Ultimo_
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Posts
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Joined
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Last week, I was recruited to a TF team. My Defender is L33, FF/Nrg+Flight/Ldr.
Having recently respecced, my solo build (no team bubbles) was fully slotted and working well. My Team build (with the bubbles and fewer attacks) was completely unslotted.
I informed the team leader of this, and asked if she would prefer me to switch to the team build. I informed her that my Dispersion Bubble plus other defensive measures were nearly as effective as the bubbles, and that I would rather stay on the solo build so I could fight, too. She said I was recruited for the bubbles, and should switch builds.
I did so, and we began. I found the team rarely stayed together and often moved so fast through the maps that I didn't have time to bubble people, so I switched back (I didn't mention it, to avoid any grief). There was little change in the team dynamic, except that I was now able to fight alongside the team. No one noticed that I had changed builds.
My question is, what would you have preferred if you were the team leader? Would you have preferred an unslotted buff-bot to a solo oriented but effective Defender?
Just curious. -
I once suggested elsewhere that pure damage sets be interchangable. That is, you could take Energy Blast or Energy Assault or Energy Melee, and the overall power of each set would be equivalent. I mean, damage is damage, it doesn't matter much whether it's from a range or in melee.
I'd suggested it for Tankers, and the objection was that ranged attacks would make for even more mitigation for Tankers, which some deemed inappropriate. However, allowing Defenders to use melee powers wouldn't be more defensive, so I don't see an issue here. -
What I often do is put the protector bots on passive and everyone else on Defensive (or offensive).
Of course, I play Bots/FF, so I have time between buffs to control individual bots. -
I agree, this is an annoyance. I have similar problems on my Mercs (the Medic insists on making himself the main target) and on my Thugs (Arsonists tend to run up close and get killed).
Really, for some time now, I've stopped playing my Masterminds, though the issue is largely the "Run Away" AI of the foes. My pets engage, one or two foes run away, and my bots chase them, aggroing everything on the map. The only thing I can do is hit Follow repeatedly until they obey (5 or 6 commands usually is necessary), and wait 5 minutes for the foes to come back.
I mean, my other characters still have to wait, but they don't have bots running around willy nilly aggroing everything in sight. -
While I sympathize, and to some extent agree, I also think they were entitled to play their character as they saw fit. It sounds like they did the job you wanted them for (healing, no wipes).
I'll also point out that the Positron TF happens PRE-STAMINA. Using their endurance on things like Clear Mind and Fortitude might not have been the best course, depending on circumstances. Empathy can be pretty heavy on endurance. -
Quote:Shouldn't you have said, "Them's fightin' words, bub..." if you're a regen Scrapper?Originally Posted by FunstuffofDoom
Them's fightin' words, boyo, and while you're in the right place for that, you're like to find you're a wee bit outnumbered. -
Quote:He's not, and he's right.Originally Posted by Clouded
They make these special hats for people like you and you can pick one up from your local store...just look for a box labeled "aluminum foil."
But feel free to continue this baseless assumption as I find it entertaining...WAIT! Are you Ultimo's 2nd account?!!?
I was negative repped just for agreeing with him. -
Quote:Ok... Something about Legacy of Kain...Originally Posted by Ultimus
Nope but here's a hint:
Vae Victus, suffering to the conquered, ironic now I was the one suffering...
and
Paladin
Those are the hints
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Well, Facade wouldn't necessarily want "perfect" citizens, just ones that don't irrationally hate, fear and kill.
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Quote:Well said.Originally Posted by ToySoldierZolgar
Ones worth as a poster is subjective, based off numerous factors.
And, see, I was making a point with perhaps information that was untrue. Judging someone by their rep, is .. idiotic. I did not intend it to sound as if I really felt that way. (I dislike his atitude about rep "It's fine, leave it as is, if you don't like it you're just a worthless poster with a bad rep.")
To say "Well, he has a red rep, that means he's got no worth as a poster." is no different than saying "Well, he has a green rep, which means he just tends to follow whatever the popular opinion is, and is otherwise well-liked on the forums."
they are both equally meaningless statements that are only true in some cases.
And, for those who've said there isn't a running "popular opinion" on this forum.
You have no idea what you're talking about. Look at this specific forum, look at a lot of the hot threads in the I16 section.
You will find that a large number of the forum-base lean in one direction. Those who lean in the opposite direction are repeatedly neg-repped for "not getting it."
(see, I like doing it this way, rather than a useless, pointless rep mark) -
Quote:Here's a couple of threads I posted in the past...Originally Posted by Ultimo_
I picked Superman for my example as he's an iconic character. You could pick anyone. What would Spiderman do? He'd go in and rescue people. What would the X-Men do? They'd break into two squads, one to go in and rescue people, the other to slow the fire and support the building.
As for threads, I've posted many. I'll see if I can find the links when I get back from school. I've posted regarding the fires, the Invasions, villains, and more, and I've always been careful to try and stay within the limits of the game's capabilities.
As I say, more later.
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=143439
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=184900
A loooong time ago, I posted an idea for giving Villains Agendas. It would allow a higher level villain (L30+) to select an Agenda (eg, conquer the world) and a mechanism (with an army of Giant Robots, or orbital mind control lasers, or what have you). He would then collect objectives (eg. materials, a base, and so on), against increasing resistance until he reaches a final mission in which he will face "impossible" odds. His goal in this kobayashi maru mission is to survive for whatever time (say, 10 minutes of being besieged by the entire assembled Freedom Phalanx). Survival gives him a temp power related to the mechanism he chose (say, a temp power that summons a giant robot). Actually DEFEATING the impossible mission would have several effects. FIrst, he would get the temp power as mentioned. He would also get a second temp power, a toggle that would make him the equivalent of an AV for a short time. Third, it would create a world event, related to his goal and mechanism. In the example, giant robots would spawn in all zones in a manner similar to Rikti Invasions.
That thread seems to have disappeared, but this description should give you the gist. -
Quote:Actually, I could see Dull Pain being your Alpha mitigator. However, I see your point.Originally Posted by Schismatrix
Actually, though this is some time in the past, analysis done by Arcanaville and others showed that Brutes and (especially) Tankers would never get regen because it would be weaker for them than other sets, not even close to overpowered. This is especially true against alpha strikes, which is something Brutes and Tankers face often. (MoG is now pretty good for alphas, but still not always ideal.)
i suppose a reworked version of regen would be doable. Add some def and res toggles to help with alpha strikes and a reworked regen toggle that gets stronger with more enemies around you. Maybe add a theme like superior psi res and def to distinguish it from regen. Call it something like... "Willpower." -
Quote:If you're going to insult someone, at least spell everything correctly. Infantilizing someone by characterizing their comments as "whining" or "crying" is an ad hominem attack, and does nothing to strengthen your position, nor weaken theirs. That's to say nothing about being uncalled for.Originally Posted by Nethergoat
Your ability to intentionally misinterpret things is perhaps your most impressive skill.
Power customization is a major addition to the character creator, a game feature with broad appeal. Players have wanted it for ages, and it will soak up many game hours of player time as they mess around with it.
That makes it good content.
It isn't aimed at fascinating anyone endlessly, it's aimed at expanding a popular game feature.
Your position requires pretending that GR isn't looming on the horizon and soaking up all the efforts of the 'story' team. Or pretending it's going to suck.
I don't find either pretense believable.
The last paid expansion we got kicked all kinds of butt, and so will this one.
No you aren't, your crying about not getting what GR is going to deliver.
You have unrealistic expectations and then you whine when the devs don't meet them.
I am far from a dev fanboi and I think they've been doing a great job.
Criticism of their output over the last few issues is the expression of some deep-rooted pathology, because it is not rooted in reality. -
Rep doesn't tell you anything. I have seen posters (I'll not name names) who have bar after bar of green rep who rarely post anything except insults and who repeatedly troll threads. Their rep isn't indicative of ANYTHING.
Rep on these forums is used to send insults and beratement, and little else. It is not productive in any way, and is in fact a destructive, judgemental system that promotes little more than animosity.
The notion that you could somehow judge someone's "value" based on their forum activity is frankly insulting.
I didn't turn off my rep because I'm somehow ashamed of it. In fact, I'm the sort that might even take some pride in it, as it proves that I don't often bend to the will of the popular majority, and stand by my convictions.
I turned it off to avoid having to put up with the endless crap I get from anonymous rep trolls. Unfortunate that it didn't work that way. I leave it off because it's worthless.
I stand by my assertion. It should be dispensed with.
(And I don't give a damn that there have been other threads on this, I'll post what I like, when I like. Maybe if they see enough complaining threads, they'll get rid of a stupid system.)
Oh, and Ultimus, your avatar is a little fuzzy, but it looks like the paper doll from Elder Scrolls: Arena... -
Quote:No, the question is, when does it become wrong? I mean, messing with Bin Laden might not have an effect, but what if you did it to all of Al Qaeda? And why stop there? That's Facade's dilemma. Why stop with the extremists? If it's not wrong to take the destructive impulses away from the extremists, why would it be wrong to take similar impulses from everyone else?Originally Posted by Omega_Chief
So, the question is, is it worth messing with what fundamentally makes someone who they are worth it when odds are it'll have no effect anyway?
In my book, no, not at all.
Best to remember that the road to hell is pathed with good intentions, and no matter how good an action may feel or seem on paper it migh not be the right thing to do.
Sure, there's a downside, as Xavier would point out, but does the good outweigh the bad? -
Quote:Heh. You may be right, there.Originally Posted by FloatingFatMan
That's an easy one to answer. They'd call him an infidel, cut is head off, then go out and blow up another bus/plane/marketplace/whatever.
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Quote:Ah, but you see, if you could control his mind, you might turn him to more positive ends. How would his followers react if he turned them away from violence? Either way, Bin Laden was only the door into the greater ethical dilemma.Originally Posted by Ravenswing
Frankly, the question is not whether that's ethical, which it isn't, but whether there's even the slightest point.
Bin Laden, like Hitler and many others, is a figurehead and removing that focus does not automatically lead to the removal of the issue associated with it. I'm no political analyst, but I'd guess that Bin Laden is not required to keep radical terrorists going. 'Editing' his mind would do nothing, a lot of his people would assume he had been 'messed with' and plot something bigger and nastier. -
Quote:The rep system doesn't show the "net worth" of anything, least of all a POSTER. I only see certain cliques roasting people that disagree with them. It's not about quality or worth, it's about popularity.Originally Posted by Bill Z Bubba
I'll be answering all these at once.
The rep system does, barring aforementioned exceptions, show the "net worth" of a given poster. It IS to be used to share one's opinion of another poster with the rest of the forum's population.
In this case, I gave Ultimo negative rep because I find his repeated starting of new threads on existing topics annoying and I often find his posts in general to be poorly thought out. His tirades in the past regarding not being able to build tankmages as per his favorite fictional character are a prime example. (Don't get me wrong, I think Iron Man rocks as well. Used to collect the comic.)
I don't neg rep people out of petty vindictiveness. I do so with the intent that keeping their rep low will either leave them in the red, or cause them to disable it to hide their shame, so that others viewing their posts can easily ascertain whether the post in question should be bothered with.
In other words, TSZ, I don't share your opinion that the rep system isn't representative of one's worth in this virtual community. Again, barring some exceptions.
Ultimo, it does not surprise me that you don't think your negative rep and comments are deserved. I, otoh, do.
And Leo, thank you for the negative rep. I'm glad to see you using the system. You even signed it. However, we disagree. I neg rep not only for individuals simply, as you put it in your comment, "acting like a ******," but also when I find their opinion to be lacking substance and worth.
I'm certainly not going to neg rep someone because they disagree with me. Were I to do that I'd be spending 99% of my forum dwelling time filling in comments. No thanks.
I'll stick to neg repping those that I feel deserve it, usually with a signature and an explanation if I feel they deserve such an effort, but sometimes with nothing more than a period when I don't.
Again, you're giving me bad rep for starting threads, but I've not started threads as you suggest. I've posted in numerous threads started by OTHER people, though. As for my supposed fixation on Iron Man (mentioned twice now), the only reason that seems to be the case is that, as I said, I can be rather stubborn, even dogged. I never give up trying to make a character LIKE Iron Man - that is, one that has defenses and ranged attacks (and as I've often said, in BALANCE. I've never asked for a tank-mage).
You assume I'm "hiding" my shameful rep. Frankly, I could care less what any of the forum trolls think of me, I simply don't want to be bothered with ongoing mud-slinging. Unfortunately, turning it off hasn't slowed down the petty childishness.
I'll point out that I only apply rep in exceptional circumstances. Someone has to be particularly rude or hostile to recieve negative rep from me. I NEVER apply negative rep for someone's IDEAS, and I would certainly never attempt to evaluate someone's WORTH from a handful of forum posts. -
Quote:I picked Superman for my example as he's an iconic character. You could pick anyone. What would Spiderman do? He'd go in and rescue people. What would the X-Men do? They'd break into two squads, one to go in and rescue people, the other to slow the fire and support the building.Originally Posted by rian_frostdrake
ok here we go again, you expected multiple distinct time travel zones in a single issue, do you know any mmo that has had the manpower to pull off that outside of a paid expansion?
next we get the rwz, do other hazard zones have a level 50 raid for people to run? do we have a lot of other co-op zones? for its time, rwz was quite impressive, plus the issue moved the story foreward and introduced more costume bits than had been introduced in a single issue in a long time. perhaps you could do more than dismiss it offhand as just another hazard zone.
as for the invasions, of what happens if there arent enough people in the zone and the rikti win? is the zone taken out of commission? massive damage? will this be problematic for quests, or worse yet, task forces going on. how do you balance the feeling of risk vurses the feeling of frustration. answer all these and then you can get into squeezing that into the development budget.
finally, interesting that you picked superman, there are a lot of players who dont play anything like him, so we are programming in all these things for every powerset, right? and where do these water towers come from, we revamping the zone AND adding a carrying mechanic(can one be added without introducing a ton of bugs?)? Maybe all these potential things you mention just wouldnt work in the game. how many powersets can blow out fire? how many can hold up the building? just super strength, or more? what if no superstrengthers are in the zone? where the heck did batman come from, is this team only now? that will bug the soloists. and how do we keep it from being grief-able. I mean again, there are ideas that sound good when kept entirely general, but lets lay down the specifics, because you are committing resources for your game that arent making the 5 distinct time travel zones, or the animations that that one guy and a few of his friends on the forum want NOW. You simply have to be somewhat realistic and not expect something to be able to be done fast, bug free and to your exact specs because you read it in a comic book.
I am somewhat blessed in this regard, because i often will have an AMAZING idea, and just before i show my brilliance to the world on the suggestions forum, i call a friend of mine who also plays coh, and understands programming and game design a good bit better than i. so i ask him to destroy my idea, and darned if he usually doesn't...mercilessly... perhaps you need a friend like this, to reality check your ideas a bit, because they have a frustrating tendencies to not work out as well as they seem in your head.
As for threads, I've posted many. I'll see if I can find the links when I get back from school. I've posted regarding the fires, the Invasions, villains, and more, and I've always been careful to try and stay within the limits of the game's capabilities.
As I say, more later. -
Quote:Interestingly, every one of the things you mention is something I thought, "Great idea, poorly implemented."Originally Posted by Bad_Influence
It cannot be denied that there is a great deal of truth in what you say, Ultimo.
We've been waiting a very long time indeed for new story content, and the last big influx of that we had was.... the launch of CoV!!? Can it really have been that long ago? I think so. The RWZ was a step in the right direction, so was Cimerora [although Cim fits about as well into the Paragon universe as Asgard does into Marvel's..... or, not all that well, imo].
What else have we had?:
*Crafting! YAY, L00T! And hence the influx of 100 million-inf. recipes, many of which have 0 for sale, anyways. Way to excite me; this part of the game seems to actually be devolving instead of evolving. Instead of people being able to trick themselves out as desired, we encounter an ever-tightening spiral of absolutely berserk prices. No one recipe is worth a billion Inf, sorry. [Apologists for this system, spare me your flames please.]
*Oroborous. Yay! We can run the same content we've seen a million times, a bunch more times? Ok. Useful for missing badges & not much else, to me. I know some people enjoy this.
*Rikti War Zone. Well, its something different to do, and we can unlock cool stuff there. I'd like to see more stuff added to the zone, but how likely is that....? You guessed correctly.
*Invasions. Well, again: something new to do, thank the good Lord for that. We get badges and accolades, and these helped up level up lowbies until xp was nerfed into the ground because evidently, leveling up these days is an exploit in and of itself. These are usually pretty fun, everyone gets to fight together.
I avoid the fires in Steel because I consider the temp power to have a stupidly long recharge time. Its about as fun as having a tooth pulled, as is a surprising amount of the really old content.
Things have improved, we just need more improvement. So I am still hoping GR will make me proud, against all odds.
I thought inventions might allow temporary powers and such (a la Reed Richards), but no. When I sa what we got, I was horrified. One of the best things about the game was that there was NO loot. This simply added a culture of haves and havenots. No player controlled economy that I've ever seen has worked.
My hopes for Ouroboros was that we might travel to different times, like ancient Rome, WW2 or outer space. Nope, we got a rehash of old content.
The Rikti War Zone is just another hazard zone. Not much happening there.
The invasions amount to little more than Rikti coming for the sole purpose of getting kicked around. What are they trying to accomplish? How about some objectives? Something they're trying to DO when they invade?
I already mentioned the fires. There's just so many more things that they could have happening. I mean, ask yourself, what would Superman do? Would he go to the only fireman in the city and get a backpack to spritz water uselessly on a fire? No, he'd grab a water tower off a nearby building and pour water on the fire, or blow it out with his breath. He might fly in and rescue the kids trapped in their closet. He might hold the building up, while Batman gets the kids. It's just one more thing with gobs of potential that the devs failed to realize, even a little, for whatever reason. -
The distinction I was getting at with this scene was that it's somewhat unclear, ethically, where the line can be drawn, if at all.
The thought occurred to me that a telepath could easily find Osama Bin Laden, but what to do with him? Killing him outright would create a martyr. Turning him over for trial would create a focus for further violence. So what would you do?
My thinking was a telepath could "edit" Bin Laden's mind so he'd not be inclined to hate and kill for no reason. That led me to the ethical dilemma. Is it right to do this? Does it take away his "right" to free thought? Is that right more valuable than the lives of the people he might kill?
With this in mind, I universalized it and set it in the scene you see at the start of the thread.
The scene played out in my head many times, and then DC published the very excellent Identity Crisis story, which touched on similar themes. It was after this that I thought to post the thread.
(I should also say, I mean no social of political disrespect in this, and if anyone takes offense or is upset in any way by this post, I do apologize.) -
Quote:I have relatively low hopes for Rogue. The reason is that I have lost a lot of confidence in the Devs here. I'm sure that they're good people and all, but I sometimes wonder if they ever read a comic book. They take good ideas, and execute them in a half-hearted way.Originally Posted by Bad_Influence
You were not the person to whom I was responding, but nonetheless some actual polite, calmly-stated conversation is always welcome.
I am waiting with interest to see what happens with Going Rogue. I have very high expectations and will they be borne out? We shall see.... but it is time for some content, and quite a bit of it, with teeth. Make me proud, devs
A good example is the fires in Steel. Can we rescue people trapped in the burning building? Is there a Paragon Fire Department, fiighting the fire? No, it's just another "beat things up" scenario, with a nonsensical conclusion.
Another is street sweeping. I've seen dozens of good ideas regarding how to make patrolling the streets more interesting and interactive, but none have happened. Instead we got a lame system of monitoring police radios for bland missions.
I'm well aware that there are some limitations in the engine, but many suggestions have been made over the years that couldn't take THAT much effort to realize. I don't know why it is, but the Devs never seem to get it quite right. They stop part way.
Consider the new upgrade. We can now change the colours of our powers, but only some. We can't change pool powers, and some power sets have startlingly limited changes available.
How about the new animations for Super Strength? I'm sure they've seen Vanden's avatar by now, surely they realize how much better those animations would be (and they're ALREADY in the game!) than the ones we have now?
Every time there's a new "improvement," it's invariably distinctly disappointing. Thus, I have no particularly high hopes for Going Rogue. Hopefully, I'll be pleasantly suprised. -
You're quite right, Bill, I should have noted that I was pleased you had the courtesy to sign your comment.
That said, I do not believe I have EVER deserved any of the negative rep, and I certainly haven't ever deserved the insults. My problem is that I often don't agree with the "party line," and I'm not one of those that will capitulate at the first sign of resistance. I never instigate any namecalling or any other hostile behaviour, other than simple disagreement. Some people here can't tolerate that I refuse to submit meekly, and I suffer abuse for it.
Now, with the rep system, they can abuse me in complete anonymity. I've reported these kinds of comments, and I've turned off my rep because I grew tired of recieveing them and tired of reporting them. It's a system that creates far more animosity than anything else. -
Quote:
Quit posting new threads on existing topics and your rep might not suck so badly. -Bill Z Bubba
I'll point out for Bill that the vast majority of threads that I get slagged in are not threads that I start.
I think there's been three threads that I started on Defender Balance (for example), and more than a dozen of other people's, yet I get twenty negative marks for every post I make (regardless of what I say in the posts), usually either the standard, unhelpful "Don't get it" or a variety of insults.
In any case, I, and others who have thoughts to express will continue to post threads on whatever topics we wish, no matter how insulting certain members of the community might get.
I refuse to be shouted down (though, I am not unreasonable), and as some will tell you, I can be remarkably stubborn.
If the rep system is going to be used as a means of anonymously insulting people, then I have to describe IT as the waste of space. If someone feels they have to attack me, they should do it publicly and prove just how childish they truly are. -
Well, I continue to get new negative messages daily, even though I've turned off Rep. I've messaged the boards, I've messaged the mods. Nothing is being done, and it's really starting to irritate me.
Can we at least have it turn the hell off when we turn it off?!