-
Posts
161 -
Joined
-
Quote:Quote:Very well designed ensemble! I particularly like the way the witch boots from the magic pack complement the steampunk wings. (I'd like to think that the art devs take into consideration how elements from the booster packs can be intermingled.)
I agree with TrueGentleman that this pack really seems to mesh well with others; it also works exceptionally well with the Bridal Pack. Really nice to see the bolero jackets and bustles. And oh yeah, my liquid defender thanks you for the pressure release ccemote. Great work here from the art team.
d -
Quote:I just got an email from NCSoft with a link to the trailer on Youtube.I'm waiting for it to be 10:30 PST already so I can see the trailer for the Steampunk Pack already!
Loving the new costume change emote!
d -
This reminds me... Halos!
At one point, I believe we were told that the naughty & nice halos already in game should be color customizable but are currently bugged (source). That sounds like EXACTLY the kind of problem to bring to you in this thread. Any chance of getting this bug fixed?
Thanks.
d -
Quote:Very good point. I have a water-themed character who uses super jump as if she's a leaping fountain.If for example deciding to change something like Superjump to include cracks in the ground when landing, please make such a thing an option only if possible.
Character themes vary wildly, and using the superjump example, one person's hard-landing Hulk type superjumper vs. someone's light-landing ninja superjumper would make cracks in the ground for all superjump landings frustrating. Which comes right back to power customisation for power pools, oops, sorry. Hard to seperate these things.
And that reminds me, we been told not to expect a new water powerset, and with the reasons given, I can accept that. But there have been quite a few requests above for some auras/effects that could work very well for those of us playing water-themed toons. Given energy blasts origins, the Storm/Energy combo already does a great job as a water powerset, and if we had watery footprint auras, splash landings, and dripping auras, it would be all that much better.
Quote:...I'd really love to see the Model Selection graphic (the bubbles and electricity effect) and the generic Hologram at the Architect Entertainment as costume pieces. It'd be awesome to wear other pieces (that don't have that effect like chest pieces, shoulders, etc.) over the base body pieces with the chemistry and hologram looking effects. They are simply awesome. Perhaps have them as auras if that works instead/in addition to.
...For reference for the Hologram request:
d -
You said you guys have heard us about pool customization, so I won't waste your time requesting more travel animations and new medicine animations.
But auras? I've not requested these to death, so here goes:- Matrix-style digital code aura -- something like the digital transport beam in AE, or like the walls in the secret Matrix room under Peregrine Island (a room, btw, that needs to be used!).
- more footprint auras, including fire footprints and flowers/vines growing in your footsteps.
Regarding power animations, the set for me that's most in need of some love is the Dark Blast/Dark Miasma set. I've never been a fan of Shadow Fall, specifically the way the completely flat ground effect and the anemic cloud effect don't really work together so much as fight against each other.
If I think of anything else, I'll pop back in...
Edit: ...like this:
Quote:Very good suggestions, and worthy of including in my post.- Prismatic--we need rainbows. Not necessarily crisply defined, but more like how a few of the self buffing powers create a prismatic halo for just a moment. Obviously, tinting on this would be limited if not impossible. Perhaps the tinting just provides the opacity based on color lum?
- Butterflies--no really. It could work.
- Hearts--again, really.
- Confusion or befuddlement or riddles--question marks and other punctuation that pop and throb and then whip around then slow back down. Something for the cosmic riddlers out there.
Thanks for listening,
d -
Quote:I can't give the specific location, but when I had this problem recently, it was on the door to the final room in the last mission from Crow -- "Finale: ...Dead Friends."The best info for us is the contact name, mission, and the results of /whereami and /loc.
d -
This happened to me twice Sunday on Triumph. Very frustrating. And since it's not listed as one of the fixes in today's patch, I assume it's still a problem.
d -
Quote:This bug got the best of me on Sunday. Very frustrating.I see there is nothing for the doors in the labs in Preatoria which have both red and blue doors overlaid. When the blue door is opened the red door remains blocking your path, thus causing missions to be uncompletable.
d -
Really nice job! I appreciated the attention to detail that others have mentioned, but I also wanted to single out my favorite part: the brokedown poses of some of the models, such as the Travel model on page 7. THAT, my dear, is high fashion!
Mister Jay and Miss J would be proud!
d -
Quote:In that chat, around the 4:00 min mark, Black Scorpion says: "So I'm happy to say that, yeah, come the next content release after Issue 20 there will be more choices for Lore pets, there will be more trees added." Nemesis pets are even mentioned, although only as they start to make Nemesis jokes, so who knows if that was real or part of the joke. Regardless, since he does specify "next content release," I'd guess no additions in any Issue 20.5, but it sure sounds to me like Issue 21 will have more Lore pets.It was mentioned during the Ustream with Zwillinger, Black Scorpion, and Protean - people had asked about whether stuff like non-Praetorian pets would be added, and additional powers types would be included later on, and they said yes, definitely. A timeline wasn't given but it was a known-and-planned-on improvement.
d -
Quote:Couldn't have said it better myself. It's posts like this that make me miss the rep system, so +1 Rep to you, sir.We don't need Inventions. We don't need to be level 50. That's a non-point. People want these things, and a large number of them are going to strive for them.
I simply don't agree. In brutal honesty, if they don't really want soloing one's way to this stuff to be viable, they simply shouldn't offer the option. Offering something that is, roughly based on what we're seeing discussed in this thread, 10 times less efficient is, in my opinion, going to insult people. I don't buy into the notion that offering people an alternative way to progress, no matter how unattractive is a feature worthy of note in any but the most literal of ways.
Proof is impossible here, because this is not an objective matter. Asking for proof of such a subjective situation is tantamount to trying to dismiss the discussion, because no one will ever "prove" what they enjoy or hate. This topic is a convolution of game mechanics and play preferences. Basically, the people who don't share the same preferences as the unhappy people are trying to dismiss their opinions about how they like to play, or the goals they like to pursue when they do so. There are certainly playstyles that are so far outside the norm that low performance has to be expected. Soloing in this game has not been one of those for a very long time, if ever.
To set expectations here, I am not worried about barriers to Incarnate progress for myself. I have access to a core of players who are already dominating this content. I have unlocked all four new slots on a character already, and have taken three of that character's slots to Very Rare, and the other to Rare, meaning I have both Incarnate shifts. I'm now ready to move on to another character, probably long before most people have unlocked all four slots on one character.
All that said, I still wish there was a way to make progress on the slots and shards that wasn't ridiculously slower, not because I don't want to team, but because I don't want to team all the time. I want to progress towards the new shiny, but I don't want to run Trials all day to do it. I want to do other stuff, too. And sure, technically I can do other stuff and make progress, but the rate of progress I make doing so is completely lost in the noise. It's so much slower that it's almost not even worth measuring.
I think it's notable that this is true on characters who are radically powerful. I would guess my level 50 characters are easily in the top 10% of solo performers for their AT and powersets. Despite this, the rate at which they earn any incarnate progress solo isn't just "slower" than what I earn on trials. It's so much slower that it's ignorable. It such a worse option that there is nothing that would compel me to chose it over running trials, since I have that option. If that's true for me, and my characters really are in the top 10% of performers, then 90% of the other people playing would find it even less compelling to do anything but run the new trials if they want to progress towards Incarnate abilities.
Whether I or anyone needs these abilities to play is just completely beside the point. I16's difficulty settings ensured that I can make good use of them on many characters whether I need them or not. The whole point of them being in the game is that they make our characters stronger, and stronger characters are, for me and many others, goals for their own sake. Giving us extremely narrow playstyle options for how to pursue such goals after seven years of extremely flexible choices was bound to chafe part of the player base. Some folks are being pretty darn obtuse about it, but I very much understand where at least some of them are coming from.
d -
-
EXCELLENT suggestion. If we're talking complete redesign (such as they did with the auction UI), then this really sounds like a great way to go. Much more logical the way you've split it up.
Quote:Screen 1: same as now with various sliders for adjusting the character's sex, height, and proportions hopefully with slightly more control over some aspects. I don't want something so complicated I can't easily make a normal looking person but would like a little more control. This same screen sets the face, hair, skin color and skin texture as well. Expand the choice of skin colors.
Quote:Screen 2: Costume - which fits over the existing body. Most helmets and all hats would fit over the selected hair, tops would fit over the existing arms, legs, and chests. I understand that some body choices would preclude some costume options. Use the extra space gained from removing body parts for adding a neck slot, separating left and right shoulders/arms/legs, and leg details. Clean up the options adding sub-menus as needed to make it easier to navigate. Expand the choice of colors. If afraid of creating the City of Nudes, dim out the selected skin color from the costume color palette (and possibly any "near" colors around it as well).
Screen 3: Power customization
...
Screen 3: Power customization -- In addition to just more choices/alternate animations, the creator needs the ability to handle customizing pools & epics. I'd also like to see it give us a chance to customize some other inherent abilities/animations (walk, sprint, rest, combat stance, idle stance, death). The weapons customization choices should be here alongside the powers, with the addition of a weapons choice for many of the ranged blasts or control powers (guns, rays, staffs, wands, etc). Perhaps the auras should be here as well -- and if I'm REALLY dreaming, I'd like it so that you could set your combat aura individually by power.
Don't want much, do I?
Quote:10: Allow us a button to hide the UI in the character screen, much like in the power customization screen. Then centre the character and have a small panel allowing you to control the zoom and camera position. PS: An option for a white/black/green/bluescreen background would be nice.
d -
While I don't imagine "No Origins," I do imagine only three. The five existing origins get a bit too narrow in definition for me, for reasons others have mentioned. So in my head, I simplify it down to three broad origins: magic, natural, and science. But in-game, I don't limit my characters to these three; instead, I use any origin that makes sense within my system.
So a character I consider "magic" could have an origin of either magic, natural, or mutant. Likewise, my "science" characters could be science, tech, or natural. And my "natural" characters could be anything, really. Once I settle on one of these three, I ultimately choose one of the five based on which inherent power the character needs to round out the "look."
Just a few examples:- For most of my mutants (think "New Mutants"), the mutagen feels odd to me. But for all my dark characters, who are mostly magic, the same mutagen power looks great, like little puffs of smoke.
- Even though my elves are technically magical, most were built as natural origins so they can have that dagger.
- And I refuse to make a /Devices blaster as the tech origin because I don't want two tasers, so I typically make those as science origins just to get a different power.
d -
Quote:Yeah not a word on the Lore slot, not even "We had very specific ideas about this slot to to backstory contraints that have yet to be revealed"
Quote:As we continue toward launch, I'll provide you more information about the other Incarnate Powers you'll see in Issue 20.
d -
I have a lot of alts, so I won't break it down by toon. Many (most?) of my characters just fly, or TP, or run. But I have several others who would use motocycles if we had them. I've got a couple who'd work well with a horse, and several who claim a spaceship as not only transport but also home. And I've got at least two characters who would LOVE hoverboards.
I have enough alts that, if this game had mounts, I'd find some use for every one they gave us.
d -
1. Zone Revamps -- Make Dark Astoria, Boomtown, & Shadow Shard all co-op zones, and give them each a few mission arcs for both heroes and villains. I wouldn't worry immediately about any graphic overhauls for these zones, although I do see Boomtown needing it a bit more than the others.
2. Contests to Update Old Content -- Run AE contests to update some of the old content. Every two weeks, some old arc is announced as the focus, and people must keep the basic story and spirit of the arc, but can change dialog, specific maps, etc. The winner's arc replaces the old content, with legacy arcs stored in O'boros.
3. New Powers -- While I'd love tons of new powers, I'd settle for a Staff Melee set. But we could also stand another round of proliferation, as well as some tweaking to create "almost new" powers -- such as Dark Control & Dark Assault, or a blaster Martial Arts secondary, or a Gadgets pool with some soft control options. In fact, now that I think about it, we need a few more pool powers in general.
4. Costume Creator/Power Customization -- These two go hand-in-hand, since if you're going to work with the costume creator UI, then you may as well deal with pool customization at the same time. The creator itself would get a UI upgrade, making it possible to finally customize pool powers. If possible, at the same time I'd work in some limited customization to a few inherent powers/animations, such as rest, walk, sprint, or combat/idol stances. Finally, I'd work on more alternate power animations -- starting with weapon animations for blast/control sets (staffs/ray guns/etc).
5. SG Bases -- While there's a whole lot I'd like to see done to bases, it all starts with a better base editor. And if I'm going to work on improving the base editor, I'd make sure that it was able to double as a mission map editor in AE. But at the very least, I'd work to get SG invites through email.
---
Okay, now that's my five, but here are some comments on others' suggestions:
Quote:To that, I'd add that this needs to be rolled out with much publicity, along with a reactivation weekend and some sort of special discount for those who resubscribe (such as an extra month if they resub during the weekend).1. Start the PVP overhaul. Instead of a giant I13 "drop the bomb," start rolling back or adjusting a bit at a time. Given 3-5 months between issues, changes would be made either each or every other issue, datamine it and tweak as needed. (Probably with a mid-issue adjustment.)
Quote:4. Expanding the world - and adding more EATs. Spread out to Europe? More Incarnate lore, perhaps. Egypt? Bit of time travel and more reason to focus on lore with the Blood of the Black Stream. And yes, the Coralax as we go underwater... somehow.
Quote:2) Contacts and talk missions - Tailor contacts should be like the other unlockable contacts and appear in your contacts list. Contacts like Hollows, Striga, Crotoa, and Seerer Marino, should be level unlockable so we don't have to take a mission to do it. The PvP liasons should also fall in this category. Missions like delivery Puzzle Box to Hardcase, should be removed or have an actual mission tied to it to retrieve the box as xp was removed from these missions.
Quote:4) Mounts and vehicles, such as horses, motorcycles, personal transport vehicles, lions, dinosaurs, surfboards
d -
Quote:To you, maybe. Not me, though. Personally, I could not care less what my global name is because it doesn't affect any of my characters (after all, it's still just the stupid name of the first one-off character I made and never returned to); but if a character's name isn't just right, the character is unenjoyable - period.Character names are one thing, often when people simply fail at creativity and cannot be bothered to go a little further to find a name thats usually just as good sounding, and probably don't sound as cliched.
Global names? Thats a whole other kettle of fish.
Quote:EDIT: I will also be using the thread in he future for any silly suggestions in the suggestions forums "that folks don't care about their names! Allow us to use the same name as others!"
Apparently folks DO care about their identities. Funny that.
d -
Global server access -- NA and European server list merge. NICE!
d -
Quote:Seconded. And on that note, I'd like to suggest more indoor locations period. It seems the game has been moving more and more away from stores and tailor shops you can enter, and more and more towards random folks just standing on the street corners.It'd be nice if there were several locations throughout the zones that are restaurants on the outside, and if you click on the door, you enter someplace like this...
There's arleady a beautifully designed magic shop in Cap, yet to buy our magic enhancments we visit an arachnos jerk standing in an open warehouse. Instead of going into the tailor's shop in Praetoria, we just gather around her outside the shop ("Why yes, I'll make you a new outfit; just step out into the streets so I can get your measurements"). Or the Praetorian stores are nothing more than vending robots standing around. Seriously? It's like my powers are being enhanced by a vending machine.
I'm guessing it's done for efficiency and visibility -- so people can get in and out of the store quickly, or so people are more visible to others in the open zone. But for me, every building they make non-functional only to replace it with a man/woman/robot-on-the-street is a step away from an interesting, diverse world.
d -
My fave thing about pre-I13 PvP?
Simple -- my powers worked pretty much the same as they did in PvE.
-----
Background: I'd never given much thought to the PvP zones, mostly because I started out from day one as an altoholic, and for almost two years I had no characters above level 20. But after a while, the temp powers in Siren's Call finally lured me to not only visit the zone more often, but eventually even to play the mini-game to open up more store options. I13 was just hitting, and so I was theoretically one of those people who might benefit from the more level playing field that I13 was supposed to bring.
Overall, my first jump into PvP was marked by both good and bad experiences. I had quite a bit of fun fighting with lots of people in the Siren's Call mini-game, but I also came across my share of jerks, the kind who use words like "pwn" and "l33t," and who think it's a blast to take down a solo player with an 8-man team. But it wasn't really those jerks who drove me from PvP (jerks, after all, are found everywhere, and can be ignored if you try). No, what prevented me from getting more involved in PvP was feeling like I had to re-learn new rules for all my powers, powers I'd been playing for years. People told me I wouldn't be effective unless I made a second build for my toon - one which would work better with PvP. Seriously? Thanks, but no thanks.
If PvP is going to be different enough from the standard game that I need what feels like a completely new character, then PvP just isn't for me.
d -
On the one hand...
I was honestly more excited about the Animal booster than anything I've read about I20 so far. Based just on what's been announced, this issue seems to offers nothing for me, a first in some time. I prefer solo/duo play, so the new task force map likely won't be seen by me -- a bummer, 'cause that floating city would have made a great place to visit. The endgame doesn't affect me since I have no level 50 toons, and the system's dependence on Praetoria for its endgame story has given me zero incentive to strive for level 50 yet. Unless something new is added to the issue description, this one's a complete bust for me personally.
On the other hand...
I honestly am happy to see an endgame being developed. This issue may offer nothing for me, but I have seen my boyfriend back playing many of his favorite level 50 characters which had been parked for some time. So I may not personally be getting anything out of the endgame, but I see its benefits right here in my own household. Anything that keeps people subscribed is good for my gaming experience.
However, on the OTHER other hand...
I worry that the Incarnate system, like AE before it, is an unwieldy beast that will endlessly suck dev energy from the rest of the game from this point on. First scheduled for GR/I18, then pushed back to I19 where they only released one half of the alpha, with I19.5 released a bit later with the second half of the alpha. Now we find out that the big news of I20 is "Yeah! More Praetorian/Incarnate Stuff!"? Seriously? It's no wonder I'm more interested in booster packs right now: they're something new. For me, I20 as currently described feels like yet another patch of stuff that ultimately should have been (was implied to be) part of GR to begin with, at least before feature creep took over.
Like I said before, I understand the need for endgame, but it sure feels to me like the entire dev team -- from the UI team, to the story guys, to the artist guilds, to power peeps -- are still locked into putting finishing touches on a game expansion that was released last August, and THAT has kept the game as a whole from moving forward. We've been told for some time that many of our other priorities couldn't be looked at until after that expansion was finished. Well, it's now seven months after GR; when CAN we expect the devs to have a chance to work on the rest of the game?
---
tl;dr -- I recognize that the endgame system will please a lot of folks, if not me, so I can appreciate it's value to the game. But seven months after GR went live, I have to wonder if the devs are ever going to get around to all the things they said would have to wait until after GR?
d -
Looks awesome; color me intrigued.
d -
Quote:I don't agree completely about missing frames, but... yeah. Something seems imcomplete.The actual running animation for Beast Run seems incomplete to me. Like it needs frames added or loops too soon.
I love beast run, but man it looks bad when running backwards then jumping. You stop running face-forward, turn around and leap in the air backwards, then right yourself on the ground before running face-first again. It doesn't help that, as the OP mentioned, the body when in the jump position itself is very upright and strange, seemingly at odds with the run part of the animation.
Quite odd, and I hope it's a bug.
d -
Quote:Aw, evil cupcake thanks you ;-)bjooks,
First off, I'm liking the avatar. Not sure what that is from, but that's the best cupcake I've ever seen!
Quote:Also, nice feedback. I just wanted to comment about what you said about the feel of the "party" and such (and this isn't counter to anything you've said or anything like that).
The problem your feedback basically centered on (understandably) is that these types of events aren't really a party (not unless the community really comes together and makes it such, without the Devs or CR team). They're just a lot of people logging on in hopes to get one of the very few free codes being handed out.
I do get that there's not a lot the Devs could do given the constant demand for their attention. While I think they might should have enlisted player help in organizing this so it felt more like a party instead of beggars waiting for scraps, I have to recognize that even a community-organized party would be mega-complicated when you're looking at 5+ instances of Pocket D on some servers. I had guessed that on busy servers people might form their own parties in lieu of any official events, but I didn't see much of it in the three instances I was in.
Of the three servers I attended, the ones with server populations large enough that Pocket D is already a regular hang-out were the ones that came closest to feeling like a party instead of just a group of people waiting for scraps. But besides a few more cows and cats than usual, that felt less like it had to do with this particular "party" and more to do with it being a server where Pocket D is always a party.
But my biggest problem with trying to write this off as a giveaway rather than a party is right there in the OP (emphasis mine):
Quote:On Friday, February 18th, we will be paying a visit to every single City of Heroes live server and handing out codes for the anxiously anticipated Animal Pack coming out February 23rd! As usual, the party's in Pocket D under the watchful and playful eye of DJ Zero!
...
Back to the in-game Party! Here is a list of the festivities so you know what time to expect us!
...
Come join in the fun and show us your inner (and outer) Party Animal!
Regardless, I still mega-excited about this pack. Whatever I might have thought about the non-contests at the non-party, I'm very much looking forward to this booster. I just wish we had it in our virtual mitten-hands already!
d