TyrantMikey

Further, if there are thematic issues with statues in the Rogue Isles, I'd propose the following:

Lord Recluse has established a new program that incorporates holographic 3D projectors to display his most wanted enemies. These projectors (developed by Dr. Aeon, of course) are distributed throughout the isles, and cycle through various wanted criminals at the rate of one criminal every 5 minutes. The projector displays the criminal as a massive image, 5 stories tall, in graphic detail, with a reward over his or her head. The image spins slowly so that everyone can get a good look.

Villains can sink their influence into getting onto this "holoprojection" list.

Handily, using a single holoprojection site that cycles through villain images uses less physical real estate than thousands of statues.

So then, the alternative is to simply ignore those players who do enjoy solo play, with the occasional team play sprinkled in.

Comic books are rife with examples of loner heroes: Batman, Punisher, Spider-man, and so on. By and large, they worked alone. The team-based play we see here is an abberation forced on us simply because this is an MMO. Don't overlook the RPG part: lots of us want to role-play loners. We shouldn't be penalized for that, or left in the dust in favor of teamers, who enoy end-of-mission bonuses, teaming benefits, and so on.

I fail to see how implementing features for solo play could possibly be construed as something wrong with the game.

The game is rife with casual players who have jobs, go to school, and manage families. They don't have tons of time to get involved in teams for a variety of reasons. Or, they simply prefer solo play. It has always been a design goal for the City of games that teaming was entirely optional.

However, over time, solo play became less appealing, leading many people to feel that they were being forced to team. This idea ran contrary to the stated design goals of the game. It was therefore corrected.

How could you possibly get the impression that that is wrong?

You know, I'm inclined to agree with you. Further, if the older content is removed from the game, new players will miss the content that connects the over-arching storyline to any new content that may come along. That would be a travesty.

Paragon is rife with advanced and mystical technology. We have the Menders, for instance. It's conceivable that heroes and villains alike could be sent to the future to prevent villains from coming to the past to wreak havoc or to work with future versions of their allies. This is a staple of comic book lore. This would give the devs a chance to create new versions of existing zones without replacing them, per se, and do it in a mission-based format.

Now, this is for the game as it currently stands. Since the press release regarding Ultra Mode, Positron posted the following information about graphics cards and minimum requirements:

• For buyers looking to spend under $100, NVidia 9800 GT meets the minimum card for enabling all features at reduced quality settings.
• For $100-$200, the Radion HD 4800 and GeForce GTX 260 provide mid-grade Ultra Mode quality.
• For over $200, the GeForce GTX 285 is an excellent choice, and provides the maximum quality.
• The Radeon 5770, a mid-range card, provides excellent performance.
• The Radeon 5870 is expected to be one of the fastest for Ultra Mode.
• Ultra Mode does not support SLI configurations.

In Positron's thread, Red_Green posted a link to a site contains a Graphics Hierarchy Chart, so that you can determine whether or not the card you have meets the minimum requirements. (For example, my current graphics card is an NVidia GeForce GTX 260. According to the chart, it performs roughly equivalent to a Radeon HD 5770. I should be good to go.)

Again, don't neglect your power supply.

SLI and Ultra Mode
I see many people in various threads talking about how they're looking forward to running Ultra Mode with their SLI configurations. However, Positron has specifically stated that Ultra Mode does not support SLI configurations (see his thread, linked above). I just thought people were overlooking that, and it needed stressing.

Marcian, you're a venerable Tower of Logic, Reasoning, and Sanity, and I have the utmost respect for your opinion. But I have to ask:

For those of us who've been playing the game for 5 years and more, do you really expect us to read through the mission text, examine the clues, and delve into story lines that we've already experienced over and over and over again?

My theory is that at some point--because we haven't really gained any significant boost to the amount of content story-wise in a while--it all becomes farming, because you are just repeating missions you've done over and over and over again. Roll up any new character. Everything that new character will be something you've already done. Repeatedly. I challenge you to find a contact you haven't run through, a mission you haven't completed.

I'm sure others will disagree. But if we widen our perspective to encompass the entire lifetime of our characters and our careers within the game, we have to admit: it's just a case of repeating the same missions over and over again. I fail to see how that's different from farming. And honestly, once I've learned the lore, I'm not going to waste a lot of time learning it again.

I think so, Brain. But if we give the Qs a chance, won't the Pews get jealous?

What's more petulant is when someone spouts "QQ MOAR" in chat or the forums. It only makes them look like an ***.

I LOLed.

Mom and I have watched that show forever. We used to take bets on how long it would be into each episode before Lana cried.

So, I would support a KKS entry, but maybe not for the reasons you think.

I realize you're talking about villainous builds largely, here, but I take issue with the idea of kicking someone who ignores their secondary. I play fire/fire blasters quite a bit, and in the process I intentionally ignore every single power in the secondary set that forces me to close to within melee range.

I'm a blaster. My hit points suck. I have no real defenses (well, maybe a paltry fire shield). Some folks may love the idea of wading into battle and being pounded on, but as a soloist, I don't. I belong in the air, raining down death and destruction from a safe distance. Bullets hurt a hell of a lot less than fists, in my experience.

But, if I took Fire Sword, Fire Sword Circle, Combustion, Blazing Aura, Consume, Burn, and Hot Feet, I'd have to be within melee range for them to be effective. That's not where I want to be. On a team, where healers and buffers can mitigate the damage, it's a different story. On my own, I'm just asking for a face plant.

So the only powers I take from that set are Ring of Fire and Build Up. They fit the concept. I may take others, but only if I have to because nothing else is available. And if I take them, it's exceedingly rare that I use them.

Would you kick me from your team because of that?

BACK ALLEY BRAWLER

For everyone's favorite gang-buster, I chose Morpheus meets Samuel L. Jackson as my inspiration. I chose to ditch the hair, upgrade the arms, and give him a scar, as proof of his time served against the gangs.


SISTER PSYCHE

This girl needed a serious upgrade. For her, I chose to use Trinity from The Matrix as my inspiration. I covered her up topside, and added some fishnets below; the sunglasses help give her that "Go ahead, make my day" look. A change in hair color was desperately needed.


MANTICORE

This guy is tough to design without his headpiece. It's hard to design a character who's supposed to be a lion and a scorpion. Still...


POSITRON

These guys have been operating in Paragon City for a long time. And for as long as they have been doing it, you'd have figured that Positron would have figured out how to make his armor less bulky. I figured it was time to do that. This version of Positron assumes that his armor is made of a flexible fibre with the electronics woven into it to generate the shielding; the added flexibility makes him more combat effective. Also, the visor grants him vastly improved combat assessment capabilities.

*BOGGLE*

Why on earth haven't I requested a Dino Mastermind before? He'd be limited to prehistoric weaponry, but you get the picture. (Creature selection limited to supported skeletons).

Dino Powerset
Spear - Ranged, Minor Damage (Lethal)
Call Velociraptor - Summon 1-3 Velociraptors
Poison Spear - Ranged Minor Damage (Lethal) Foe -Dmg, Foe -Rech
Encourage - Ranged Equip Dinosaur Henchman
Rain of Spears - Ranged (Cone) Moderate Damage (Lethal) Foe: Knockdown
Call Allosaurus - Summon 1-2 Allosauruses
Dino Swarm - Summons a swarm of approximately 10 velociraptors.
Call Tyrannosaur - Summon Tyrannosaur
Empower - Ranged Upgrade Dinosaur Henchman

Define "stuck in the pre-patching stage."

Depending on how long you've been gone, there could be a signficiant amount of updating to do. Patience, my young padawan. Even on my fairly powerful machine, patching can sometimes take quite a while to apply.

If it takes an exorbitant amount of time, however, that's probably indicative of a different issue. Possibly a firewall issue (the update server is *not* a game server, IIRC).

I completely agree, actually. I think the blind market works as is, and should not be touched.

This could be prevented by implementing a rule that specified that a given group could only extend X number of invites per day via email.

Example: Paragon Defense League has 15 members, and wishes to extend its roster. However, across its entire roster, no more than 5 invites may be extended via email per day. Spamming problem solved.

You might lift the rule for alts, but if an invite is sent to any global name that is not already in the group, it counts towards the 5 message per day limit.

Difference: You'd have to travel to the vault. Email is accessible from anywhere.

It's a matter of convenience.