je_saist

ah. I guess I'm glad I missed the joke?

this isn't exactly correct...

Hooking into IE is impossible on Linux as well, unless you are running IE atop a WINE base or emulation enviroment. However the Cedega engine is quite adept at hooking into a Linux system's browser (typically FireFox).

Okay, yes, because Transgaming doesn't make Cider available like they do Cedega, the Mac installer does need to contain additional scripts and code in order to download, store, and run the Cider engines.

Unfortunantly, the processor already IS a limiting factor for most modern games. Modern is defined as games using the Unreal 3 Engine, the Cry Engine as used in Crysis, the Infinity Ward Engine (Modern Warfare), UniEngine (DX11 / OGL 3.2 demo), ID Tech 5 (Rage), or the Jupiter E.X. Engine (F.E.A.R. 2). Okay, yes, you could actually throw a more powerful graphics card on there, but you'll quickly find yourself capped on the resolution you can run at.

And no, anything in the $50 bracket isn't going to do anything to improve your frame-rates.

yes and no.

Yes, you can copy the data files over.

No. You'll need to download the Mac Install file from https://secure.ncsoft.com/cgi-bin/accountManagement.pl and run the install program to establish the folder locations first.

It's not anywhere over the top for, or compared to, the post it was made in response to.

*pulls out the tranquilizer rifle, loads up the Elephant Mod #5 and tranqs Perfect Pain*

While I don't have the numbers to prove that Defender's need to be boosted, the numbers themselves do prove a different point.

When you go to make a defender the in game text refers to Ranged Damage Strength as: MEDIUM. Typically in the game, when the strength of a power set is listed at the levels of LOW, MEDIUM, and HIGH, there is an expectation of about 30% difference between each. A Power that is Low rated will have be around 70%-50% less effective / powerful than the same power with a High Rating.

However, when you actually start comparing damage to damage on direct powers such as Ice Blast, Psi Blast, Archery, or Electrical Blast, outside of the Nukes which are within the 30% range of medium damage, Defenders actual base damage is 50%-60% down.

Case in point: At level 50 Snap Shot and Aimed Shot do 52 and 82 base points of damage on Blasters, but only 24 and 36 base points on a defender.

At level 50 on Electric Blast, a Defender's Charged Bolts and Lighting Bolt powers do 36 and 59 base points of damage. Blasters do 62 and 102 base points of damage for the same power.

What happens then is an expectation on the player's part that Defenders will be more powerful. One of the questions that is often overlooked, and I don't think I've ever seen a Developer answer, is whether or not the defender damage value of MEDIUM was given for the damage that can be achieved with the primary powers that can be utilized by Defender, rather than just on the values of the secondary powers themselves.

If the developers would simply modify the text on the Defender to state LOW for the Ranged Damage rating, this might solve several of the perceived problems with the Archtype.

Aside from Vigilance earning it's name of Negligence

*watches the plushie proceeds to nom on the incoming chew toy*

*wiggles a NekoAli plushie at Cienpuppeh*

... And... the point of this was...

To make us feel bad for you?

To guilt trip the development team into talking?

To... what?

Well, whatever the point was, you failed. Please do not let the door hit you on the way out. Trying to hold a development team hostage for not talking works better when you just cancel your subscription and never come back.

***

Edit: Okay. Again, this is probably just better left at the snappy remark, but in the interest of new players browsing the forum who don't get the unspoken background, here it is:

My problem with the sentiment that the developers won't talk about Going Rogue is something that's worth quitting the game over stems from several different points.

The first point of data is that somehow future expansions will change the gameplay. Well, they will, but at the same time, they won't. If you like how City of Heroes plays, the underlying gameplay isn't supposed to be changing. You'll still click on, hit the number key, hit the key modifier with the number key, and so on just as you did before. Players will still buff, debuff, blast, tank, scrap, stalk, corrupt, dominate, control and so on, just as they did before. If you like that gameplay, if you like what the game does that makes it a game, then there's going to be no, to little difference, between City of Heroes Now and City of Heroes Post Going Rogue.

Yes, we do know that Going Rogue will let Villains play in Hero Zones and Heroes play in Villain zones, and allow players to change sides... and while this will increase the flexibility of what you can play and where you can play, it won't actually do a thing to change how you play.

***

The second point of data is that Going Rogue is ready. Well, just as a lot of players willingly choose to gloss over the Split in Issues that lead to Architecture Entertainment arriving with Issue 14 instead of Issue 13, and the rapid switch around as the devs juggled resources at the end of 2008 and through 2009, several players willingly choose to gloss over that the player base was not supposed to know about Going Rogue until the Fall / Winter HeroCon. The only reason we knew about Going Rogue before hand is that one of the marketing partners involved screwed up and sent out an email with the announcement several months before any news was supposed to be announced.

The result is that a lot of players, and by specific example here found in Doughboy, are advancing the schedule of Going Rogue's development by weeks, if not months, over where that development actually is. Many players are presuming that Going Rogue's feature and content list was already finalized as of the original email. Given what we know of the timing of the plans, it's actually likely Going Rogue's feature list wasn't finalized until shortly before HeroCon, or shortly afterwords.

***

The third point of data is that game development is static and predictable. We do know that some of what was shown off at HeroCon, specifically the UltraMode graphics, aren't actually tied to Going Rogue's release. Since the graphics engine is going out to all users, whether or not they bought Going Rogue, it's really more of a feature for an issue. If the Ultra-Mode engine fixes are good to go before the rest of Going Rogue is, the possibility has already been given for it to arrive separately.

Which is something that a lot of players willingly choose to overlook. Some coding tasks are more difficult than others, and some features that need to be implemented in code may only take a week or two to put together, while others could take months to bug-fix and implement in a working manner.

The case in point can be made just by looking at console games. Companies like Nintendo that set release dates after the product is in the bug-fixing / finalization stages, deliver higher quality games on a more regular basis. Companies like EA and Activision that set release dates before the product is finished deliver glitchy products, or stuff you just don't want to play.

A very good case in point for our own niche of the MMO market can be found in Champions Online. The release date for the game was set long before the game was even close to complete, and the resulting launch was a disaster. Infogrames is doing the same thing with Star Trek Online. The game is hardly complete, yet a launch is already set down and the development staff will be pushing out live code to retail on that date... whether or not the product is actually finished.

***

Speaking for myself, I enjoy the City of Heroes game. I enjoy playing the City of Heroes game. I enjoy teaming, and I enjoy task forces. That is why I pay a subscription fee.

I'm not basing my subscription on whether or not the developers tell me about what they are doing or planning. I'm not basing my subscription on whether or not the developers will implement a feature set I really want or don't want. Now, if they implement a feature set that changes the gameplay experience and makes it worse, then I will speak with my wallet and cancel. I'm not going to throw my hands up and storm off if I don't get Ribbon Control and Confetti Blast though... which is what I'm seeing in a lot of the I'm Quitting Posts.

Reminds me a lot of... this... actually: http://www.overclocked.org/OCquit.htm and http://www.overclocked.org/OCscene.htm

***

edit: and yes. I know this got hell-repped.

No. I'm not changing a word. When I'm right, hell-reppers can stuff it and deal with it.

I think it's more likely we'll see PhysX dropped for OpenCL. OpenCL can be accelerated on all platforms, while PhysX cannot.

I'm not exactly sure what FaceMaker uses counts as plastic.

Any tailor in the game will allow you to make costume alterations, such as choosing new faces, masks, or hats.

Tailors can be found in:

Rikti War Zone
Tiki Room @ Pocket D

***

Hero-Side

Steel Canyon
Independence Port
Founders Falls

***

Villain-Side

Cap'Au'Diable
St. Martial

we'll just have to wait and see.

That's wildly inaccurate, and not really based in any sort of truth. Lets go over the basic history first to frame the questions here:

One of the basic problem(s) is that what the developers imagined the game would be like back in 2001, 2002, and 2003, isn't what the game has become. The game was originally founded on the same sort of gameplay basis as Everquest, with repetitive missions, constant grinding, massive street hunts, and endless weeks with no level progression. Many of these older influences are still seen in today's game if you follow the natural contact progression by following the contacts that sell your avatars origin of enhancements, or if you run the older Task Forces.

In the same way, bases were seen as something that would cater to the UO Pub Crowd, the sort of player who saw two hours sitting and doing nothing but chatting as equally important as spending two hours grinding towards the next level. Some of the base functions were extensions from the Pub / Town ideal, giving players a neutral zone... since there really wasn't a zone in the game until the Dance Party, and even then that wasn't really well known. A Pub answer only really arrived with Pocket D.

Other functions of the base were added on as they made sense to the game and how comic book entities like the Fantastic Four or Justice League handled their bases. Storage for personal items, transport to other zones, and so on.

In the early days of CoH, having a base with all of the zone teleporters helped players drastically cut down on travel times... but as the average power of the computer has advanced, and as new train station and connection zones have been added, the importance of having a base with every single teleporter has slowly disappeared. Speaking for myself, with a couple of my computers, I can take trains or ferry's and get to missions faster than players with mission teleport.

***

Base Raids and the Cathedral of Pain fitted into the original design scope of the game, when the development staff at Cryptic honestly thought they had to have PvP play in order to draw a successive playerbase from the established MMO's on the market. Market Reality, however, taught a different lesson.

Despite launching PvP play in May 2005, by the time May 2009 rolled around 4 years later, the paying playerbase that participated in PvP content had never left single digit percentages. Quite simply, City of Heroes was proof to the MMO industry that PvP play was not a requirement for a successful MMO... and as NCSoft found out in the financial meltdown of Tabula Rasa... PvP play was not enough to sustain a game either.

In game reality followed that external financial trend. The majority of the paying playerbase couldn't care about base raids. The idea of loosing several hundred hours of prestige just wasn't worth it. The plain and simple fact was, only the largest and active SuperGroup's with a full list of actively contributing members could ever hope to recover from a Raid. Getting that many people who were willing to participate in PvP, on one server, in just one Super Group... just wasn't happening. So, for the most part, Raids were limited to SG's play-raiding... basically trading back and forth Items of Power with no real damage to each base.

***

Cathedral of Pain also presented another problem, or at least it's reward did. The Invention Enhancement system completely replaced the old Items of Power in the game. Quite simply, the Items of Power are not coming back. This also rendered one of the original envisioned functions of the base system irrelevant.

***

There's also another factor to consider when looking at the history of the game. Back in the ending months of 2007 NCSoft bought the City of Heroes franchise from Cryptic, and in 2008 started pumping money into the company. We've already seen some of the fruits of that reinvestment with the information on I17 and Going Rogue released at Hero-Con.

What isn't focused on is that between the 2005 launch of City of Villains and the 2007 buyout, Cryptic tried to kill City of Heroes. The general idea was that Cryptic's Marvel Universe Online would be released and would replace City of Heroes. While the Paragon Studio Devs probably can't comment on exactly what went on at Cryptic, we do know that City of Heroes was essentially run on a skeleton crew across Issues 7, 8, 9, and I think up until 10.

Essentially, Cryptic wasn't willing to invest the time, money, or resources into seriously upgrading the City of Heroes game or examining underlying functionality. Now that NCSoft owns the property, Paragon Studios has the resources to do what Cryptic wouldn't... and again, we've got an idea what those results are going to look like over the immediate future of the game.

***

That pretty much brings us up to... now.

In the current environment of the game, the function of bases does need to be looked at. Paragon Studios also, when Going Rogue launches, will have the resources to look at the function of SuperGroup bases, if Going Rogue doesn't address some of the base features.

We can make a few guesses as to what the future of bases is going to look like.

Base Raids, as we knew them in the past, probably won't be coming back. The primary reason is that there just isn't a market for it, and the whiny hell-repping PvPer's can just get over that.

In the same way, Cathedral of Pain, as we knew it, is gone. There is a chance that the Task Force itself will return in Ourobous with a Merit Reward, although I suspect the Calvin Scott Task Force will be the first de-activated Task Force to be turned back on through Ourobous.

What I suspect the focus on Bases will be is to offer functionality that isn't available, or is separated from the game. Given the petitions raised at the end of each winter session to keep the Ski Resort around, I would suspect that some coders might find themselves implementing ski-able surfaces into Bases, allowing players to create their own internal ski-slopes.

I suspect we'll see development on Open-Air, Shadow Shard Style islands to contain bases, and I suspect we'll see tech work to make open-air / internal cave rooms work together.

I suspect we'll see an integration of the Base System with the AE system, so for those who want to rack up on SG defenses, they'll be able to use their own Base as a Stronghold for other players to assault in AE... without risking prestige.

What I suspect, and what actually happens... well. We'll see what the future brings.

... I laughed so hard I almost lost last nights dinner.

difference between supports and runs, which is something Kyle looked at with Dirt 2. The 5670 blows past the 240 when running the DX10 shader path, but wasn't exactly blazing fast when asked to do the tessellation from DX11.

also, I just pointed to the link for it to be read, because there's another factor to consider. The RadeonHD 4850 is in the $100 bracket.

And that's capable of cruising past the top-of-the-line 9800 GTX, which still are at the $120 mark or higher.

I'm just betting... ATi graphics card?

There's a known issue with the framebuffer and reflections and water affects.

This issue has been fixed on the back end. No, we don't know when these fixes will be pushed to the live servers.

Hit C.

***

Okay. Now, I do have to ask a question. Why haven't you asked these players who are tossing around Fortune Tellings in the middle of battle... why don't they do it at the start of a map?

Seriously. The buffs last for 20 minutes, and the recharge comes up fairly quick compared to the timing of the buff. So, is it really that big a deal to buff up at the start of a map... and you know... not do it during a fight? I play across several different servers and I don't think I've ever run with a team where somebody with the Magic Booster Pack was tossing out buffs mid-might.

***

As to your original question about whether or not to accept the buffs, I do think you have a valid point, behavior of whoever you are teaming with aside. One of the other examples is teleport, which you can set to either ask you if you want to teleport, or if you just want to teleport and be sent anywhere.

So there is an in-game precedent for setting an automatic trigger to accept a team-mates actions without having to give explicit consent. Since everybody can be affected by the booster pack, whether or not they bought it, it might be worth the developers time to implement.