SuperOz

This is a long while between responses, but I thought I'd ask on this again. I'd love to get samples from shows like Justice League and such (probably the best animated superhero show with amazing quality sound effects I've ever heard) and the like...can anyone please help?

S.

Welcome, fleet-feet!

Good to see the speedsters represented and the game generally. I have to ask what Pen and Paper games you're into...superhero ones, hopefully. Love seeing how a tabletop gamer adapts to the medium...though the Mission Architect and the dev version you'd have access to would be quite a lot of fun.

Welcome again!

S.

Welcome, Sunstorm!

Don't be afraid to take Dwarf form if the players get out of line, okay? And as someone who enjoys Khelds, I hope you'll find time to come on and say hi to all the other squids out there.....

...and as far as bases go, I hope we don't get too unreasonable and too unrealistic for you to respond to.

Enjoy the ride, sir.

S.

Good luck to you, sir.

Community Relations to me would be like running the PR department of an unpopular political party. Anything you say for the people is misinterpreted as an attack on one segment, whilst anything you announce being done for them is seen as taking away from another.

It's selfless, thankless, and often not recognised. I will be one of those to recognise it and offer you my best wishes....I was surprised to hear of you leaving and I certainly hope you will become known as a fixture on these boards as a player with a clearly stated vision now that you're out of the current administration.

S.

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I'm hardly the last word on videos, but here's my take:

1) VERY cool song - to improve your hits to your video, list the song's title and artist both in your YouTube and tags (folks like me enjoy knowing who some of that cool music belongs to)

2) you've got the foundation for a very good video as far as a character tale goes, but you do need a) a lot more camera movement, b) a lot more shot variations, and c) more of a 'storyline'. Your character may be an assassin martial artist, but he's got to live somehow - you might show more about he makes his living on the streets, dealing with contacts, fighting others, watching people go by, that sort of thing. If you want to show him 'alone' (as you appear to be doing when he's doing kata in the base), have him leaning on a wall or sitting on the stairs in an alleyway, or crouching in different locations, not just that one shot of him backlit by the moon.

3) Your end credits font needs to be bigger - on YouTube they are SMALL!

4) Practice camera sweeps - yours (like everyone else who starts out) tend to be very jerky. Best place to practice - Atlas Park and Fort Darwin. You're high enough level you can pound on stuff without thinking, and you can focus more on how to swing the camera around or do zooms. It takes a while, but you'll get much better at it, and it pays off in the end.

5) Also more of a 'cinematography' thing - careful when doing closeups - you tend to get a lot of 'empty' space behind you, which detracts from your character. (You'd have to learn how to edit democode to drop the camera during your static shots, but it might be worth your time.)

6) Don't use Windows Movie Maker. UGH. If you've got access to Adobe Premiere (or Sony Vegas), use it. WMM sucks, especially once you start making longer videos with bigger files.

Don't get disheartened by all this - everything that's here is how you can improve. If there were no hope for you, I'd say so. (And trust me, I've seen BAD videos.) Keep at it, and don't forget to put your links in the Fan Videos thread so others can see.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

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1) Thanks on the title tip....I've hosted hardly anything on YouTube, so I'll remember that tip and change the title.

2) I think I should clarify on that; I'm not really trying to tell a story there so much as convey a mood or aspect of the character....I'll change that part of the text as well.

3) Duly noted. A little hard to tell when I'm doing it at the time. Any suggested font size?

4) I wanted to do much more and can....I just have an unreliable cheap mouse that's not very responsive. That'll be an operating expense I'll be looking into. That jerkiness is a direct result of that, I couldn't get any fine control.

5) Yeah, I had no end of trouble with that, really. I'll look into it, thank you.

6) *nodnods* I'll start doing that from now on, I just wanted to get this video out of the road and get the vision out there...I still have all the raw footage to work with so I can do a better version in Premiere Pro, thanks to being able to move the camera frame and such.

Thank you for all the input!

S.

Hi everyone.

Although I have various pieces of test footage up on my Youtube account, this is my first fully edited and completed clip, featuring my own character, Shadowtracker. I have to publicly acknowledge V I X E N of Spines, who graciously 'killed' me for the Recluse's Victory footage.

All told, this took three days of filming (and a lot of patience) with an extra seven hours of editing to get the cuts and timing right.

Please, feel free to be as harsh as necessary; I think I have plenty of room to improve.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=dW5lNGhMlNc

S.

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I thought of another thing that CoX is helping my daughters learn: social skills.

Flame and her older sister love to be in teams. The bigger, the better. When they first started accepting random invites, they were sometimes disappointed with what the team was doing. My oldest has learned to politely refuse the invite and makes sure that her LFT messages says "No blind invites.". She always says thank you and listens to the person with the star. She has also learned that if some one of the team is being a goof, they will get kicked quickly or she can tell the team she is leaving because she has something to do.

A white liar in the making.

Sister Flame is not a great speller yet, but she can read very well. When she gets private messages, she reads them and asks me to send a proper reply. She also says "Please and thank you" when joining teams. She's also learned that she gets more invites when she says "Level 21 Fire Blaster looking for some fun" as opposed to "Lvl 21 F blst need a team".

I also got a story about my eldest using her Internet Streetsmarts on CoX twice so far, but that's a little off topic IMHO. I'd rather talk about Sister Flame's responses to I13.

Dad: Hey Flame, I13 is coming out. They're putting all sorts of neat things in.

Flame: Like what?

I attempt to tell Flame about what is going in along with the rants about certain things on the forum. I can see Flame's eyebrow going up as a "Who the heck cares?" look followed by "How old are these people?" look cross her face. I stop my explination.

Dad: They're adding Shields and Day Jobs. You can be a cop, sort of.

Flame: Shields?! COOL! Day job? Like a vet?

Dad: Um... I don't know if they have any vet jobs.

Flame: Well, a vet would be cool because then my villain, Takes Care Of Pets, could be a vet when she isn't shooting people.

At this point, I had to stiffle laughter as I thought about a vet calling it a day at 5 o'clock, pulling on a pair of cat ears and a trenchcoat before going out to rob banks and laying some hurt down on people.

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That is just beautiful, _Wyll_. I hadn't even thought about something as simple and straightforward as a vet, and it makes me wonder if you go to the Rikti Monkey fights if she couldn't get such a badge.

I think it's great she's learning so many positives from being on the game as opposed to so many negatives she could learn from other games where fun might not be so emphasised.

Could I also heartily encourage you to use the Mission Creator when it's released to tell us a story about Sister Flame or Takes Care of Pets? I think it'd be a great way for her to learn about stories and writing and who knows, you may find a budding writer there.

S.

Just to ask publicly as well, I can't seem to find this group online anywhere? Any links would be greatly appreciated.

S.

Bruce, as someone who started out in Pen and Paper games, is there one particular aspect of them that you would like to bring to a game like City of that you think it might be missing at this time?

S.

Thanks, it'd be appreciated.

I won't ask about that which shall not be named. It might come after me and leave a scar on my forehead and....no wait, that's a book right?

S.

I've done a lot of extensive searching, but I've never been able to find particular sound effects (such as large rocks breaking, or that sound associated with the Hurl effect for SS types for throwing a boulder) that I thought would sit well some of my videos. Can anyone recommend some good quality sound effects sites?

S.

Ah, great to see Sister Flame back in action and with her own custom t-shirt....makes me wonder when the official doll and clothing line will begin.

Just kidding, don't want to give her any ideas. But have you looked into a t-shirt making store? They often have very reasonable rates and can make screenprints or transfers using images you have. I know kids can make short work of clothes and this might be an alternative.

S.

Unfortunately folks, we're living in an age where convenience and the 'now' factor is more prevalent than ever before. Any modern game you'd care to look at even casually is promoting simpler crafting, faster advancement and voice chat over typing, all for the sake of convenience.

This has largely come out of the influence of console games being such a massive market, and it's hard for MMO's to ignore this if they want to compete or grab their share of the market.

Do I agree with it? yes and no. Yes if the people you talk to are people you're friendly with and you can have a reasonable conversation with them.

No because it's distracting and a lot of chat goes on that's really unnecessary or even boring. I'm not a loot or gear person, and I often have to slip the headphones off while such chat goes on, playing as I do in LotRo as well as here.

But, as internet-based telephony becomes the norm and the average user gets access to broadband connection, games will be under pressure to use this technology for again, nothing other than convenience's sake.

S.

Ah, very sorry to hear that.....look after yourself first, get plenty of sleep and get to it when you can. *smiles*

For the record, I was that big lug you saw both times you were filming, the big magic Tank called Burnum with the white body paint on the grey body doing the Hulk impersonation . Hope you get well very soon.

S.

Just checking on this....I imagine Dark_Respite might be a bit busy with things at the moment, but any update you can provide (hopefully it hasn't been a pain for you to do) would be vastly appreciated, as I've stalled out some with available footage thus far.

S.

For an 82 minute interview, I seem to be only able to hear the first 41 minutes....? And this is after a few goes.

S.

Many thanks, Dark_Respite. I look forward to seeing what you've done.

S.

Heh....no, not really necessary.....all I really need in the shot is the Rikti charging...considering the various shots I have already, tying a Rikti charge to a landmark as obvious as that would require some major reshoots on my part.

If you can keep it to a stretch of road where they're just charging along, it'll work much better with the player shots I'm using now. Don't get hung up on locations....this is my one-minute 'teaser' clip featuring lots of quick cuts and action, action, action.

Sorry if I wasn't more specific on that....but you know how we filmmakers are about our precious visions. You know that brief cut of the Rikti charging from the original CoH trailer as they pour out of their giant dropship? I'm aiming for that. Rikti charging the camera, guns and stuff blazing....hopefully that helps a lot. Again, sorry for not being specific.

Think...let's see....300. All you see is the enemy swarming towards you....it'll make more sense when I incorporate it into a rough cut and post it on Youtube for you.

S.

Hi Dark_Respite....

that'd be fantastic if you can manage it. I've been doing most of my filming around the Vanguard base at the Thin Red line, but those pesky missile launchers have made it problematic. I got relatively close to the giant blaster statue there (the one you get the Ace badge at).

If you can film/herd relatively close to there and then PM me as to where I can d/l the raw footage from (I think rapidshare would work nicely), I'll definitely give you and your SG credit.

I'm guessing by what you've said you know to have a screen clear of health bars, etc, so I'll leave that to you.

S.

Okay, thanks for that....I know it's a difficult shot to try and create in-game, so I'll look at the demoediting, even though I'm not very confident about getting it right.

May 20th, 2006.

I came straight to this game from a trial version (I'd recently given up on World of Warcraft thanks to the mind-numbing repetitiveness and just outright disinteresting generic fantasy of the game ) and discovered a trial for something called City of Villians (I had no idea of City of Heroes til a little later) and was thrilled that I could custom-design this little Stalker (bad choice much?) who was my ninja and the breakout out of the Zig was inspired. This was MY story, MY adventure.

My love affair blossomed on the hero side, however. Being a fan of comics for a very long time, one of my favorite characters was and remains the Hulk. A simple way of learning the game for me was to take a SuperStrength/Invulnerability combination (I understood the principles if not the gameplay of them) and proceeded to make a homage character, but with a distinctly Australian feel, style and even backstory.

I didn't feel really that super at first....yes, I could hit with some force, and I was tough....but it REALLY clicked when I took Super Jump. And then Thunderclap. Here were visual representations of powers I'd only seen a little while ago in the Hulk movie.

And the further I went up in levels, more powers seemed to literally be unlocking his potential. Knockout Blow. Foot Stomp. And the leaps....oh my lord, the leaps. They got longer and longer. How can I describe the giddiness of having buildings or objects rush by me at ridiculous heights?

The community events also made life great, moreso than any game I've come across. The ski chalet brings out so many people! And the Valentine's Day event from this year....I really hope it inspires other couples who play this game to renew their vows online for other people to enjoy.

No other game I know of has had people who work on the game so invested that they would not only BE characters on the game, but also show something of themselves through them. That shows a love and desire to be a part of things here.

Now as my first hero approaches level 50 (I'm your poster child for casual play here), I can honestly reflect upon that as an acheivement, something that has meaning and emotion attached to it, so unlike other games I have played and am playing.

And that says so much for a game that seems to CARE so much about who plays it.

I don't think you see that nearly enough these days.

S.

Hi all.

I'm working on a couple of small projects, but I've run into a problem. Trying to get a shot of a large group of charging Rikti, I haven't found a willing or obliging group thus far in-game.

I admit to having no facility at all with /demoedit and admit to not really understanding the vectors and planning that goes into making such shots possible.

I would greatly appreciate anyone compiling a shot if they could of around 30 Rikti (this comprises drones, infantry, mentalists) charging towards the screen, firing weapons, on a street in the Rikti War Zone. It doesn't have to be more than 20 seconds long if this at all can be done. Either PM or leave me a message on this board if you think you can help.

Many thanks in advance,

S.

Hi. I've worked a little on radio and have plenty of roleplaying experience...being from Australia, maybe I'd be good for an English voice or two?

I'll have Teamspeak by Sunday and am available every night this week bar Sunday and Monday, as I have prior commitments. I work on GMT +10, so hopefully that helps with hours.

S.

Yet again, this thread surfaces and makes me grin like a goofy kid. I'm reading this after what I thought was a somewhat pointless and tedious session of doing quests on Lord of the Rings online and feeling a little cheated that my friends were rushing to the next level and not really enjoying the grand world around them....and now that I've been happily reminded of what playing a game is all about, I've decided that my character from Gondor is a Knight, he's going to do lots of good deeds for people and levels be damned. There's a great story there to play out and I want to be part of it, even if noone else does.

As for City of Heroes, I think every server should offer a 'Sister Flame' or 'Kid's Day' where we help out child players, especially as veterans and level 50's, where we can show off our shiny cool powers and go with them on their adventures. We may not be named characters, but it would make my day to tell someone like Sister Flame or Princess S that 'I couldn't have done it without you. You're a great hero'.

Just a thought, anyways.

S.

Thanks guys! I went the Fraps/shut down of windows route and did a test movie which recorded perfectly....I have a reasonably powerful PC for this game (AMD 2.4 gig, 2 gig of RAM, 7600GS nvidia card) so recording and playback was as smooth as silk, and I don't forsee any issues with the editing process once I get the raw footage sorted out. I wouldn't mind extra video options from Movie Maker, but I guess that's why the other programs are listed....

Anyways, thanks again, guys.

S.