james_joyce
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:Do we have Dr. Aeon to thank for these? If so, that was fast work.Originally Posted by Niviene
Mission Architect
- Five new maps added. Each can be found under the following categories under unique
- Cavern: Johnnys Hell
- Tyrants Lair
- Tech Lab: Demon-Infested Lab
- Crey Hero Lab
- Circle of Thorns: Baron Zorias Lair
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Quote:I mean, the whole thing is an opinion piece - can you really level bias as a criticism against it?Originally Posted by ryu_planeswalker
That is what we call Bias.
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Quote:I wonder if they can detect which card you're using when you log into the game. If they see that a small enough percentage of customers are using these cards, it might be worth it for them to do it.
The bad news is that if you have a Radeon 8500 or Geforce FX (or older), as well as Intel Extreme Graphics, the game could turn into not supported at all -
Quote:Oh, is THAT how it's supposed to work - I did NOT notice that, but that would be a really cool way to work that. If that's indeed what's supposed to be happening, I'm pretty sure it isn't happening consistently.Originally Posted by Drakmarth
The special enemies for the banners all started converging on the GM (again Avatea pointed that out) and I followed one set straight to the GM, so not that bad a hunt really.
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Re: defeating the banners, they have super desk syndrome. Tons of HP - once they're attackable, it's not interesting to sit there and whale on them. IMO, they should go down fairly quickly. The fun is in making them attackable.
It also seems that the glyph auras on the banners affect the banners themselves. This was causing them to be even more infuriating, as some were regenerating health, or were highly resistant to damage.
If the intended purpose of the aura is to buff the defenders, which is smart and I like that, then I'd suggest excluding the banner itself from that buff, again because the banner is not interesting to kill, only interesting to make killable. -
Couple revisions after running it some more:
I caught the timer this time. I think it could stand to be more prominent, but that's a nitpick.
It seems there IS an fx for when the banner is shielded, so n/m on that - looks good too. Just needs to be more obvious that you can't attack it while shielded.
Using new art for the GM would obviously be preferable, but I don't think it should be random. It causes confusion about whether or not a normal GM you see walking around is the aspect. What about a giant unseelie? Or a giant behemoth?
Some better icons for the map markers would be good - if you're not going to put the UI up the whole time, then new map markers would at least let someone know when they look at their map that something special is going on. The current colored dots are easily overlooked. -
I really like that the event is split into multiple static points on the map, rather than the typical "congregation" code of other invasion events. That gives people an incentive to split up into groups, which reduces lag at the site, and gives people an opportunity to avoid it if they like.
The banner graphics are great, and I love that you utilize the UI. I really want you to do that more often.
RE: the clarity of objectives, I think they'd be clearer if the event UI appeared wherever you were in an event zone, not just next to the banners. The problem with it is if I enter a zone while the event's going on, I have no idea what's happening. If I see the UI, however, I can quickly figure it out. A text blurb for each phase would help, e.g. "Defeat the guardians!" and "Defeat the banners!"
The description in this post mentions a timer, but I didn't see one. Is there a visible timer for the event? If there isn't, I strongly think there should be.
The description here also says that the shields come down if you defeat enough guardians. It's not clear to me whether that means all shields come down at once, or if each shield is dropped individually as guardians of that type are defeated. I think the UI for this part of it could be clearer - this is a case where it seems like a hard number (e.g. 5/125 guardians defeated) rather than a progress bar makes sense, or both. If you need to defeat a certain number of each type of defender for all shields to drop at once, then I'd recommend putting numbers in the UI near the bottom of the banner icons. So you'd see (X/Y) at the bottom of each circle instead of the progress bar.
It would be nice if there were some fx for the shield - I get the text, and that's nice, but maybe put a colored PFF gfx around the banner while it's up, and a flash of light or something when it comes down.
I also feel strongly that the GM spawn should be integrated into the UI. If the zone manages to spawn the GM, then the four banner icons could switch to one monster icon, with a waypoint for where it spawned. Trying to search for it isn't fun, as there's no game involved in the finding, just time spent - so just tell us where it is.
It might be a nice touch for some NPC, maybe the aspect you have a chance of fighting, would shout on some chanell about what's going on. It would also help with lore. Something cheesy like, "I have arrived to see the destruction of this world! Prepare to die!" or whatever would be great. There would be four shouts: on event start, when the banners come down in time, when the banners don't come down in time, and when you defeat dudeski.
I also thought it was a shame that the new zombies weren't used at one of the banners. I think they'd be a good fit, although I'm not sure at which one. Is the regular zombie apocalypse event still in? I love those zombies. I'd also echo the sentiments of others here that a slight tweak to the recycled mobs would be great. I understand you can't create new art for the mobs, but I'm guessing you could tint them or give them a new aura of some sort. That would go a long way, especially for the Shivans and Hydra, which seem out of place when you know their stories.
All-in-all, this is a really cool event. I really hope to see you guys do more stuff like this in the future: a multi-staged event with static zone locations that changes the UI. I think the next step is to incorporate some activity besides whaling on hordes of angry dudes/ladies, e.g. the Steel Canyon fires, and take the stages up a notch. This is pretty much a public quest system, which I love.
Well done, guys. -
Mine comes from a joke I had with my roommate when I bought the game. For some reason we thought it would be hilarious to create super heroes out of modernist authors. I still think it's hilarious, but I really have no idea why. James Joyce was just the first one we thought of, mostly because we liked to make fun of how nonsensical Finnegan's Wake and Ulysses are.
After that, though, I started using the handle pretty much everywhere else, too, mostly in comments sections of blogs. However, by googling "james_joyce" (with the underscore), I've found some other people using the same handle on some truly offensive sites that definitely aren't me. I was pretty bummed when I discovered that. But I usually use it whenever I leave a comment anywhere. -
I think it's important to distinguish these ideas from AI - these are not really ideas for improved AI - they're just new scripts that mobs would follow.
Which I think is great - I don't actually think we'd WANT better AI, which would increase the game's difficulty. I think we would want to encounter new patterns that we have to figure out how to solve, which would increase the game's variety. -
Quote:I think I agree with this strongly - but let me clarify what I think you mean, because the office door opening into a cave is actually a bug.
Either add a collection of themed zones and/or slowly revamp the current zones to have their own themes. Make the doorways in each zone be static. Door 1 should always open into a CoT cave map, Door 2 should always open into a 5th column complex, etc. Wouldnt hurt to have guards or patrols at the door specific to what is inside. There also needs to be a set of missions specific to the theme in that zone.
You mean that when I take, for example, the Freakolympics mission, or the Frostfire mission, I could be sent to basically any door in the zone that matches the map type. I can't say, "there's Frostfire's lair," or, "There's the Skull rave," because it changes every time.
Instead, they should make the door to each specific mission static. When I take the Frostfire mission, I always go to the same door. By doing this, it would allow them to differentiate the art on that specific door to be more interesting. For example, Frostfire could have some ice built up outside the door, and it could be guarded by some Outcasts that have some specific dialog.
I think that would do a lot to acheive the sense of "worldiness" you're talking about, and I think it would be a benefit to the game. So I'm all for it. It would also allow them to more tightly control the flow of the game, and make mission arcs serve the "tour guide," function that they serve in other MMOs, to good effect, in my opinion.
They've done this in a few rare cases - the one I can think of is the Arachnos tunnels below Faultline, where you enter some abandoned hero bases. Those are always in the same tunnels, and it's very atmospheric. If I got a random cave door like I do most of the time, it wouldn't be nearly as effective.
I also agree with the second suggestion, but I think they're already doing it to a large extent. It seems you want one big map that you progress through, though, which might be cool, I agree. I'm assuming you're not asking for an open-world dungeon. If you are, I disagree. -
Quote:I think this assertion is based on an oversimplification of players' preferences. You and Venture seem to be concerned with story to an extent that almost makes other aspects of the game irrelevant. That's fine and I understand it. But based on everyone I've encountered in the game and the forums, it seems that those who put story on the same level are in the extreme minority.Originally Posted by Talen_Lee
If your custom characters are there to serve the story, that they yield less XP should not matter - they are story edifices primarily.
Much more common, I'd wager, are those that prioritize multiple aspects of the game more evenly. Of course I don't have any way of knowing what the majority of players prioritize or what they value, but in my experience most people value rewards and dynamic combat consciously, and value visual diversity and story subconsciously. So, if you were to ask anyone at random in the game what they want to do, they'd respond as if they were trying to maximize their rewards and they'd revel in the combat while they did so. What you hear people slip out while doing these consciously selected activities is that this map is really cool, or this story is really awesome, or they love this faction, etc - or in inverse, not this map again, I'm sick of fighting this faction, this story makes no sense, etc.
The fact that Positron has stated that they intend AE to be primarily for telling stories suggests that they share your value bias. Unfortunately, I think that limiting the AE to story-driven content excludes many "valid" uses of it that people enjoy, maybe more people than enjoy stories. Some want as much of a challenge as possible, some want lots of allies they can use to steamroll the map, some want mechanical tricks and clever use of triggers, some want silly joke missions, some want to face cool new groups, some want to face groups with novel power combinations. Most people probably want a combination of many of these things. So I don't think it's wise of the devs to try to restrict AE in that way, since I suspect that those who value story so highly are tiny in number.
So it seems to be a non-sequitur to state that if you care about story then XP shouldn't matter to you. Most people value both things. It's also a non-sequitur to say that since you can tell your story with existing factions that there's no need for custom factions. People want custom factions for their own sake. It comes down to whether story is just one, often small, aspect of why people enjoy this game and AE.
Now, having said all that, I fully understand and agree with reining in extreme PLing which I think is harmful to the game, and I think that's the primary purpose of the change on test. I also don't disagree with the approach they've taken with custom mob XP - I just think it's too heavy handed right now.
I disagree with you and Venture that this change is intended to curb use of custom factions - I believe it's just a side effect of their main effort. I might be wrong, though, since I think Positron is on your side when it comes to story vs everything else. But he's also not the only dev, so who knows. -
Yeah, I think cross-server PvP is the biggest need here - cross-server PvE would be neat, but not as much of a priority.
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Hey, neat.
This would make a great greasemonkey script, too. -
Quote:obvious joke is obviousOriginally Posted by Rivona
Waite what?
I hate Hardcase he ruins all the fun of the Vivacious Verandi ark.
What your saying is that GR adds him to Hero side to try and convert Zeros to Villains? -
Quote:Probably as the attack portion of Demon Summoning, although every other attack set for MMs has been ranged, so it doesn't seem quite right.Originally Posted by Perfect_Pain
"Whips n Chains powerset coming Issue 17"
Maybe we will get a full-on whips set? That'd be neat. -
hey, this is great! Thanks!
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Quote:And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a pale horse; and he that sat on him was called Death, and Hades followed with him.Originally Posted by nethergoat
what about forum games?
―(☆_☆)→ -
OK, so you go and allow extended ASCII characters, which is great. Love it. But then you go and get rid of the PWNZ forum. So now not only do I have nowhere to go to post chaotic non-sequiturs, but I can't randomly and pointlessly exercise our new-found abilities.
Cruelty.
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Quote:That's a good point - I'll have to look up if Firefox supports the odd and even psuedo-classes. It might.Originally Posted by PsychoPez
Well, one of the big things I miss from the old forums is alternating row colors, so I don't know if Stylish can do that, while I figure Greasemonkey can.
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I was thinking of doing something similar to this, except instead of GreaseMonkey, I'd recommend using Stylish to just change the CSS.
Since GreaseMonkey runs a script, it'll be potentially slower than Stylish, which just appends a style sheet. The downside is that you have to fish for the CSS selectors you want, and make sure they're prioritized over those in the original sheet.
I'm probably going to wait about a week to see what changes, if any, are made to the forums, but I'd be up for helping out with this effort after that.
Edit: Greasemonkey, on the other hand, could be used to add some cool functionality to the forums. I'll have to think about that as well. -
Quote:I'm a big fan of the aesthetics of the Tarot, which is what attracted me to the thread. I think the idea of a CoH Tarot is really cool and I'll be really excited to see it, especially if David draws it. Big thumbs up.Originally Posted by Balanced
It is possible to appreciate the artistry and symbolism of Tarot decks even if you don't believe. Belief is irrelevant to the purpose of the thread, which is to consider the casting of Tarot symbolism in the icons of the Cities.
I agree they should be able to. I don't agree that "it's fine." I believe this type of thinking can be harmful, even if some of it is innocuous, so I think it's important to challenge it, even though I'll strongly defend your right to believe it.Quote:Originally Posted by Shatterghost
You don't agree that people should be able to believe what they want???
I can't in good conscience pass up the opportunity to take a dig at magical thinking, no matter how minor. I understand that it's a derail. Apologies. -
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Them's that accept it/use it/believe it, fine. Them's that don't, that's fine too. Leave it at that. Please
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I don't agree and won't do that, but I also won't hound the issue any further. -
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As for whether these are just ornamental or not... well, take it for what it's worth, but I have been known to frighten people when I do readings. Doesn't always happen, but John can attest to me scaring people into leaving parties when someone goes, "Oh that's just BS" and I then do readings for that person.
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For your consideration (some strong language)
There's another clip I wanted to share of a Tarot card reader that discovered it was fake, but I can't find it. -
wait, is this patch 6.9 MB, or have I just not downloaded a patch on test in a while?
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Try it some day. Guaranteed that if you spend most of your time behind a computer desk typing? You're not gonna want to stand more than an hour before you get a huge back and foot ache.
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I do it twice a year. That's about all I can stand (no pun intended). By the end of a 4-5 day con, everything below your navel hurts, your feet and legs have been pounded into something roughly the consistency of warm jello and you wonder how people who work retail for a living do it (aside from a masochism so profound that you shudder to think of it).
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It's not just a lack of walking that does this - I live in NYC where you have to walk a LOT. I'm fine with walking. The cons drain me nonetheless. It's like going to a museum or a mall cranked up to 11. The pace of walking is slow and awkward, you're looking at all sorts of interesting things all around you all the time, and you're bombarded with constant social interaction. Just draining.