Venture

Renowned
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  1. Venture

    Farm Reviews

    Quote:
    The fire/farms are nowhere near the exploit farms you mention, even the lowbie farms aren't even close and we are talking order of magnitude to the past exploits.
    O rly?
  2. Quote:
    Yeah I wish they'd get rid of the 'required' contacts/runs, like Wincott, the PvP contacts, Jim Temblor, etc. I could see if you're new to the game, but after being around a few years... I get tired of getting forced to go run to them before my contacts will give me anything else. It's almost like they don't want my help!
    All of this crap needs to go, time frame five minutes ago.

    We have pop-up help (remember that? no? neither did the designers, instead we got a pair of superfluous "tutorial" arcs coming that do a good job of showing off mediocre characters someone thought were clever and a horrible job of actually teaching anything). We have an email system; the game could generate emails from Detectives or Contacts telling the player about new opportunities. We don't need these endless run-all-over-hell's-half-acre tasks to tell people about things they already know of after they've leveled one character.
  3. Venture

    News from PAX

    I'm with Sam. If the changes to RWZ required as much work as the changes to Faultline then something is dreadfully wrong with the way things are being done.
  4. Slot Machine is worth unlocking at least once. It's got a good arc. You will have to go out of your way to do it, though. Easiest way is to get a big team together (yeah, right, on redside) and storm Port Oakes when it's all grey.

    I have never unlocked Veluta Lunata on any character. Her unlock requirement is insanely difficult for her intended level range, more than I want to deal with. From what I've read her arc is not particularly noteworthy.

    I have unlocked Crimson Revenant on a few characters. On a low-pop server, forget it. Not a terrible arc but worth going out of your way for, especially if AV/EBs give you trouble.

    I will usually get Kristof Jaeger without trying. Again, a fairly typical arc, not worth a detour.

    Archmage Taraxus is an easy unlock and has an arc that offers a Blackwand (10 charges, IIRC). You'll need to deal with an EB but it's not terribly difficult. He isn't so attractive if you've got the vet/Reward Token one, of course.

    Mu'Drakahn is not unlocked by doing a respec. That's Arbiter Leery, another one in the "ain't half bad/ain't half good neither" catagory.

    Ambassador Kuh'rekt requires 25 badges. If you're a vet you may get more than that by creating a character. He has a good story but you'll have to deal with two annoying AV/EBs, Positron and Valkyrie, both of which hit hard and have obnoxious T9 moves. Johnny Sonata requires 50; again if you're a vet you might have to go out of your way to not have 50 badges by that level range. His arc is worth a look (and includes a Shard trip which may get your villain some nice weapon unlocks) though again you'll have to deal with an AV/EB at the end.

    Henri Dumont is not particularly hard to unlock but not worth playing either. I have never unlocked Number 204; his unlock task is annoying and according to a friend who played its arc, the arc throws the Idiot Ball repeatedly.
  5. Venture

    News from PAX

    Quote:
    Revamping a zone is tantamount to recreating it from scratch.
    If so, their tools and/or processes are bad and need to be redone.
  6. Venture

    News from PAX

    Quote:
    And there's the magic balance. Entertainment and reward are integral parts of a good MMO. One cannot support a game without the other.
    You need to slot more Accuracy.
  7. Venture

    News from PAX

    Quote:
    Under your logic, they could take away all rewards in the game and people would still play. After all, if it's fun with the rewards, wouldn't it be just as fun without the rewards?
    People read novels, watch television, go to the movies and even play traditional board games without "rewards" other than the entertainment they find intrinsic to the experience. No matter what pot of gold you put at the end of your MMO rainbow, if your MMO lacks that quality eventually the dissonance will win out and people will quit.
  8. Venture

    News from PAX

    Quote:
    The word "abomination" is public domain. The only way they could get in trouble is if the character himself bears a significant resemblance to Marvel's Abomination. Just from looking at the screenshot.....he doesn't.
    Someone needs a new sarcasm detector.
  9. Have to disagree on the map. "Small Fears" was one of the first arcs I reviewed (5 stars) and even then the hospital map had become tiresome.

    I see from the video, though, that the biggest nit I picked (three escorts on a multi-level map) was fixed, making the arc even better.
  10. Venture

    Some questions

    Quote:
    I'm not sure about Johnny Shadow, but I'd be willing to bet the offender there is "Johnny".
    *facepalm*
  11. Quote:
    My sixth and final mission
    You have bigger problems.
  12. Based on what little I've read about the case, it sounds like the initial case against them was pretty weak.

    BUT.

    It also sounds like there is really nothing here that warrants setting aside a jury's decision. The absence of DNA evidence is not exonerative, and the presence of DNA from someone related to the boys is not particularly interesting lacking corroborating evidence. I could see commuting their sentences from death to life in prison, but the convictions should have been upheld. It looks to me that the only reason they're getting out is because celebrities and the media took up their cause.
  13. Incarnate trials are farms, and the only sensible thing to do if you're going to farm is to do so in the most efficient manner possible.
  14. The problem is that Kheldians don't need to be tweaked or adjusted, they need a page-one rewrite. They need to be completely rethought. That won't happen, though, so the question isn't whether or not they'll be broken, only how and where.
  15. The Death of Hellboy: It Worked For Superman
  16. Quote:
    It would be interesting if Future Lord Nemesis is actually some kind of fractured personality ala Rularuu, and Nemesis, Silos, and DJ Zero are all aspects of the original "Lord Nemesis".
    No. It wouldn't.
  17. A comment (and five-star rating) for this arc:

    Quote:
    I had to think about this one for a bit. I gave it 5 stars because it did what it set out to do: be a kinetic crime drama with an unhappy ending. I think that the early part of the arc was much better than the latter; you did a good job showing the crime war (mission 2 was inspired) while I thought the narrative lost steam near the end. I didn't think it was challenging - mission 5's imps and boss required a bit of forethought, but the remainder of the arc was non-stop face mashing. Overall, a good one.
  18. I don't care about spoilers because the vast likelihood is that I will figure out which way a story is going long before it gets there. I've been critiquing fiction almost my entire life and there's only so many ways you can put these things together.

    The Sixth Sense is the only story in recent memory to catch me flatfooted. I underestimated Shyamalan. I also think most of his movies have gotten short-changed because people only see him as "the twist ending guy" when except for The Sixth Sense that wasn't what he was going for. (Lady in the Water was weak but still OK; I didn't see The Last Airbender and probably won't since I never watched or cared to watch the cartoon.)
  19. Quote:
    And the set's accuracy bonus, too. People always forget Martial Arts' accuracy bonus.
    Probably because despite what we were once told, it doesn't really have one. It's got the same 1.05x you see on most of the other i0 Scrapper sets.

    As for why reroll when there's plenty of room for new characters, that's because sometimes new powers fit old concepts better than what was available at the time. Rerolled characters of noteworthy level can be reimagined; renamed and/or shipped off to other servers, preserving the time invested in them.
  20. Quote:
    And I disagree - and I really think you've been stuck in that IO mindset too long. (Not an attack, not an insult, it's just not where the rest of the game is.)
    No, it is where the rest of the game is. I can't remember the last time I saw a 30+ character's info block that didn't have a list of set bonuses too long for me to even try to parse. (Really, that needs to go, but that's another thread.)

    I haven't tried the new changes yet but arguing that current PBs are in any way, shape or form competitive in this game is a complete joke. There is no room in this or any other MMO for a character type that does many things badly and nothing well.
  21. I may reroll Sieglinde as a SJ/WP, haven't decided. The original would be transferred off.

    I don't see any of my other characters being rerolled. I'll have to go over the roster. And I really, really need to redo my web page now that the Vault is Deader Than Disco.
  22. Quote:
    Even Sauron was somebody's lackey.
    There is a profound difference between being The Dragon, never mind a Dragon Ascendant, and being, well, The Starscream. Sauron was a powerful, dangerous character even while serving Melkor. Starscream is a clown.
  23. Quote:
    The correct term is "bloody mess"
    Fixed.
  24. Quote:
    Well, it's not precisely what was expected, I'd say. It completely ruins Tyrant as a villain, though.
    True in a sense; once again a prominent villain has been downgraded from Sauron to Starscream.