je_saist

Well, Faathim the Kind was given an Iphone... and an AT&T service contract.

Dr. Quarterfield had a little bit too much Kora Fruit Punch at the Shard Christmas Party and now has a couple of Threat Level AV Rularuu interested in him.

Lady Grey was given a gift certificate to Cross-Dimensional Dominatrix's Toy Shop.

The Dark Watcher was given a I'm Sorry card from Statesman.

Gaussian was given a copy of Lord Recluse's book, How to control your troops.

Hro'Dtohz was given a globe of the Earth. Word has it that Hro'Dtohz still intends to take over the planet anyways.

I would like to thank the posters who put some time and thought into answering the questions. It's also rather nice to see some thought put into how handle difficult teaming situations..

this is really one of those subjects that falls under let it go, the game is too large to get hung up on one perceived bad experience...

If you're playing with a team and have star, what time would you allow a player to stand still and do nothing before kicking?

Would you give them 30 second?

Would you give them a minute?

Would you give them a mob?

Would you give them a room?

Would you give them till the end of the mission?

Would you take any steps to see if the player has disconnected, such as sending a private message?

Or would you simply say something pithy in channel, then immediately kick?

You can probably guess where this is going. Ran into a player who quite literally kicked an avatar of mine after standing still for 30sec~1minute. No PM's. No pre-warnings when joining the team. Just pithy comment, kick.

Now, maybe it's just me, but I've teamed with a wide range of internet connections and processing speeds. I've run with players who are left waiting on their internet connection to catch up, or for their GPU to render more than 1 frame a second. I've also teamed with legit leaches who repeatedly join teams, then find reasons to go afk. I've teamed with jerks that start TF's, then log out, then casually log back in 2 hours later proclaiming an emergency came up. Despite this, I'm still willing to give most players that I've never encountered before, nor heard anything about through global channels, a few missions before I start asking questions about connection quality, computing quality, or forming an opinion that they aren't there to contribute.

If you ran into a player who makes snap sub 30 second decisions to kick players who aren't actively moving about or triggering animations, would you note them?

If you are the type of player who does make such sub 30 second decisions, why? What's the reason? Is there a reason? Or is it just the fear that somebody's going to get some kind of reward or drop that they didn't actively kill an enemy for?

No.

Here's why: The reason Dual-Pistols are getting the ability to change munition types is because one of the default powers in the set allows you to switch out ammunition types. I believe this was explicitly stated during Hero-Con that the Ammo Change was a power unique to Dual Pistols.

In order for Ammo-Changing to come to other sets, you'd have to completely drop an existing power choice and swap for the ammo-change, and I seriously doubt that anybody's going to get a consensus on what power could be universally dropped on the assault rifle sets.

Naughty Puppeh!

*makes sure Santa knows that Cien only gets coal this Christmas*

I honestly haven't paid much attention to the rest of the thread... so some of the points I'm about to raise have already been brought up.

Two games that I have directly played have tried to break from the Tank / Healer / Damage Dealer formula, those being WarHammer Online and Planetside.

In Planetside pretty much all players start with a base soldier classification with a sub-machine gun, a pistol, and some inventory space. They can upgrade their armors with cert points, buy vehicle certifications, or go Engineer / Medic classifications. In the game you could also take various MAX armors, as well as light and medium tanks, and eventually BFR's. Since all players started out on relatively equal footing, battles often came down to skill. A couple of Lightnings, which were the light tanks, actually stood a fair shot against the Heavy Tanks Vanguard, Prowler, or MagRider in the hands of a skilled pilot. A player equipped with just a Suppressor could in fact take out somebody equipped with a JackHammer.

However, despite the versatility of each player, in the middle of combat, things still fell into the Tank, Healer, Damage Dealer formula. The MAX armors went in first, the Heavy Assault and Special Assault right behind, followed by the Engys and the Medics. If you had the advanced engy or advanced med certs, you probably spent more time on the backlines healing and repairing than you did firing your weapon. If you were a Heavy Assault, you probably spent more time with your ammo fully stocked and laying down suppressive fire.

So, in practical case, when a game did break the mold and allow players to have multiple aspects of a single archtype, players still automatically fell into playing to the strength of one archtype or another.

***

WarHammer Online did pretty much the same. Pretty much every class could be an offensive class, with the buffers and healers getting massive attacks.

However, once things actually got into battle, once you actually started a tower hold or a tower offensive, things broke back to the stock archtypes. Tank Types went in first, soaked up the first round of damage, followed by the damage dealers, followed by the healers. Even though Archmages could do more than simply heal, once the fight started, that's pretty much all they did with occasional bursts of damage. Even though IronBreakers could do more than play defense, as soon as a tower hold started you'd see waves of IronBreakers turn around and nail Shield Wall, covering everybody fighting on the ramps from behind, while setting up the grudge and defense buffs on Bright Wizards or Warrior Priests.

***

So? Why?

Well, part of it comes down to attention span and focus. It's very easy in a combat situation to focus on one aspect of your avatar. Be it damage, healing, defensive buffs or so on, most players only have the physical capability to react to a single event at a time. In the same manner, most players only have the physical capability to focus on performing one event at a time.

As it can be witnessed in games where players can break from the traditional molds with their avatars, most don't. Most players simply fulfill a combat role that they have the abilities to fulfull.

***

Another aspect of the formula is that these are just games, but, we can also draw data from real-life events. Ask a Military Recruiter about the different service opportunities available in a standing military. You will probably receive information about the medical corps, the engineering corps, the front line infantry, the back-lines intelligence, the missile command, and so on. If you enlist in the US Military for example, you have to a pick a Military Occupational Specialty, or M.O.S. You are then trained in this particular field, your chosen M.O.S.

Yes, there are some service units, such as the Navy Seals or Army Rangers, that fulfill multiple combat roles. A Navy Seal, for example, receive not just standard medical training, but underwater medical training : http://www.navy.com/about/navylife/o...eals/training/

However, very few enlisted, or commissioned, soldiers in the US Navy become Navy Seals. Very few enlisted or commissioned soldiers in the US Army become Rangers. Not everybody has the capacity, both mental and physical, to handle the multiple jobs such elite soldiers can handle.

In the same way, not every gamer has the mental or physical capacity to play and focus on something more than the Tank, Healer, Damage Dealer.

Yes, somebody could say the formula is a basic one, but it works to enable the most amount of players to have access to any particular game.

As I understand the fog, it is caused by the spells of the Banished Pantheon.

Presuming that the developers get around to creating a Task Force that pits players against the Banished Ones, we'll see the fog lift and Dark Astoria reworked ala Faultline.

I'm not in the boonies, but I occasionally use Cell-Phone tethering over the Alltel (now Verizon) network to play.

*sidles up to the counter dressed as Jamie Oliver*

Alright Gordon Sacksy, lets have it! Fastest one around the Top Gear Track on that Rocket Powered Sled prepares breakfast!

*grabs the wrapped toy and gives it a good shake!*

(a loud boom is heard and the area fills with smoke)