Premium" players (formerly subscribed) with up to 3 costumes unlockable, Auras and Capes purchaseable. Players paying their usual $14.99 a month have no change in service, just a bunch of new players around.

Just some thoughts!

-Rachel-

Hooo boy...

Mindhammer, Kin/Will brute Heroine. RPed as Telekinetic Melee and defenses.

Sceance, Science based Illusion/Force Fields controller. All her powers RPed as controlling ghosts for combat and defense.

Velocity, Fire/Fire super-speed blaster. Recolored the fire powers to match her gloves (for blasts) and boots (for immobs) to represent her hyper-speed movement.

Glory Girl: Energy/Pain Dom Corruptor, All Powers Recolored Red and Blue for a Patriotic character.

Brimstone Bombshell: Fire/Will brute with green flames using "Baelfire" from ancient magic methods.

Samantha Bogart: Thugs/Dark Mastermind. Used Dark as a physical representation of her latent psychic potential.

Bramblehammer; Stone/Shield Brute with all powers repurposed as "Bark" since the character is a tree-person.

Neutrino-Girl: Used Dark Armor/Dark Melee recolored sickly green/yellow as Radiation armor and melee.

There will be more, possibly in the near future. =-3

Though not all required color-changes to represent what they are, and represent something -else- to the character wielding them.

-Rachel-

Sacred Blade, Hiroko Wallis was my Half Japanese Archaeologist and the leader of Salamanca's Saviors -years- ago. Through her I fell in love with my fiancee online from all the time we spent hanging out, roleplaying, and talking out of character about things we liked and disliked.

Unfortunately, my Boyfriend at the time (an emotionally abusive terror who had left me almost emotionally dead months before I rolled Hiroko up) found out and deleted her, then changed the passwords on the account and canceled it so that even though I had money of my own I couldn't get that global name back or any of my other, less important, characters back.

She was a level 40 Broadsword/Invulnerable and not a day goes by that i don't miss her!

-Rachel-

I think there's an easy way to avoid (much) power creep or having mostly unslotable 47 and 49 powers.

Have the level 47 and 49 powers both start with 2 base slots, rather than 1.

By locking the two extra slots in the highest tier powers, you avoid the issue of players slotting their lower level powers a bit more (for high level set mods) but allow them to get more power from their highest echelon powers by allowing them both to be 5-slotted.

-Rachel-

The only way I've ever made a decent Tri-form was with dual builds...

In one build I focused on a Human/Nova, in the second Human/Dwarf. Both builds HAD the other form in them, it just wasn't slotted and was used primarily as either an "Oh poop" button or a "Too Easy" button.

-Rachel-

No. You don't do that, Leo. Bad puppy. You don't necro-post a 4 month old thread with an insult. You're trolling -and- bumping your own thread. Stop it or no treat for you.

-Rachel-

The only concern I'll be offering is that PBs already get "Flash" as a power in their primary powerset. It's called Pulsar.

Okay, so it's a Stun rather than a hold, but it's a PBAoE bright flash of light. The animation and net effect are roughly identical.

However I'd love to see APPs and PPPs for both ATs, so I'm all for it.

-Rachel-

The last part would be the one I was interested in. Whether or not you'd agree it's a good idea (assuming the Devs are willing to do it) to get a final answer on the problem, once and for all.

Some other people in this thread don't like the idea of the E-mail poll. Some say it's unneeded, others say it's a bad idea because of all the flaws inherent in voting (missing the voting day, not knowing what to answer, etc etc)

Just wondering which side of the polling problem you two were on. I honestly think it's a simple and fine solution to the whole argument.

-Rachel-

Really not sure how to respond to either of those... Venture's patented "STFU Stupid" comment aside... I'm almost shocked he equated anything I did to a physicist, even if I did, in his not so humble opinion, get it wrong...

Gimme the real numbers, Venture. Gimme the real answer of how many people are online simultaneously, what ATs and time zones, what their population density is in each zone, and how many characters they play on a regular basis.

I'll run those numbers instead of an estimation of the player base that we all know is outdated since the coming of the Golden Child that was Going rogue.

Provide me with the number of players who will all share a single character name at a given time on the server you grabbed all the other numbers from and I'll run them again.

The math is sound. Give me a new set of variables and I'll run it again, and again, and again.

And no, LISAR. I don't think a change should be made that 10% of the population cares about which affects 100%. We don't -know- how much of the population cares about Non-Unique names. That's why i suggested the E-mailed polling method. To ascertain that fact and learn just how many people do or don't care.

The Devs asked about this change. There is a reason they asked. Every time the Devs have asked us for input it's because a change is coming that we might actually have a choice in (See Willpower, Dual Blades, and the Marketing Survey)

I think it might be one of the steps toward the single-server/serverless environment that has been proven functional by a certain other MMO... I also think the question is on the table for the Devs because it was shown that it's a viable option.

Well, Venture and LISAR. What do you two say to the E-Mail based polling?

-Rachel-