Twigman

Originally Posted by Forbin_Project

I already said that when I advised you that you can disagree with us all you like.

Originally Posted by Durakken

Think as to why the ones on the market work as they do and the ones you can find work differently... it's really quite simple to figure out. This is nor a change that should be made not is it one likely to be made.

Originally Posted by blacktomcat

I've been putting a lot of thought into this (a LOT of thought). I've been doing a lot of observation since I first suggested a powerset like this several years ago and think I finally found a decent compromise.

Seeing Titan Weapons in action got my creative juices flowing again and I've decided to revisit the idea for a quick-draw sword style. I took my influences from fighting game characters such as Ukyo Tachibana, Baiken and Setsuka and also looked at anime such as Ninja Scroll and Battle Arena Toshinden.

Iai Blade would be similar to Titan Weapons in that it would have two sets of animations for most of the powers in the set. However, it would have two different stances: one holding the sheathed sword and the other holding the sheath and sword separately (which I will refer to as its "Release" form. It would have the weapon held with the sheath in the right hand with the blade drawn by the left. Like Titan Weapons, the initial portion of the first attack would seem slow, but then speed up for several seconds using the second set of animations.

The stylistic idea behind it is for the swordsman to sort of coil up and then spring forward, drawing his sword, release a blinding flurry of attacks and then sheath his weapon again. The effect is to make the set feel precise, deliberate and just plain quick. Unlike Titan Weapons, Iai Blade is primarily lethal damage, mostly single target and operates with more damage over time than burst damage (emphasizing a speed-over-power approach).

I'll lay out the attacks below, giving my thoughts on both the mechanics and the animation and feel of them.

1) Razor Wind: This is a basic initial attack. Weapon is drawn in a backhand (right-to-left) horizontile arc or a forehand arc if already in Release form.

2) Twin Vipers: Another basic attack that hits harder than Razor Wind but does more damage. The weapon is drawn and swung twice to the left and then back to the right (or reversed if in Release form), similar to the tier 1 power in dual blades.

3) Earth and Sky: This stronger attack draws the sword in a swooping, vertical arc that launches the target upward (Knock Up) while doing good damage. Release form uses a simple upward swing.

4) Vengeful Raven Strike: Much as an angry raven, you go for your opponents eyes (or optic center, or viewing ports, etc.) in a singular lunge. This attack decreases perception and accuracy for the target. This attack requires the sword to be in Release form to use.

5) Release the Spirit: This power, when activated, immediately brings your sword into Release form and adds a good amount of damage and a small amount of accuracy for a brief time. (This power basically mimics Titan Weapons' 'Build Momentum' for purpose of effect.)

6) Lion's Tail Lash: Borrowing and improvising from battoujutsu, this attack swings the sheath in the right hand, smacking the opponent before it is then pulled away and the then exposed blade thrust into them. Release form would simply strike with the sheath and then stab with the sword. This attack can stun an opponent briefly.

7) Thousand Stinging Hornets: One of the two cone attacks in the set, the sword bearer stabs and thrusts the sword repeatedly in quick succession, causing damage to all enemies in its area of effect (similar in size to Shadow Maul). This attack requires the sword be in Release form to execute.

8) Fate is Sealed: This attack can only be achieved in Release form. The attack itself is deceptively weak, but holds a hidden secret power. The swordsman can choose to open previously unseen wounds by exerting his will through the sword. There is an additional amount of damage it can deal based on other attacks done in release mode. The attack is a simple flourish followed by sheathing the sword. This prematurely ends Release mode. Every attack done during Release form before activating Fate is Sealed adds to the additional damage (much in the same way as the critical system used in Street Justice). (Note: I took my influences from Baiken who had a finishing move that used this, causing her to slice once and then sheathing her blade causing the opponent's death. Setsuka has a similar maneuver that is also highly damaging, though not a finisher.)

9) Flight of the Dragon: Moving with blinding speed, the swordsman blurs toward a group of foes, slashing in a broad arc, possibly knocking them down. This is a teleport maneuver that uses the lightning speed anime swordsmen have (i.e. flash step, etc.). The horizontal attack arc is right-to-left if the sword is sheathed or reverse if it is in Release form.


There you go. I hope you like it. If you don't, let me know why. Thank you for your time.

Originally Posted by MisterMagpie

What the title says. Similar to baggy, but without the lines, can take a pattern, and with blaggy or loose long sleeves.

A very minor suggestion! But I think it'd be a nice addition. Right now I'm doing what I can to imitate it on my hero costume with tights top, and sleeves, but it doesn't feel right. I'd use baggy, but there's no matching sleeves for it.

Originally Posted by LSK

You for got to mention HAMI

Originally Posted by Forbin_Project

You can disagree all you like but he's still right. RMTer's aren't going to play by the rules and limit themselves to one channel, and most players will delete an AD channel from their chat tabs.



That idea is as bad as allowing RMTers to operate in the game. It turns the game into "pay to win" where only the players with the most money can afford to buy and sell stuff on the market.

---snip---

Originally Posted by Grouchybeast

So the first thing a player will see is a constantly scrolling list of people trying to get them to buy inf, burying all their tells, global channels, team chat etc.

Even people who wanted to buy inf still wouldn't want to see that. So at that point, players will either 1) leave the game, or 2) take the AD channel off their chat panel. This means that RMT traders would, exactly as now, go to broadcast, local and help to peddle their wares, and get banned exactly as they do now.

So all your suggestion would actually do is create a metric ton of ill-will for Paragon and work for the NCSoft CS as people lose their accounts and have their card details stolen and sold, because NCSoft have absolutely no way at all of telling in advance which seller is going to do that (other than 'a lot of them'). Only now, instead of NCSoft saying 'RMT is not allowed, and we will ban you for doing it', they're pushing their customers towards the rip-off merchants, so they will be blamed.

This is just a really bad idea, from top to bottom. There have been some truly terrible ideas posted in the Suggestions forum over the years I've been playing, but this is definitely one of the most unworkable and illogical. Dual Wield Bows would make more sense.

Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect

You still don't get my point.

Ebay and Craigslist are not the owners of the products being sold on their sites. They are nothing more than glorified classified ads. They have no IP or trademark rights involving the products sold on their sites. And they have measures in place to prevent people from being scammed on their sites.

It is entirely different for City of Heroes, because the product being sold by a third party is actually something owned by them. If they said it was okay for a third party to make a profit selling something they own and fraud results from that, they are responsible for it.

The point is hammered home even more when you think about the fact that the product being sold by these third parties is something that can be used within their IP and ONLY within their IP. You can't buy influence and take it to a different game, and you can't have it shipped to you so you can stockpile it in your hall closet. It only exists as a number within an online game.

Now, you've already outed yourself as someone who buys from RMT sellers. No one who doesn't would be this strongly in favor of it being allowed.

I'm pretty much done with this argument. It's pointless because you keep arguing against perfectly valid reasons why NCSoft and Paragon Studios will never embrace RMT sellers.

It has nothing to do with "fear", and everything to do with the fact that NCSoft and Paragon Studios have absolutely nothing to gain from doing it, and the potential to lose quite a bit. It makes no sense for them to do it.

Originally Posted by Forbin_Project

No big loss. If they wanted they could have easily circumvented rent by just removing the items that incur rent.


I say good riddance to deadbeats that expect to get full access to the game for free.

Originally Posted by Impish Kat

SG's do not solely fill those functions.
Teaming and global channels also fill those functions.

Just because a player may want a solo SG, doesn't mean they don't have friends or meet others or don't talk to people.

SG's are what the player makes of them.
And many players prefer to make them solo.
There's a difference between desire/intent and reality. The argument that SG's are "supposed" to be group content doesn't hold water to the way the players actually use them.

The problem I'm seeing is mixed signals from the Devs.
On the one hand, they've crippled SG's and bases to such an extent as to make them much less useful for larger groups.
This has caused an uptick in solo SG's.
On the other hand, they are not allowing features for the solo players because they "don't want a bunch of solo SG's using up all the resources".
There is some serious counter intuitive thinking going on here.

.

Originally Posted by Celestial Might

I see this statement mentioned often: “you’ll never get rid of it”. IMO focusing on the route cause and not the symptom gets you closer to ridding the game of these companies that sell influence. I have a lose idea of how you can do it. Like I posted earlier reduce the markets place in the game. Right now everything and anything is sold on the market. What if we increased the competition? What if we increased the capacity of the Merit vendors?

Merits cannot be traded. Incarante awards cannot be traded.

First, expand the options listed at Reward Merit, A-Merit, Astral Merit and Emp Merit vendors to all recipes and all salvage. Maybe you can add conversions of one type of merit to another. The devs can scale how much each item will sell for.

Next, bind all recipe drops to the account. What the??? You serious?? …hear me out. Base this on the Incarnate system where you can upgrade, downgrade, sidegrade or convert when necessary. In addition you can do the same for enhancements and salvage. The devs can apply the same type of conversion factors where you get diminishing returns but at least you can get exactly what you want. Refer to incarnate conversions for this idea.

Next, increase content that allows you to earn these types of merits. Looks like they're doing that with the new Dark Astoria so that's a definite step in the right direction but really why not open that reward system up to the entire game? This’ll reduce grinding a specific area.

In a smaller scale this model is already in place with the incarnate system. It works and everyone is happy. Take the principles of this model and apply it to the rest of the game.

Sounds like they’re kinda doing this already if you think about it… didn’t I hear something about recipe converters coming in issue 22? In the last couple of months haven’t we already added Astral and Emp Merit vendors that allow you to buy VR stuff and costume pieces? Yep, just keep going on this path and you’ll have access to everything and won’t need to buy 2billion influence with real money to obtain it.
Or is this just crazy talk? :P

Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect

Pretty basic point of trademark law.

A( If you do not defend your trademark when people infringe upon it, you risk losing the rights to that trademark.

Allowing a third party to profit from something you own the trademark on, without giving them express permission to do so falls into the category of "not defending their trademark"

If they look the other way and let the goldsellers operate, they are neither permitting them or actively fighting them. )

B If they come out and explicitly say it is okay to do, they are effectively allowing fraud to occur within their IP. IF even ONE case of credit card fraud can be traced back to a goldseller that operates in the game, they could be in deep.

CTheir current stance is the ONLY stance that protects them from the negative repercussions of this issue.

Originally Posted by ShaylaDominatrix

Thanks Guys that means a lot to me. I was able to find a friend who was willing to help me. I helped her out when she asked.
See! It does pay to ask for help on the help channel and I got helped back. Again you all have been encouraging and helpful Keep up the great work.
Just call me Shayla

Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect

Please explain to me how a company risking serious charges by allowing a third party to sell pieces of their intellectual property they have no rights to can possibly be "a positive step in a good direction". Because that's the situation.

A At bare minimum the servers would be shut down for the duration of any investigation, regardless of the end result. That's because it is standard procedure to shut down any site when the owners are being charged with internet fraud. They're hardly going to let a company continue to commit fraud while they're being investigated for it.

B Do you know why the Marvel lawsuit of a few years back happened? It happened because Marvel HAD to pursue legal action in order to defend their trademark rights.

C By allowing a third party company to use their intellectual property to profit from, without any rights or royalties being paid to the owner of that property, the owners of said property are essentially forfeiting their rights to it.

D Marvel had no choice but to sue, regardless of the outcome, or their ownership of their trademark rights would have been called into question.

E Same thing here.

F.a Not only would Paragon Studios, and by extension NCSoft, be risking their game being forcibly shut down, .b they would also be running the risk of losing their rights to it if they allow a third party to sell pieces of it for profit without making any attempt to stop them.

G Are any of those things especially likely to happen? Not really. But they'd have to be insane to risk it just so other people can illegally profit from their game.

H It's murky and difficult to follow, but what it boils down to is that it will NEVER be a good idea for Paragon Studios to embrace and/or encourage gold farmers. Your belief to the contrary is, I hate to say it, completely irrelevant to the issue.

No, that's not true. I didn't hate saying that at all.

Originally Posted by Texas Justice

I'm not sure why it's not what you expected from me, aside from the fact that you don't know me. People that know me would expect a comment exactly like that from me.

See that little at the end of the post? It's labeled as Roll Eyes (Sarcastic) when you hover over it. Just as your is labeled Big Grin when you hover over it.

I've said it in the past and I'll say it again now:

Other than my posts offering Technical help, if you aren't reading the sarcasm in my posts, you need to read it again.

Originally Posted by Texas Justice

And then you'll have people using the /ignorespammer command to grief other players into being unable to talk to anyone.

What's your global again? Just in case this gets implemented.