Stormbird

Oh?

There have been multiple, completely respectful posts pointing out to people that the female costume options in the "gunslinger" pack are not "gunslinger" options at all. Nothing but deletion when they show up, though.

If they were insulting, then maybe you'd have a point there.

If they were putting out misinformation, they'd have every right to remove them.

However... they weren't. I've been watching them - it's amazing how hard they work to block that information. (Of course, go "Oooh, I bought it!" or kiss butt like certain metallic-themed people and they'll keep that up.) They've deleted more posts than currently exist on that announcement - no, not kidding there.

Makes PS look *really* bad, frankly.

Villainside, level... 5?

And wow, look at the facebook comments crash, they're going crazy getting rid of any complaints about this pack.

Yes.

Way to paint all guys with the same brush. There are times it's appropriate. There are other times it isn't. There are times *guys* want their female characters - especially in a game lauded for customization - to not look like they rushed out the door in their underwear.

Sister Psyche's outfit looks ridiculous, quite frankly.

Sounds like you need to check who's complaining. QUite a few people complaining about being given options for "saloon girls" instead of gunslingers, Wonderbras instead of sorceress bits, etc. are male.

"The packs do have sexy bits." Yes. The problem is that's *the whole direction* of the female options. *I CANNOT MAKE* a female gunslinger with the parts offered in the "gunslinger" set. I can make a showgirl, kind of. Look at the "Quick and the Dead" image shown a few times in this thread. Those parts weren't made, despite being FAR more appropriate for a pack marketed as a "Gunslinger" pack.

We're asking for options that are NOT corsets and bikini bottoms.

However, it IS a part of the community requesting we get something other than underwear. YOU may be happy with it. Not everyone is. YOU aren't everyone.

"Something to remember."

Tsoo: No
Paragon PD: Yes (you rescue them in various missions/morality missions/etc. Though I don't know about on the street.)
Wyvern: No.
Sky raiders: No.
Malta: Doesn't look like it, but it's a fair bit of bulky gear. And they work with the Knives, who are 100% female.
Trolls: After the body change from Superdyne, hard to say... though given the Destroyers, I'd say no.
Council: The only women are Arakhn and (formerly Council) - er - the one who's now a freakshow that I can't remember.
Lost: No.

At least the COT got some obviously female characters with their revamp. Hopefully some of the other groups do.

I tried to find parts that weren't *too* see through, etc. (or were otherwise edited) to avoid that. Bit harder than it sounds...

But that's essentially what we've been given for female costume parts for the last few packs, compared to actual clothes (or at least tops) for the males.

I don't mind getting them... I *do* mind getting them exclusively.

Not to mention, were this the real world, even WITHOUT an appeal from Recluse there'd be plenty of complaints and offers of support for the Isles in response to Longbow setting up shop there uninvited (and taking territory from a sovereign nation, and attacking its citizens - as of this last issue, none of us are forced to start as broken out of the Zig any more, after all, but make a choice to relocate.)

I could see quite a bit of trade and support (given real-world politics at this point, which, yeah, I know the timelines are not the same) going *both* ways with China, N. Korea, Iran, Venezuela (oil!) Russia... as well as extranational groups. They have supplies, the Isles have a concentration of superpowered beings and advanced tech.

I would hope the comments inside it, like "I have a banana for a car," "The war walls are plaid," and "Mother Mayhem is there, because boobies" would make that obvious. >.<

I agree with this, actually.

We get Crey thrown at us at level 30, and are told the Paragon Protectors are seen as "heroes" with no link to crey, and that Crey has been doing good deeds, etc, etc, etc.

Before the meteor-ing of Galaxy, we had exactly *one* indication that Crey was seen as helpful - the old tutorial, where we are shown drones being examined. We don't really get any explanation of who those guys are. If you *ran* the tutorial (and remembered it,) then you might have gone "Oh, yeah, they look familiar" when you finally see them and fight them. But there's NO exposure to Crey or their supposed "helpfulness" beforehand.

(Villainside, of course, it's slightly different as you at least get NPC dialog with civilians talking to Crey in ... Nerva, I believe - but they're not portrayed any other way on that side anyway.)

That lack of any info to be learned or feel any shock at "betrayal" by Crey's actual plans or the Paragon Protectors actual loyalties is a big missed opportunity.

They're Norse mythology. They existed before... well, most modern nations. (All if you make it "Modern nations in currently recognizable form.") Surely you don't think Marvel came up with them?

As far as your original post, "Why they attacked in the first place" is explained and played through in the RWZ arcs and LGTF, fairly well. I'd rather not have more lore twisted, shredded, spindled, folded and mutilated to have more Cow-Well.

Remember back when we could explain our powers however we wanted?

Original lore, by the way, explained "surges" of power by having an item ("Pandora's box") which, over centuries or millenia, "accumulated the potential and creativity of humanity." Every so often, it would be found, someone would throw open the lid and all of that would escape, people affected by it becoming seen (depending on era) as gods/demons or heroes/villains.

(Quick google search - Wikipedia entry on COH:
While at the fountain, they threw open the lid to Pandora's Box (holder of the golden light of Creation) which caused a dramatic increase in the number of superhumans worldwide and is directly responsible for their proliferation in the City of Heroes universe.

Paragon Wiki entry - Pandora's box (lore) :
Pandora's Box is an ancient artifact that was discovered by Marcus Cole and Stefan Richter, who later became Statesman and Lord Recluse respectively. Little information has been revealed about the box, but it is known that it housed the Golden Light of Creation, as well as all of mankind's creativity over the past millenia. Opening the box released the creative energy out into the world, starting another golden age of superhumans.

Note no mention of an insane Well being the source of all power, etc, etc.)

"The Well" - especially a talking well explaining how "You are now on a fast path to power" - didn't exist as they're pushing it (note how they've made locations such as the Well of the Furies "tied to" a main entity called "The well.")

And yes, while Pandora's Box is a bit cheesy, it released potential and creativity - which explains a surge of, say, inspiration to train harder and take back city streets, even with no superpowers, or the inspiration to create a suit of battle armor or new tech, letting you get as powerful as you can (slotting, inventions, etc.) without being beholden to an insane interdimensional "well."

/all this.

Especially about the COT (note: has deity who taught mankind magic to begin with in the war vs the BP) vs the Mu (note: has deity who taught Mu magic to eliminate COT) in Dark Astoria (note: has sleeping god the COT are trying to keep down) and versus the Banished Pantheon (note: has group of gods who found their own way to power in worship and feeding off negative emotions) with some Tsoo on the side (note: works with magical artifacts, already in zone seeking something.)

No reason to have the Toilet Bowl of Power involved at all.

/agrees.

Plus:
1. Well, if you're doing multiple computers, get the family pack. Yes, it's upgrade, but three licenses for $150 vs one for $90-100ish... no brainer.

2. No, you don't have to double-install to install the upgrade and activate it on a blank drive.

//also finds "degree in computers" amusing. Nobody awards a "degree in computers," and I can't think of a single tech that would declare they have one.

Yeah, but Branchcache requires the supporting infrastructure to be set up wherever you want to use it - and while I may just not have been listening in the right places, I haven't heard a lot about it being used. Either you're going to have to have Windows Server 2008R2 set up (Hosted) or a fair number of Win7 machines set up (Distributed,) and it only kicks in with a >80ms latency... and what it helps also depends on what clients are online and what they've accessed. It probably sounds more useful than it would be to most people.

About the only thing that peaked my interest momentarily was the ability to boot from VHD - then I realized I'd never use it.

As a side note, you can use the upgrade to do a clean install. They've got (if you have multiple pcs) the Win7 "family pack." 3 licenses, $150.

Also, yes, you *can* upgrade from XP to 7 kinda-sorta directly, in some situations. However, it's a messy process and I generally agree with "Just format the drive and start from scratch." The "upgrade" wastes space, wastes time, and a clean install is just better overall. Going to 64 bit, you need a clean install anyway.

As far as ultimate, you should really ask yourself "why." For most people, there's little if any reason to move past Pro. Ultimate doesn't give the average person very much. "XP Mode" (Pro) runs on Home as well - or you can use (for the OP) your existing XP disks and a free VM like Virtualbox to run it. Pro lets you join domains - not needed on most home systems, but if you head back and forth to a domain environment, it may be what you need. Pro lets you do backups to a network drive. Pro lets you access up to 192 Gb instead of 16 Gb RAM (Home Premium's limit.)

Ultimate gives you Bitlocker and switch languages on the fly... not worth the premium Ultimate costs, IMHO.

Hearing about how DA is getting revamped, I'd expect the following:

CREY'S FOLLY:
Player suggestion:
"Hey, why hasn't there been some investigation into what Crey had going on, since they obviously have a presence there, as well as work containing the Devouring Earth?"

Dev reaction:
"The water is now empowered by the Well of the Furies. It's perfectly clear, but has a slight pink glow. We've gotten rid of the rusted industral look and turned it into a copy of Imperial City. Nemesis has bargained to hold a part of it, though, and put their own touch on the Freakshow town. The zone is now level 50 only."

Boomtown
Player request:
"Why don't we get some reconstruction started? As faultline proved, there could be threats for upcoming heroes to deal with as they uncover old bases."

Dev reaction:
"The theme of Boomtown is mutation gone awry! We've cleaned up the streets and replaced the destroyed buildings with giant "building creatures." The war walls are plaid. I have a banana for a car. It's a level 50 zone, where the Well is trying to empower the new mutant buildings and has told Tyrant to send Chimera to negotiate with his other Well-empowered self, the Reichsman. Also, Mother Mayhem is there, because boobies."

Perez Park
Player request:
"How about making the trees less of a pain for the players? Open up the maze a little. And give us a reason to fight the Hydra.

Dev reaction:
"The maze has taken over all of Perez Park. From the moment you step into the gate, you're in the maze. And it's level 50. The trees are being watered by the Well. Mother Mayhem is there having a picnic with her seers in the new Picnic iTrial. "

Players will wonder what the devs were smoking, except Golden Girl who will praise it as better than the second coming.

/this, exactly.

If this is how they're going, I'd hate to think what else they have in mind. It's like "restoring" the washington monument by replacing it with a shopping mall.

No, it doesn't need to "stop being what it is." That's one of the most ridiculous statements I've heard yet.

If I have a book full of blank pages (but with a nice photo on the cover) and put it in the library, nobody's going to read it. They might look at it and wonder why it's there, but they're not going to read it. Why? There's nothing there to read. That doesn't mean it needs to stop "being what it is." It doesn't need to be torn out, burned and replaced with geraniums. It needs to be written in so people have something to read, reason to do more than just go "Huh. ok," and go to a different book.

Similarly, DA does not need to stop "being what it is." The zone can be left looking as it does NOW - fog, ghosts and all. Those are part of what DEFINES DA and makes it stand out from a boring everyday city zone. They're what get people wondering about it. All it needed were contacts and arcs going into its specific storyline. Period. Suggestions for this have been made for YEARS. And yet the devs have decided to tear it down and do... *this* to it.

I put in links to multiple suggestions - one of which would have you KEEP going back, and ended up with Incarnate "stuff" to do that (FINALLY!) would have nothing at all to do with the Wading Pool of Irritation OR Praetoria.

But apparently the devs would rather tear everything down and screw it up, destroying what made it stand out and made people interested, wondering what happened in the zone - a question that would be addressed by *adding contacts and arcs,* not bulldozing it.

No, I have no faith in them at this point, if they think this is a "good idea."

Right. When people want to *do* things, run story arcs, etc. staring at scenery is what they go for. Yep. Stare at a wall for 5 hours and you'll have gained seven levels!

You're stretching to pretend you have a point. We get it, you don't like how it looks. Yay you. Others of us quite obviously DO like it as it is now, and just want content to go along WITH it as opposed to destroying the zone for more Kiddie Pool of Fate stuff. I know you won't like this and won't accept it, given your usual attitudes, but believe it or not, our opinion - and feedback, and disappointment - is JUST as valid as yours.

No, it won't. And why don't you try not being dismissive of the people who are *rightly* worried about it. Their changes - just from what we've been told - make it no longer Dark Astoria. It makes it "Some other zone that we're now calling dark astoria, that will no longer be available at the same level, that for some reason we're deciding should be co-op and tied to the Toilet of Power... er, Well of the Furies."

Why did people not go to DA much? Because there was nothing to DO there. That was the problem. It's got a great backstory and atmosphere. It needed *content* added to it. It didn't need a complete rework into Well Zone 3. "The old one is still in Ouroboros" doesn't fix a damn thing. It's like me complaining my steak is undercooked, and the waiter bringing me out a plate of snails in dog vomit and telling me if I don't like the "improvement" I can look at the undercooked steak sitting on the edge of the table.

They're eliminating the fog and ghosts - which is what people *notice* about DA. I've led people in there - some to beat on BP, some to run to missions - and almost always had the "Wait... did that person just disappear? Woah!" comments - or, if you save some of the ghosts from the BP rituals, the various bits they say... Not to mention hearing the COT frantically trying to reinforce the bindings on "The Sleeper," or seeing Adamastor's rune being the only thing visible quite a ways away - yes, even through the fog.... having actual story arcs to *back that up* is what was wanted.

Not another "Nuke it from orbit and throw something else in that shares the same name."

And frankly, if it's anything like first ward, I'll be avoiding it.


I don't know why the devs decided to do this. After all, it's not like we haven't given suggestions or anything (and the last link even goes through multiple level ranges *AND* gets Incarnates involved - without the Puddle of Annoyance involved, keeping the zone's flavor and giving us a break from the already well past tired Well-straightjacket nonsense.)