blackjack_NA

I find myself shouting at the screen, and have developed a nervous left eye twitch (more from lack of sleep). I have the same issue with triggers/cascading objectives making me crazy because I just can't quite do them the way I'd like to. If I had a nickel for every time I said, "This would be so cool," only to have the Error Message indicator pop up, I'd be rich.

And with the whole placement on the map thing. I guess I had hoped for some sort of drag-n-drop glowie-placement interface option that would just let us drop things anywhere in the environment, for when precision mattered - the way GMs often drag faulty items (overlapping glowies, for example) around in the environment to help you when something's stuck (maybe, some day?)

Right now I can't get my first arc out the door cause I just can't seem to find maps that work with my placement settings. Even just an option to put a glowie on a specific floor would help.

All that said, I returned to the game after a nearly year-long absence just to tinker with this. And I feel re-energized about the game (even just testing my own stuff all night). But man, could I use some more sleep!

I toggled this as a favorite topic. I'm struggling to get my first arc done. While I love the MA, it has had me bashing my head against the keyboard frequently, and I've developed a nervous left eye twitch using it. Really.

I am trying to build some sense that things are happening sort of "behind the scenes". My little gimmick is that the Sky Raiders reverse-engineer an imprisoned super hero's armor to start making their own armor. So I kinda wanna plant a hint on who's behind the attempts to "clone" that armor.

Right now it's the Captain Castillo AV, but I dunno, maybe there's some "mad scientist" character mob type more appropriate. So I was thinking a brief early appearance by this character (Castillo or whomever), in mission 1 or 2, a very light sprinkling of dialogue referring to him for a couple missions, and then a slam bang finale to put him way once and for all at the end might be fun.

Anyway, the thread's helping me ponder that idea more and how I can make it work.

I saw all this kind of thing when using Lionhead's "The Movies" back in 2005-2006. "Too many movies," and "How do I get anyone to view my movie when there's already 20,000 others uploaded?" and "Why is my clever work getting no views, while this slapped together junk is near the top of the charts?"

Creating one's own machinima easily (relatively) was awesome It had the same loopholes and challenges though in terms of getting exposure for the massive amount of user-generated material. I remember I had one movie that visitors trashed me on, but I extracted the constructive suggestions and improved my work. But when I re-uploaded it, I couldn't get anywhere near the views I did the first time I uploaded it (I could see something similar happening here if you Published an arc, took it down and improved it, and then re-published it only to see nobody was playing it on the 2nd go around)

In Lionhead's case, their now defunct Movies Online web site helped that (to some extent) through extensive categories (you didn't have to fight to get to get fair visibility in a group of, say, 20,000 films overall, just the 5,000 in the category your film fell into). I think that thread here asking arc creators to slot their work under genres is a great step in that direction for COH.

Another thing they did (my memory is foggy now, and since The Movies Online was unplugged a while back, I can't really check this), as I recall, was you got to do and upload a small poster for your movie (some like me just used cropped screenshots, others used art like many of the flyers here). There was a scripted "promotional window" at the sight that cycled through newly uploaded user-created films (clicking the poster, as I recall it, let you view the movie at the web site - so I don't know how that would work with COH, unless it was a web page "within" the game). Your poster only showed for a certain # of days before it reset, but it was great in terms of getting at least a temporary burst of visibility when you uploaded something.

I'm sure the focus has been on the tools and the basics, and there's still improvements and enhancements to be made there.

Hopefully someone is also thinking about ways to fairly give more visibility to everyone's work, without forcing everyone to become a Public Relations Agency to do so. I'd love to see some sort of in-game web browser that is strictly for viewing an in-game site that makes some effort to feature new missions, missions by category, missions that aren't getting any plays at all etc.

[Meson and I are, or were, in the same SG for a long time. ]

I used to enjoy taking my empathy healer (Dr. Barium on Pinnacle) into The Hollows to provide some drive-by healing and buffs to struggling lower-levelers there, or rezzing them so they didn't have to struggle back from Atlas.

But I gotta say that since my return to COH some weeks ago, there's virtually nobody there (aside from some groups that are presumably off doing Frostfire).

So I think anything that will get people excited about playing in the zone again (as with Faultline, even if this change isn't as fancy a makeover) will be a good thing. And maybe Dr. Barium can lend a hand there again when he's bored. I considered it "pro bono" work.

Now if only they could do something about Fire Base Zulu, the Chantry, et al.

It's a bit late for me to ask but -- is the "comic book cover" considered "Page 1" as far as submitting say, an 8 page comic? Meaning is it a comic book cover page + 8 comic pages = OK; or does it need to consider the cover as "page 1" and then be limited to 7 beyond that.

The Metal mandroid stuff I did was 20-22 pages per issue (like a "real" comic), and I'm actually finding it tough (dialogue wise) to portray any semblance of a storyline in 4-8 pages. As in my real life (reporting), I'm better at writing bloated than concise.

TA DA!!!!!!!!! ;D It only took 11 months.

Step into the metal shoes [sorry, redundant ] of Metal Mandroid as he investigates...

The Strange Case of Dr. Barium
http://invite.filmloop.com/x?cqZUrHj...NUv7/g8aBuznl/

**FilmLoop [u]no longer requires downloading or installing anything[u], so please view it that way and enjoy it (the link will just pop up a FilmLoop slideshow viewer). I recommend either switching the viewer to full screen or using 1280X1024 rez (it probably looks just fine on most 19" LCD monitors that use that resolution). 8) I recommend tapping the "pause" button since FilmLoop's viewer starts up in slideshow format.

And downloadable 5MB PDF format courtesy free file host MediaFire:
http://www.mediafire.com/?1teyggw2yzn

It's a tale of friendship and honor, defeat and redemption, Vahzilok vomit and cosmic radiation!

You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll cheer, you might even puke!

I'm hoping to finally pick up my Metal Mandroid screenshot comic book (using Planetwide Games' Comic Book Creator) where it left off. I think most of my old links got purged, and my free Web host kept wiping its servers anywho.

To my pleasant surprise, Film Loop (which I loved as a way to share the comic books in slideshow format) now doesn't require you to install any software to view a Film Loop.

So this link provides links to the 3 Metal Mandroid comic books:
http://www.filmloop.com/loops?query=...ry_type=author

The individual links (it'll pop up a slide show -- press the PAUSE button to stop it, as it seems to go into automatic slideshow format by default):

Metal Mandroid #1

Metal Mandroid #2: Secret Identity

Metal Mandroid #3: Chaos in Cell Block 13

After the double XP weekend, I hope to finally get issues 4 ("The Strange Case of Dr. Barium") and 5 ("Rikti Reaction") done and posted. Issue 3 ended on a suspenseful note, but I got awfully bogged down in trying to resolve it so I never quite got issue 4 out the door. Woe was me. Anyway, issue 4 was going to be tragedy, melodrama, self-sacrifice and what really does constitute the afterlife. Issue 5 OTOH was going to be all out action in the Crashed Rikti Mothership zone with MM attempting to defuse an overeating reactor before it went kablooie.

And I realize my covers are so-so, and interface and HUD target stuff shows up. I'm not passing it off as any comic masterworks though, it's an effort to promote what's cool about the game while hopefully telling some interesting stories. I hope people can enjoy it as such.

[ QUOTE ]
This is a Faultline mission bug..

Went to do the mission for Agent G where you have to find the underground base.
But.. it can't be completed. There's no glowie and we explored the thing fully six
times or more. The mission is something like 'Clear Out 1st Ruin'.

[/ QUOTE ] I think I saw in the official "Faultline feedback" thread here, someone mentioned it was possible for that glowie to end up in an isolated room/area that only someone with teleportation travel can reach. I would petition it -- even if they can't help you in-game, maybe they can tell you something by the support e-mail.

My healer finished Agent G's arc at Level 22 last night with help from a tank (Euthanized, was the name I think). I felt a tinge of sadness I'd not have any more missions (other than Police/Safeguard) to do in the revamped zone.

It does seem like a place where a TF or shorter trial focused on saving/protecting the dam from the Arachnos would be a lot of fun. I know they got a lot on their plate though. Maybe an idea for one is floating around a whiteboard at cryptic.

I've had fun leading friends (and strangers) through the Arachnos mines if they're new to it. I have a St. Bernard like sense of how to get to the next mission door there.

Actually I've met a lot of good teammates in the last few days since the update. I told an SG bud yesterday that That has done more to revive my affection for the game more than anything the devs could do.

I give a hearty bravo to the Faultline revamp as well. I'm sure it was a lot of hard work, but I can tell you so many people I've teamed with have been downright gleeful to see and do new things there. Some of the temp powers are downright fun too.

I hope some day we can see "abandoned" upper level zones like Rikti Crash Site and maybe Firebase Zulu (which aside from the occasional TF team is deserted) revamped into fun places with new story arcs and places you actually enjoy exploring.

I know it would take equally hard and long work to do that, so I know you can't just snap your fingers and *bingo* an old zone is made fresh again.

I mentioned it in a bug thread, but Delilah the NPC (tank, it seems) disappears into the lift on the Captain Castillo mission for me. If you go back down the lift, you can see her as this shimmering entity that you can't interact with (can't target, click, anything, she seems to get "attached" to the lower level lift rather than moving up through it). I took pictures -- it's funny, I joked with a teammate that they should use that image for some new alien lifeform in the game. I think the shimmering was just a temporary invulnerability armor toggle shining.

You can complete the mish without her, fortunately, but my squishy healer missed having a tank-like NPC along to help.

I love the Faultline story arcs, but I've ran into an issue on Captain Castillo. Delilah (forgot the spelling) meets you, but when I take one of the Lifts, she follows me but won't come off. I think she's stuck inside the lift (I used Fortitude on her, and clearly you could see the fortitude within the lift structure). I tried going back down and up, no change. Dunno if it's one time bug or it always happens. As a healer, it really stinks since she's quite helpful.

There's an extensive patch notes for todays' patch but it doesn't mention a holiday event. I ran around the various pvp helicopters and pvp zones, and saw no signs of a Santa NPC giving out missions (or whatever it is). I asked lots of other players, nobody knew anything.

Uhhh, I checked out the COH binder at Best Buy today (they are sealed in plastic so you can't even leaf through them). 35 bucks??? I don't think so. I can just buy another game for that much.

I like the concept and I can understand Prima struggling to find some way to keep their print guides updated for mmorpgs and trying to remain relevant when fan sites post everything there is to know. And back in 1999-2000, Prima invited my Darkstone fan site (Shadow's Darkstone Tomb) to be a Prima Affiliate for a time, so I have a soft spot for them.

But $35? For a binder? Glossy paper must be expensive.

Folks in my SG have just expressed disappointment with the lack (other than the Longbow here and there) of any enemies that seem like Super Heroes. Wouldn't villains be fighting Super Heroes? Why are we fighting retreads (hellions and skulls and Family and the Sky Raider-re-do Goldbrickers) and endless hordes of snakes for 12 levels? Why are we "helping people escape," which appears to be COH rescues with the rescuee saying "It's Joe Schmoe! *BLEEP!*" as the lone difference? Where are the "villainous" missions? Why does the game - in terms of missions - feel like COH with a new coat of paint instead of something truly, villainously different? Maybe it's too much to ask of a game with the same engine as COH. I don't know what I was expecting even. Maybe assassinations and hits, instead of "escapes" and more glowie clicking.

Mind you, I've having too much fun with my Mercenaries/Traps Mastermind to really care right now myself. I've played COH since opening day, you can just keep feeding me the same old missions with new coats of paint and I probably will keep playing anyway. But there is much grumbling amongst my brethren. It's just, with no increase in the monthly fee (thank you ), it's very muted grumbling.

[ QUOTE ]
the masses' desire to kill one another

[/ QUOTE ] I've grumbled many times that if there was that much desire for PvP in COH, the arenas would not be constantly deserted about 24 hours a day. In fact about the only thing arenas serve as right now is a place to buy inspirations during a task force.

I've pre-ordered COV and I want it to succeed, but my biggest fear is that PvP zones will be as deserted as COH's arenas and that base raids will not draw the crowds that they hope it will.

Most of the bored 50s I know (in and out of my SG) want:
-50+ content
-New zones
-More interesting missions
-New archetypes and powers, perhaps the non-combat skills

They couldn't care less about pvp and probably won't be interested in any of that aspect that COV is bringing to the game.

In fact I'm not looking forward to the amount of arm twisting I'm gonna have to do to get certain members of my SG interested in base raids. I'll try but it will be a pain.

Happy Anniversary! I got in on the very last day or 2 of the beta, just in time to get vaporized in Atlas by the infamous Rikti mothership. I think I was permanently hooked on the game at that moment. Ironically, the bud who got me into beta only played COH for about a month. His loss, my gain.

I tried WoW for a month but it just didn't do it for me. Guild Wars didn't hook me during its beta event either. I'm trying to get into the Auto Assault beta, but I bet that won't hook me either. You guys just set the bar too high.

I've made lots of friends, short-term and long term in the game, made a fool of myself a lot of times (esp. when I was starting out and kept hitting my blaster attacks far more often than needed ), had a lot of laughs, have had the thrill of coming to an overwhelmed team's rescue, or having some other player rescue me so many times, and endless great stories to tell.

Anyway, keep up the good work.

I remember ignoring the game because MMOPRGs never hook me past the initial month and I was tired of disappointment. A friend last March (has it been a year?) invited me into the public beta on the very last couple of days of testing. He never quite seemed to be into the game oddly enough -- he wasted untold time trying to show me how to combat jump your way up a skyscraper, a very useless talent if you ask me. I'm still playing a year later, even though my friend stopped playing about a month after release. Finally an MMORPG for people that don't like MMORPGs actually worked on me.

I remember being whacked by purple connning Rikti during the spectacular last-day beta invasion event in Atlas. As I watched from my corpse, a couple hundred testers battled the Rikti into submission. No in-game events I've seen since then have quite lived up to that.

I remember my very, very, very first mission ever after the game's release. I think it was with a half dozen people in a warehouse mission in Atlas, somewhere near the Perez Park entrance.

I remember my blasters initially kept getting into trouble cause I didn't know you could set up "cancel target" and "cancel power" hotkeys so I'd keep tapping the attack keys too fast, and queing up way too many attacks. So many "Why did you aggro????" comments before I figured it out.

I remember my very first hero, an electrical blaster named 9-Volt, and how all my frustration with him caused me to delete him and create a martial arts scrapper Blackjack and an ice blaster Igloo, who both remain among my highest toons. Sometimes I wish I'd kept 9-Volt around -- I think he would've worked once I knew what the heck I was doing.

I remember how half my friends list disappeared after WoW released, though a few have trickled back to COH over time.

I remember how some heartache in my real life made it impossible for me to enjoy COH for about 6 weeks or so (before, during, after Xmas time) and it was so painful cause COH was like a happy drug normally. Now things are back to normal.

I remember how my rifle/devices blaster Crusasder seemed doomed because of poor power selections. (pre respec-era) So he rotted in mothballs for months before the free holiday respec saved him from the dustbin and made him one of my favorite toons. I also remember how Crusasder was supposed to be Crusader, but I made an inadvertent typo...