Warscythe

But thats my point, you had a character that had all the backstory to easily change and make UBERGODKILLALLDEATHPWN....but didnt, why?..because the character is what interests you, its what you do well... the powers are just a small part of the whole package, I mean if people want to make their character in RP some uber death machine with god powers and no character, might as well be an ICBM and park it under GG repeating
"look at me I can kill you all yet i have the social skills of a coffee table"........, its social interaction that is the issue, and regardless of powers its peoples ability to be human on some scale that makes a character such as yours/ravens/shadowes work.

Well to try and show perspective ill use two of my main characters.
Firstly Warscythe, conceptwise he is hard to hurt, a living avatar of battle in his own realm, he has escaped due to his distaste with his father ( his dimensions version of the horseman of the apocalypse -War-) and his brutal regime, imbued with phenomenal combat prowess he is damn hard to hit and can be considered unkillable hand to hand he still however has weaknesses, he has no concept of someone fighting from afar (i.e guns etc) its something he doesnt quite grasp. I could have gone over the edge and made him "unkillable" but it just didnt sit well with me, the reason I dont rp as much with him, isnt due to his powers, but more the conceptual nature of his character, he is (originally human but from the middle ages before being dragged into the bellum segmentum by War) a very stoic and reserved being, so interaction would seem like talking to a brick wall, ive yet to find a scenario to bring him fully into RP mode in a satisfactory way.

Secondly Stryke, human/cocky but a living battery of immense energy, he could...(emphasis here) effectively reduce cities to waste (if he actually knew he could or had the inclination to do so) but, the simple fact that even walking near a toaster sets it off makes him incredibly nervous of using his full potential, as he doesnt even know what the outcome would be for himself were he to unleash, therefore he keeps himself in check constantly.

I could probably expand these toons to be more RP friendly but havnt as yet had the opportunity to do so, but in both cases I have had the option to "godmode" my toons as it were, but refuse to do so, as I find those idiosyncratic details to be what makes characters interesting.

So in the long run seems there is a recurring theme here which we are all tending to agree on, yes we all tend to have characters with varying assortments of vast powers and such Raven/fan-service/shadowe for example but they are characters with boundries/flaws etc...good and well used characters then in my opinion, but for someone make the vastness of their powers their only talking point removes the fun out of the RP element.

Best piece of text that succinctly puts this in perspective is this

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Though the rare "god-modder" can attract a lot of attention, in fact most roleplayers are quite eager to cooperate and assist one another as much as possible. For every one drama queen or king who simply must be the center of attention at all times, there are 5 roleplayers standing in the background listening quietly, wishing that someone else would talk, and 15 more who went off to roleplay their own stories instead. Most roleplayers reach out to each other for support, suggestions, background story ideas, and are more than willing to lend a helping hand in these areas to anyone who asks. Such mutual reciprocity forms the foundation of what roleplaying is all about.


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(again sorry for the rambling but this is something I feel strongly about )

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Anther problem with godly characters...

Player 1: Cower before me mortals, for I am Pibble! God of custard! Obey me or I will cover your with my custardy wrath!

Player 2: Uh, you what, bud?

Player 3: Cower before me weak mortals, for I am Custardo! God of custard!

Player 1: Hey, no you're not, I'm god of custard!

Player 3: Like hell you are! I've had this char for ages!

Player 1: Stop talking out your ear! I'VE HAD THIS CHAR FOR MONTHS SO GET LOST!!

Player 2: You're both barking, get away from me.

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Is there a church of custard? if so i want to join, if nothing but to drink freely from the font

I apologise for the forwarding statement, I know im not a known RP'r in game and have merely dabbled, but I have experience in deadlands and other such types, but my reply is focused more on the comic book relation aspect and my view is this:

Look at most comic book heroes that have "uber godlike powers"
A prime example would be Superman.
Now to start off - in the early years he was much less powerful than the version who would be known later. He jumped over skyscrapers and couldnt fly. He lifted cars, not building/planets etc as in today .

His powers have been increased -and diversified - little by little, in order to give readers a reason to keep buying.
Their (first) scientific explanation, by the difference of mass and of atmospheric pressure between Earth and his native planet, became ridiculous only because of this growing. It was absolutely credible in the beginning.
It's in order to make an equilibrium with this ever-growing power that editors were compelled to introduce kryptonite (December 1949)thus to make him less godlike and more Human

..For what makes a hero, someone we look up to?..yes, some one who could be idolised?..maybe...someone you need to relate to?..absolutely...if supes stayed indestructable then readers would get bored, so there has to be ways of making him more human, hence his weakness to kryptonite/doomsday/annoying reporters.

Plus his ongoing moralistic battles with Bruce Wayne in the JLA series are always fun just to see the fact that this seemingly godlike being is also so naive when it comes to people...another weakness if you will, simply put a character no matter the pinnacle of his powers, has to have some weakness, some humanity to relate to for the character to be believable.

So my point is this, Phants asks why Godlike chars are frowned upon, they are not, but when you make them into unkillable egomaniacs with no humanity to relate to, it becomes a bit hard to have interaction with.

Its not your toon or the powers you have but what you yourself bring to the table.

(apologies for the ramble )

Not very tasteful mate

Oh not in any way making some shiny foil hat conspiracy theory here, more of an observation....it is, however interesting to see (3rd one from the top)
http://www.worlds.com/clients.html

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However thank god for this little snippet of info that left me less aggrivated, if it can be used as precedent that is. [ QUOTE ]
They filed in 99, but Meridian 59... one of the first 3d MMORPG's ("massively" originally referring to managing more than a few dozen concurrent connections back then) was released in '96. Looking at the patent, M59 demonstrates all that three years before filing (and 8 years before the award). IIRC, Brian Greene (who STILL runs Meridian 59 servers as "near death studios") has been an expert witness for establishing "prior art" (thus nullifying the patent) in similar cases.

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Where did you get that from? IIRC, 'prior art' doesn't apply in US Patent Law, but it does in UK Patent Law.

There used to be (and probably still is) a public key encryption program named PGP. This was technically legal in the UK, but not in the US because it broke US Patent Law. The patent, filed by RSA, was invalid in the UK because the techniques they had patented were published in an academic paper prior to the patent filing.

It's possible that 3 years of prior publication is a bit much, even for the Americans, however.

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Prior art "does" apply in the US too mate, its just a little trickier due to the complexity of their patent laws,

This is a little snippet of an article I had read before posting (not the type to post something made up birdy ol' chum)
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In analyzing an existing patent or in deciding whether to file a patent application for an invention, it is almost always necessary to consider the "prior art." Prior art may be defined very broadly as the entire body of knowledge from the beginning of time to the present. For example, in a U.S. Supreme Court case more than 50 years ago, the work of Benvenuto Cellini, the noted Italian artist who died in 1571, was cited in the judicial opinion as part of the prior art, invalidating a patent for the lost-wax casting of jewelry. That case was an extreme one, however, and does not give a fair indication of how prior art is considered.


Under U.S. patent laws, defining what prior art is pertinent is often critical. The patent statutes define what constitutes prior art for purposes of anticipating an invention or the claims of a patent application or patent. Unless the alleged prior art can be brought within one of the definitions set forth in the statutes, it is not pertinent and will not be considered.


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A full article which describes Prior art in patent law can be found here
http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM...ters-9106.html
(its a little laborious but has some good points which could work in NCsoft's favour)

Well I for one was a little worried at first, then the more I read into it the more it angers me, for many reasons,
1- how they are even having the brass balls to do this in the first place
2- how the patent even got passed, christ ive actually read the full thing .390 is so [censored] vague its untrue :S
3- why they went after NC soft solely, I read that its partly due to the 3d bubble chat and scaling, but what of all the private server MMO's, the F2P ones too, these greedy [censored] are going to get their grubby mitts on everything they can??, the world still amazes me to this day.

However thank god for this little snippet of info that left me less aggrivated, if it can be used as precedent that is.

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Just for reference, Worlds.com has noted that they plan to target many different providers with this. They're basically trying to get several companies to pay licensing fees, betting that the licenses are cheaper than litigation. Oftentimes, when you don't hear bigger names (like Blizzard or SOE) on the list, it's because:

a) they're still "negotiating in good faith (stalling, really-hoping someone else will foot the bill for the legal challenge) or
b) they paid up, knowing that the $$ will go to making their more cash-strapped competition have to divert resources.

This one probably won't go too far.
They filed in 99, but Meridian 59... one of the first 3d MMORPG's ("massively" originally referring to managing more than a few dozen concurrent connections back then) was released in '96. Looking at the patent, M59 demonstrates all that three years before filing (and 8 years before the award). IIRC, Brian Greene (who STILL runs Meridian 59 servers as "near death studios") has been an expert witness for establishing "prior art" (thus nullifying the patent) in similar cases.


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I must say this has been what I wanted from PvP in this game. Forget the numbers....forget l33t speaking gankfests, pure one on one duels conducted with the utmost respect to the next player. Throw in a smattering of RP and some great contestants and youre onto a winner.
Plus its been well run, well documented and has been a great pleasure to participate, hats off to you guys, and see you tonight

This still on today?..just wonderin so i dont get embroiled in a tf between 7 and 8

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Never been to Holland, but even there, where the air is relatively clean

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I just had to laugh. Some bits of Holland are agrarian, but it's a very small country and the nice, clean agrarian bits tend to be right beside the dirty, smelly industrial bits. The air there isn't that clean.

And, yes, I have been there, on days when you can see for miles (just like Manchester) and days when you can't (just like Manchester ). A lot of it has a lot to do with the amount of water vapour suspended in the atmosphere, I think.

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Hey hey mate Manchester isnt that bad, on a clear day from my apartment I can see, the Pennine foothills, Peel Tower and the radio mast near Bolton, and if i look hard enough I can see the gunshots over moss side

Aye agree here, for all those times in LGTF when the riders glitched, and many others, a big ty for the speedy responses of the gm's, so a big happy x-mas to you all

Happy Birthday Myo, green lantern goodies and a tonne of coffee related foodstuffs, someones not sleeping tonight :P

Union all the way baby, dont have anything against defiant, was just one of those random choices when I started, glad in a way as through that met all the art of war chaps, and have had a blast since, hell we even let shen come back (kiddin mate)

Plus theres ML, Damz up to his n00bish ways, Sals ODC badge addiction, Tsumi's freakish obsession with Rikti, Lukes constant silencing on badgehunters by e.v.e.r.y mod there is L.Arete must hover on that button all day when he's on (you make me smile luke), Massive Muscles PvP bragging (gotta love it), Eros' faceplanting, Pious' excellent saturday night gladiator bouts, the RP crew.... and much much more, in all a nice diverse bunch of peeps who give me a reason to relog time and time again.

Onion - I /em salute you

I think its more when you look past all the shiny marketing/hype etc it comes down to one thing (for me at least) what makes people keep coming back to a game that is getting on a little, there must be some kind of draw, hell i like shiny new things as much as the next magpie, but ill give an example;
CoX is to me the same as the original Deus Ex (which i still love to this day) , maybe the GfX are not uber, and it can get samey at times, but theres something, maybe its the char creation, maybe its the community, maybe its the funky powers, i dunno but theres something, that keeps bringing me back.


(meh, maybe im just rambling as i havnt had my morning cuppa....ill post something better later)

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more RP going on

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What liar told you that? Union always had the better roleplaying environment.

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I think he meant more variety of RP going on, rather than just dozens of middle-aged men cybering each other with their teenage lesbian catgirls.

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That just made my night, cheers GG

!!warning this post contains opinions!!

Ok this thread is getting the way of all the others before it ...and look its friday!!

I didnt want to reply and add to it but feel compelled to reply to this so here goes *takes in deep breath*

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Around what time might that be? As on Defiant the chats are dead silent most of the time.

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I can see your point to a certain extent, however, there is - on union a myriad of channels that are frequented and are open to join, union chat - sals badgehunters to name but a few, I play almost every evening for at least an hour and atlas always has some chat going on, atm however PD is quite full with the winter event.

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In fact it has become very rare, because there are NOT plenty of low level characters around.


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Well first of all ive never seen so many lowbie toons running round with tea trays strapped to their arms, and secondly, our SG has recently took on 4 new players, and by new I mean just picked up the game.
Now yes the influx of new players may not be as high as others but this games strength (imho) is in its community, you want to RP go have fun at GG/PD etc...you want to attain shiny badges, speak to the loons on sals, you want to bounce around atlas aimlessly, speak to Damz, there is enough going on each night for me to not get bored.

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Maybe if you are in one of the few large Super Groups it's easier. I don't know.

But for a new player, not interested to be forced to join a large Supergroup, it's pretty hard to find other players at this time.


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Now this I disagree with, ..my sg The Art of War isnt big in numbers (10-12) active members tops...but we still rank high enough due to one simple thing, not one of us is afraid to ask around and get a team going, i may have 15 no's before i get a pug on the roll, but again, channels such as sals and union chat help big time.
Plus ...no one is forcing you to join an sg, there are plenty of regulars I team with who have one man sg's and are happy with it.

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EDIT: And it's not fun for a new player to join a bunch of level20's in a Task Force with side kicking zerging through the levels like a maniac.

You don't learn to play your class properly and you miss out a great deal of content.

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Again I dont get this, first of all (and this is only my opinion) I like to play hard and fast (no innuendo please) its how I get better at my toons, but to be objective, I can see that may not suit other peoples playstyles, but no one is forcing you to join TF's there are radios / arcs to run, sometimes the teaming may be sluggish and other times you may get a raft of requests but doesnt mean you cant adapt to it.

I dunno man maybe I see things differently...I started my tenure on vills then swapped to heroes after my corr got maxxed (mostly soloed too) so heroes seemed like an overcrowded place in comparison.

But to wrap up, join some channels, pm me in game if you need to, just be pro-active, sitting around saying the game is dying isnt going to change it,team up/send tells/ play solo/ play chilled/ play aggressive ....just play till you cant see a reason to play anymore, then just move on if needs be. hope you dont take anything as personal mate, im just offering a counter opinion.

Annnyway all im tryin to say is that in my own opinion (and others differ) this game is awesome and I would be sad if it ended but im like a magpie...theres always something new and shiny to grab my attention.

Now can we pleeeease stop these threads?


In addition I would pay to see a cross server arena match between ML and GG (my money would be on ML - cookies versus smileys)

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next up, Warscythe...

Warscythe, Happy Christmas!

heck, ask away Doc, i can always put it on the list. may take a while, but i'll get there...

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Oh you (insert happy related expletives) thats awesome Doc, tyvm

*does a jig*

Great as always DR, this one of those few threads I keep coming back to to see what comes next, and to echo the rest, its good enough your doing these for free, keep up the great work

Character Name: Stryke/Warscythe
Character Level: 50/50
Character Archetype: Blaster/Scrapper
Character Origin: Science/Natural
Are you Grouped: Yes/No
Are you Sidekicked or Lackeyed: No/No
Are you in a pact: No/No
Any other details that you think might be related: Picked the candy cane reward 3 times in a row and recieved nothing/picked renewal of light and didnt recieve anything (didnt have the badge either for warscythe so that wasnt the issue)

ok no actual DC's for me but im seeing plenty on teams, mapserving to buggery though and constant spamming of the /sync command due to horrible rubberbanding.

so heres the info
-union
-on BT (using the new homehub non-wireless)
-Manchester

No other programs running when I am suffering the worst, and not a normal thing for me, and checking with teams when I suffer from it to ensure its not just me.

And theyre back up now scarlet

Actually ripped this from the french threads and related it back, (i actually remembered some french ?? sacrebleu!!)

This could be why

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Ex_Libris :Attention Players!

We are aware of issues that result in client-side crashes. We have identified the problem, and have prepared a fix that will be deployed to all North American and European servers tomorrow morning December 10, 2008.

Additionally, we are aware of instability issues caused by updated graphics drivers. If you recently upgraded your drivers on your graphics card, we encourage you to roll them back to a previous older version. If this does not resolve your problems, please file a support ticket for additional assistance on our support website. This will get you in contact with our Customer Support and Technical Support Teams.

We apologize for the inconvenience to your regular play schedules tonight, and want to assure you that we are working internally to fix the issue as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your on-going support!

The City of Heroes Development Team



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I imagine they will be up very soon

Just sent you a pm , and might I say this is v.generous of you Doc, would love to see what you can come up with for Stryke or War