legendaryjman2

I got into CoH when my brother told me "hey bro, some guys are working on an MMO for superheroes." I'm like "whatevs, that can't be cooler then Final Fantasy 11!" then he says "it says here the game will give you a power that will let you literally rip chunks of rocks out of the ground and throw them at enemies" I was sold. That is actually the bar I have set for MMOs for me: "will the game let me rip chunks of rocks out of the ground and throw them, if no, I wont play it."

I have tried to capitalize on every moment of City of Heroes. I tried to be a part of every event that was ran. I went to every Herocon/bay area meet and greet (except one, where I was moving that day) and I even made sure to dress up for the first herocon. My love for City of Heroes even lead me to getting a job at Cryptic Studios (right after they sold CoH /sadface) and I was a part of the community team that launched Champions Online and Star Trek Online. My experience then gave me the courage to apply for the community team for Paragon Studios twice. Once I interviewed under Lighthouse (who was a really cool guy) and the second time I interviewed under Zwillinger.

Now I write that long paragraph because there was one moment during my second interview with Paragon Studios that I regret to this day, and I want to clear it up.

I was sitting at a table in front of Positron and War Witch not trying to lose my stuff and fanboi all over them. Positron asked me what I thought of the server specific sections of the forums. My City of Heroes career starts and ends with the Freedom server. I lived on the Freedom server, I tried to be a part of just about everything that happened on freedom, including the first time we defeated Hami, the first time we beat the drop ship raid. Half the game to me was the Freedom server section of the forums where were on Freedom would just mess with each other.

Now when Positron asked me this I was in "super professional interview mode" where I'm trying to present myself the best possible and appear to be everything needed. I tried to read what Positron wanted to hear, and I ended up giving him this wishy washy non-answer about nonsense - and I blame my not getting the job entirely on that answer.

What I wanted to say was, Yes Posi, those sections of the forums allowed me to meet and grow relationships with some of the best friends of my life. There are people I met on that specific section of the forums that I may never see again, but will always remember because of the great times we had. Without that one specific spot to go and hang out CoH would have been just a great game, but because you choose to fight and have those forums put there CoH for me went from a game, to a community, to a family. A family that I never wanted to lose. Some of the best times of the forums for me were when servers clashed and it became Freedom vs Champion on the forums, and I knew I had a whole server backing me up in whatever flame war I had started. So thank you for having that, and make sure you put a server section of your forums in the next MMO you run.

I don't pvp because things are not equal.

The game requires way too much involvement in figuring out how to max your character for pvp effectiveness. Even if you do max your character you are not guaranteed to be any good, because of your powerset combinations.

Just like any competitive game out there, there is a "best character." Unfortunately, unless I just happened to pick that particular AT and that powerset combination my character will be worthless. Unless, of course, I decide to reroll something that is effective, but that eliminates me playing my favorite character.

In PvE, every combination can complete a mission. Not every AT/powerset combination is guaranteed to be able to win a pvp fight.

Now, personally, I am a huge fighting game fan. I play as many of them as I can get my mitts on (SSF2T:HD, SF3:OE, SSF4:AE, SFxT, UMvC3, BB:CSE), and I play them online against people. I love competition and the rush you get when you beat a real live opponent. In a fighting game you pick a character and you learn that character. Everything you need to win is built into the characters and you just need to figure out how to use their tools to succeed. That is absolution NOT how City of Heroes pvp is built.

The best PvP I have ever played in an MMO came from Champions Online and DC Universe. In CO they have their halloween event where you can turn into either a werewolf or a hunter and you fight it out in the various zones. You do not use any of your character's build and the game is completely balanced for wolf v hunter action. Its fast, its intense, its easy to pick up, its amazing.

DCU took it a step further and made legends pvp where you pick a DC hero or villain and you slug it out. Once again each character is balanced and it is up to you to use your tools to figure out how to win.

Problem with those systems is that you are not pvping with *your* character, so I can see why it would not appeal to a certain demographic of players. Unfortunately pvping with a player created character based on infinite possibilities means the game can not be balanced and we circle back to the whole reason I don't pvp in the first place.

Also, for the pre i13 v post i13 pvp argument. PvP before i13 was awful. It was so incredibly easy to make a character obtain godhood and become unkillable that there wasn't a point to even play unless you had a pocket emp and elude. It didn't allow more builds, it just allowed a few different builds to be top tier.

Post i13 pvp is also awful, but in different ways. Powers work differently, support isn't as effective thus cutting out a couple of ATs from playing, and other things. Personally I like the travel power suppression and the diminutive returns nonsense, makings obtaining godhood harder and things are slightly more balanced.

Though in hind sight they should have just left pvp alone because obviously the few people who played it pre i13 preferred it that way and they all left once it changed, so now there is no one to play the pvp game post i13.

In Castle's defense, because he is an amazing person and gave us so much good stuff in this game that people forget how much we have to thank him over, what happened in i13 was only a first step in his pvp plan. He had so much more he wanted to do, but couldn't get the approval to do it, and now he isn't here, so we will never see the full scope of what his vision for pvp what supposed to be.

Come on people, we are in almost total agreement about what is the issue with this item and some how we still come up with something to argue about.

Leprechauns are not an irish stereotype, they are a mythical creature that is associated with ireland, money and rainbows.

The holiday that is coming up is Saint Patrick's day. Which is universally celebrated with green imagery: shamrocks, leprechauns, and drinking green beer. I would go so far as to say that the only people left who celebrate St. Patrick's day the real way would be the people in Ireland, but I'm not sure what is the real way to celebrate this day. If anything its like Martin Luther King Jr. day, or President's day where the appropriate thing to do is shop for mattresses.

To get mad at Paragon and say that they are some how wrong to offer up a leprechaun in celebration of St. Patrick's day is incorrect. The only way I could support your resistance is if you also got mad at every bar for decorating their place in 4-leaf clovers and selling green beer. It is just how the holiday is represented right now. Paragon would actually be doing something wrong if they didn't offer a leprechaun.

If you think about it, with the way the holiday is celebrated now the only things they could offer us in game would be:

1) Leprechaun pet
2) special green shamrock clothing
3) /em greenbeer which is the drink emote with a mug of green beer
4) give us back /em puke

Personally I would love a green sequenced jacket, but that will be another year.

In closing, you are not allowed to be mad at Paragon, or hold them responsible for leprechauns being associated with Saint Patrick's day, it is not their fault, it is the world's fault. (You would also have to get mad at them releasing a pet next month that would be a bunny rabbit that poops eggs.) So instead of arguing with each other I think we should stick to the real issue, and the pet is way over priced and needs to come down, and quick.

PS.

You know what kind of pet would be worth $10? A shivan

normally I pride myself in being a CoH fanboi, but unfortunately I have to agree with the rest of the sentiments in this thread.

$10 for a non-combat pet is too much. I know its a limited edition, but non-combat pets should not be the same price as a complete powerset.

I feel there should be some kind of price uniformity.

Powersets: 800
Costume sets: 400
Non-combat pets: 200

The sales on the other non-combat pets that put them at 325 points (about $4.06) is almost reasonable, but for 75 more points (not even a dollar) you can buy a whole costume set.

I really like super packs because if I have less then 200 points I'll just buy the super packs because they are a buck each. The non-combat pets should be this way. At 200 points a person who is sitting on like 210 points would be like "well I don't have enough for a costume set, I could buy 2 super packs, or grab this snazzy leprechaun who will give my toons some extra cash. yeah, lets do that!"

There is a lot of speculation going on in here, and I want to join in!

From the comments in this thread alone, based on the people who bought packs vs the people who didn't I would say that it is very safe to assume that the packs have sold ridiculously well.

There is speculation on the idea of "why" the packs sold well, but, once again, we can safely assume the "why."

The packs sold because:

1) there is exclusive costume pieces
2) there are new ATOs
3) there is a very rare wolf pet
4) they are only a buck

If the pack was just a random shot at in-game items like enhancement boosters and team inspirations then *nobody* (very few) would actually buy them. The packs are only sold *because* of the exclusive items.

If the devs offered the costume set by itself and inside the super packs, then nobody would by the super packs for the costume set, they would just by the costume set. Considering costume sets are $5 and there are more then 5 costume pieces, and that on average you would only get one costume piece per pack, chances are one ends up spending more money buying the full set from the packs then if they just bought the full set by itself.

Thus we can safely assume that it is in the interest of phat loots to offer exclusive items inside of the random packs in order to ensure the packs are sold. I would even go so far to say that the extra money people have been spending on the packs to complete the set will compensate for the little bit of money the people would have spent to only buy the costume set and nothing more.

Exclusivity is here to stay. I support people's decision to prefer buying the costume set over the random roll in the super packs, but lets not kid ourselves to think the packs would be sold *more* if they didn't have the exclusive items.

I do have a legitimate suggestion for the Super Packs.

Considering you guys have gone out of your way to make a "card" system with a numbered order and everything, could you guys give us a way to see which "cards" we have unlocked and which we haven't.

I know its completely meaningless, and entirely superficial, but they are numbered and I would like to see how much of the "set" I have gotten. You have the list of costume pieces in the "collect" area, you just gotta add the rest of the set.

Also I would like to be able to "trade" the cards to other players. I may not need all these enhancement boosters, but a buddy of mine sure could, and he has some enhancement unslotters I could use, so it would be nice to be able to swap. But I know that is not something that can be added easily, so I'm just saying.

I botched the ritual both times I did the mission.

It did not make my characters unplayable, and I continued to do the rest of the valentine's content with the debuff. Including a whole mess of tip missions to get valentine tips.

I'm not sure why anyone would complain about this?

I bought 1 pack so far. One.

I got the belt and the boots in the same pack. You people need to stop whining and buy some packs already.

I am hyped. I have been waiting for these super packs to come out.

Skip the costume set, I'll get it through buying, but I'm super excited about all the other stuff.

Rename Tokens? Respec Tokens? Reward Merits, for a doller!? You gotta be kidding me, thats a pieloving great deal.

You complainers need to start screaming into your entitlement pillow and stop wasting precious time posting. Because at the end of the day the judgement will come from how much money they make with the super packs, which I will personally ensure to be mounds.

Screw morals, I want ATOs!

Ok, so I need to figger this out.

7:30pm eastern is .... 5:30pm pacific?

I keep missing these because you keep doing them in the future!!!

PIE AND A HALF!

I logged on to run the keyes at 7:15pm pst, and nobody was there.

I come back to this thread to see if it was canceled, and i see that its 7:30pm eastern.

NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU UUUU

Ima have to postpone this STF, something has come up Saturday that wont give me time to run a full STF.

Granted only one person signed up (thank you Dulittle) so its not that big of a deal.

Maybe next time I should post a starting time for the TF >.>

/em clap

Now that is hardcore. I thought my project was long and involved.

For the Dr. Kahn you only need to use the temp on the Reichsmen once. Its not like Dr. Aeon where he keeps putting up the force field, once and then pound on him.

The AV I am hunting down this week is the Thorn Tree, who can only be found in a villain respec, or the STF. Now considering the STF is way more fun I think ima run me one of those.

Now I am running this STF for a very specific reason, to kick AVs in the nuts. I will need people to sign up and help me out, but at all times keep the goal in mind.

The AVs that we will face in the STF are:

Mission 1: Arbiter Sands

This one will be simple. While the team is beating the tar off the pipes underground I will stay up top side and wait for Arbiter Sands to appear. Once he spawns I will give him a quick one to the jimmies and we will be on our way.

Mission 2: Regent Korol, Magus Mu'Drakhan, Shadow Spider, Viridian

For these 4 we will need to take then on one at a time. The team will jump in and defeat the mobs around the AV, but once the mobs are clear they will back up while I got mortal kombat on their netherrealms.

Mission 3: the Thorn Tree

Just like doing this mission normally we will skip down to the end, but while the team is clearing out the vines I will show the AV while it isn't safe to store their walnuts for winter.

Mission 4: Wretch, Silver Mantis, Barracuda, Ice Mistral, Dr. Aeon

This mission will be simple. I will punt the privates of each AV in sequence, and then the team will stomp them out. Dr. Aeon might be tricky, but with enough purples everything becomes survivable

Mission 5: Ghost Widow, Scirocco, Black Scorpion, Captain Mako, Arachnos Flier, Lord Recluse

I'm not actually sure how to go about this one, or if it is even feasible to kick the arachnos flier. I do know I will tank Lord Recluse while the towers are being brought down. Which will give me plenty of time to get screenshots.

It will not be easy, but it will be awesome. If you are hardcore enough to be a part of the most ambitious project ever attempted in City of Heroes history then holla at me.

2012 is now upon us and, as we all know, its the end of the world. The Aztec's calender ends this year, and thus does the whole world.

Because of the potential end of all things I have thought long and hard about all the things I have sworn that I would never do/watch/play unless it was the last thing on earth. Considering that it very well may be I have decided to give those things a shot.

Think about all the things that have come and gone that you were so prejudiced against that you would not even try them. For me that would be the Disney movies that were between The Lion King and Tarzan. Those movies I hated with a passion and refused to watch.

Pocahontas: Disney doing real life events? Its one thing to retell a story, but to retell something that historically happened? What? Is Disney going to redo world war two but explain that it was all a mistake and Hitler really was cursed by an old gypsy woman until he could find true love? The very idea of it upsets me.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Most Disney movies are based on incredibly old folk lore or things that really didn't mean much until Disney got their mitts on them. Now they are messing with a literary classic, and one of the most depressing stories I have ever read. How are they going to take a story where every character is a dirtbag and they all die in the end and make it happy? It basically ruins everything the story was about.

Hercules: Now here is something that is open to interpretation Except I just watched all of the Hercules stories staring my personal hero Kevin Sorbo and Disney didn't even bother to get him to play the part. Not only that but they completely threw out any resemblance to the actual myths and made up their own nonsense.

Mulan: For the longest time I actually thought this was based on a true story and hated it with all the passion I hated Pocahontas with. I have recently learned I was incorrect, but I still haven't given it a second chance.

To honor this year I am going to go back and watch these movies with an open mind. To see if maybe I was a little too hasty in drawing judgement.

I now challenge all of you. What kind of media is out there that you completely wrote off for no good reason? I think it is time to give those things a chance.

Happy New Year!

I never was a fan of 2011, I'm not sad to see it go. I'm super looking forward to 2012. I wont lie, I'm a fan of years that can be divided properly.

I figured it out!!! I know what my new year's resolution is going to be!!!

I verily resolve, to kick every Archvillain, and Giant Monster, that is located on Primal or Praetorian Earth, in the nuts.

I am so hyped. I can do this. I already have like 1/3 of them kicked in the nuts, but this year is starting fresh. Ima make a brand new nut-kicking costume and everything. It will be glorious!

I just checked out the Master Minding Your Own Buisness issue 2. I gotta say I chuckled at the idea of having to go talk to Rona, that is never fun for anyone.