UberRod

Originally Posted by Panzerwaffen

Find somewhere where there are a large number of spawns with gray conning bosses. Defeat the bosses and ignore the trash mobs. Boss rank enemies have a much higher chance of dropping tips than others.

Originally Posted by sleestack

No. That would blow.

Thank you, thank you! I'm here through Thursday. Try the veal. Don't forget to tip your server!

Originally Posted by Inazuma

That's the "icanhazcheezburger?" powerset.

Originally Posted by Obsidius

Note: this thread is for discussion of I20 theories and is nothing more than speculation, plain and simple. This thread should not be used to break the I20 NDA. We can safely discuss theories around I20, so long as they don't purportedly break the NDA.

In past closed betas, NDAs have been inferred through the closed beta user agreement, whereas one agrees to an electronic NDA when logging in. For Issue 20, according to the PAX CoH panel, Issue 20 beta supposedly started last week underneath a physical, signed NDA (IIRC, the last time there was a signed NDA was for the first and second waves of closed beta for I14 - Architect, signed by HeroCon attendees).

What does that mean for Issue 20?

They're probably testing more than just content. Even the GR closed beta didn't require a signed NDA; it just used the standard digital NDA that most closed betas use.

Which means...?

It means they're probably working on a system, a big system; probably bigger than the Alignment System (which didn't require a signed NDA), but maybe something as big as the Architect System (which did require a signed NDA).

Something else to consider are teh red names who have cut down on their amount of posting (presumably because they're working their butts off): Back Alley Brawler (Animations), Castle (Powers), Pohsyb (Coding), and SexyJay (Art). (Sure, Noble Savage has been posting, but he might have more time to post than Jay. He's also been helping to run an art asset contest that's related to his department.)

What sort of "big systems"?

Obviously, no one who can post about it can tell us because of the NDA. But there are a few items that have come to mind, thanks to a previous thread.

Here are some possibilities:


Power Pool Customization:

Honestly, I don't think this one would require an NDA, unless it included some sweeping changes, like some serious travel power customization options. Low-hanging fruit (relatively speaking) would include alternate travel animations; more code intensive ideas would include vehicles (and coding when vehicles can and can't be used, like in buildings). Power Pool customization in itself is something the devs want to pursue, but the extent of the customization may determine the budget, resources, and level of testing security involved. It would also tie in with one of Castle's few recent posts about adding alternate animations to certain powers.

This project would involve Art, Coding, Powers, and Animation departments.


Separate Upper/ Lower Torso Animations:

PvP changes have been rumored ever since I13. There are many players who did not like the added handicaps of travel suppression, which was created to even out the problems with power rooting.

Because the game engine currently can't animate the upper and lower torso independently, attacks generally root characters, meaning that jousting in PvP is problematics, especially with travel powers like Super Speed or Super Jump; by the time a character can retaliate, the target may already be too far away, with the character rooted during the attack unable to return the joust.

However, if the game engine and animations were recoded to allow upper and lower torso animations separate of each other, players could attack and move simultaneously, in PvE or PvP. This would eliminate rooting, making travel suppression a moot point, and could rewrite the book on PvP. Of course, PvE enemies would enjoy the benefits too, making for more interesting encounters.

The level of such a change would be massive, and typically require a whole new game, because the game engine itself would require modification, not to mention about every animation in the game (including those for non-human frames, such as Jaegers, Arachnos spiders, Snakes, etc.). However, given enough time and resources, such a change could happen in an existing game, it would just require a lot of people and/ or a lot of man-hours. Considering I13 came out in 2008, they may have had a bit of time to work on this already, although Power Customization also took a big bite out of the Animation team's schedule.

This project would involve Art, Coding, Powers, and Animation departments.


Diminishing Returns in PvE (credit to Samuel_Tow & james_joyce):

Back when the Master of Statesman's Task Force badge was being put into the game, Clear Mind almost suffered a big nerf, in order to reduce effectiveness in stacking. Part of the reason was Ghost Widow. Even with a Mag 100 Hold (Soul Storm), stacked applications of Clear Mind made her hold all but a moot point. Castle's best solution, as he mentioned, would have been to apply diminishing returns to player buffs, whereas the first application applied at full strength, the second application less so, and so on until the nth application provided no benefit. Lacking the tech at the time, Castle reverted the changes to Clear Mind, and everyone was happy (except for Ghost Widow, who continued to get pwnd by teams loaded with CM).

As most PvPers can tell you, DR does exist in PvP. But applying this tech in PvE wouldn't be so much as a balancing issue as possibly opening the game up to more interesting encounters as well as creating a new path for character progression.

But why now? Mostly because of the Incarnate System. If DR were added to PvE, the devs would be able to create Incarnate-level enhancements that might bypass it (or part of it), similar to what the Alpha slot does by bypassing part of ED (at least the version seen in GR closed beta).

This would obviously be a mixed bag change similar to ED, the difference being that if it were rolled out with an Incarnate-level system that works with it, it would lessen the sting that some players would undoubtedly feel. It would also make some existing encounters more interesting, and allow the devs to buff some buffs, knowing that DR would even out multiple applications. It would also require a ton of shake-down by the devs to lessen player reception issues that were seen with ED and I13.

This project would involve the Coding and Powers departments, but probably not the Art or Animation departments.


What do you think? Do you have any of your own crazy theories about Issue 20 and what could be under the NDA? Consider this more of a brainstorming thread as opposed to "holding your breath" thread. Also, if you're under NDA, please don't get yourself in trouble by posting info under the NDA.

Originally Posted by SonicRemedy

See I thought I was thinking about it too much. I had noticed others were using some formula when checking there attack chain. I thought it was more then the arcana time formulas XD Oh well, no harm no foul. Thanks for the help

Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha

The low quality Praet star in the background lets it down.
Still, it looks really nice =] Keep 'em coming, GG.

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

"3D" needs to die in a fire, and soon. It has ruined more good movies than I care to mention, and I shudder to think about it coming to games as a natively supported feature. I'm not just against this because it craps all over image quality and makes me cross-eyed. I'm against this because I hate the technology on principle and would hate to see it proliferated any further.

Originally Posted by Symar

Whre's this at? I'd like to see it.

Originally Posted by NuclearToast

I just signed up for the 12+2 month promotion. It'll take effect when my current subscription expires in June 2011. Paid up until August 2012? That =IS= a lifetime on the internet!

--NT

Originally Posted by Arcanaville

God-like?

My only worry there is that people are actually starting to extrapolate Freem to figure out what the rest of the Incarnate system will be like, specifically level shifts.

Depressingly, it turns out at the end of time, I will be able to obliterate archivillains with power blast, stand toe to toe with the crystal titan, laugh at ghost widows's mez, and turn Statesman and Recluse into crash test dummies. I will have the power of the gods at my command and become an unstoppable force to rival the combined might of the greatest entities in all the dimensions. And yet, my flight speed will still suck.

Originally Posted by Clebstein

The sarcasm is cute, despite not addressing the point at all.

I guess what it boils down to is that I wouldn't bother with the arc if there was no reward, so I really have no interest in doing it just for a reward.

...And yes I'm aware that sounds really backwards.

Originally Posted by Dark_Respite

I've had an absolute field day playing through the Resistance>Warden arc with the Praetorian version of Andrea Blake. I can't say she's LIKED every Praetorian she's met, but she respects most of them. (Not all. The ones who want to blow up hospitals, she'd happily beat into the ground.)

And everything she does is motivated by giving people a CHOICE. I've not had the chance yet to go through the others, but I'm curious if all the arc paths start 'small' and end up affecting things on a larger scale. That's why principles are such slippery things to hold on to...

*spoilers follow*

Force Paolo to leave or allow him to stay? I let him stay - forcing him to leave "for his own good and the good of others" smacked too much of what Cole and his regime are about.

Free the Seers or not? This one was harder for me, but I did it anyway and freed them - because the burden of adhering to and enforcing moral and humane behaviour should be borne by each individual, not forced onto the shoulders of a select few, some of whom didn't want that burden to begin with.

Blow up the Enriche plant? At that one, I balked - I couldn't do it... I sat at my computer and argued with myself for a good 10 minutes about whether I'd do it or not, and was almost set to blow it up... but six months of suffering and disease and death just so Vanguard could come in and 'save' them? No. Deliberately bringing the populace to the brink of disaster and then rescuing them sounded too much like what Cole had done, and look where that ended up.

*end spoilers*

It's this distinct lack of "black and white" that I'm really liking about GR... if heroism were easy, everyone would do it. And how many villains are just true anarchists? It's those subtle shades of grey that I think are making these some of the best arcs in the game. Now if we could get more like these in PC and the RI, this game really would take on a whole new dimension.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite