mistformsquirrel

What I saw -

Jaegers, Air Thorns, Storm Elementals >< Those were all that showed up in any of the spawns labeled <Infantry Army of Kor>.

<;_;>

I don't know the "why" for that though, just that that's what was showing up.

A possible suggestion: Remove the Dwarves from the Infantry Army of Kor group and put them in their own group and add a few patrols/battles specifically with the dwarfs. It'd get them in there in a much more obvious fashion and not rely on pure luck!

I'd also consider dropping the "Random Minion" and instead adding them by hand - I've had bad luck with the Random Mob selections myself; though it could be just that - luck. I've personally switched entirely over to adding mobs by hand though.

I think my biggest ?! were the mages and Storm Elementals though; I didn't recall running across friendly versions of either in the previous arcs (my brain could of course be glossing them - but I'm not recalling any friendlies) - they seem much more like the Undying One's kind of troops >.> though that might just be me.

<;_;> Sadness

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Oh and the 30th is a Tuesday, which means it's not a Friday nor a Monday

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Damn! You're sharp

Sorry, couldn't help myself

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>.> I shall also have you know: Water is wet!

Space has no air in it!

<o.O> Fire...


is hot!

<. .> <-- genius at work - be afraid!

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Damn you really are sharp. But tell me, what does this mean?

(>^_(>O_O)>

If <. .> is genius at work...

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<O.@> ... *BRAIN BLEACH*

Doh >< sorry Aisynia >< I keep getting busy.

I *will* get around to it though, promise!

And thank you everyone who's posted arcs to try <^_^> I don't have any sort of schedule so I apologize if I don't get to them rapidly - but I will get to them!

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Oh and the 30th is a Tuesday, which means it's not a Friday nor a Monday

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Damn! You're sharp

Sorry, couldn't help myself

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>.> I shall also have you know: Water is wet!

Space has no air in it!

<o.O> Fire...


is hot!

<. .> <-- genius at work - be afraid!

Ahh, thank you VERY much for that info Leech, that is immensely useful <^_^>m

@Smurch - Oh I'm not denying some of those kinds of villains exist.

Not all villains are heartless for instance - heck one of mine is a neo-Soviet revolutionary who's purpose is largely to make lief better for the people of the Rogue Isles by attempting to tear Arachnos down from within.

But I'd say at large, you're looking at far more villains who'd gladly toss away lives to achieve a goal, while few heroes would (though certainly some would; depending on their actual role. Some black-ops government agents might for instance.)

The bomb thing though... I have an immensely tough time buying that one. I see a heroic MM as making sure that an y explosives they use are relatively safe to handle - which means that the fuse is generally going to offer time to escape. A villain might not care - they might use cheap explosives, or use a low timer because they figure it'll get more enemies and the sacrifice is worth it - or even have voluntary suicide bombers...

I can't see a hero doing that, not in any but the most extreme of circumstances. Like - against Hro'Dotz? I could see that.

Stopping a relatively small scale Crey plot? I can't see it.

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Might be a good place to bring up a side Topic. Which MM's would be most acceptable to the public at large?

Top of my list would be Bots. The public could easily accept a small army of robots fighting crime. Machines have no inherant negative stigma and <in their own metallic way> are sort of cute.

Next would be Mercs. A quick rework of concept, some spiffy new uniforms, and next thing you know you have a rapid reaction force to augment the city's own.

A bit of a toss up on spots 3 and 4. I would give the edge to Ninjas simply because quite a bit of effort has gone into romanticizing Ninjas and turning them into heroes. Thugs would be a very close follower due to the "Robin Hood" effect.

Last would be Zombies. As mentioned above, it's very hard to convince the public that anyone who makes dead bodies get up and walk, for whatever reason, is a good guy. Not to mention the smell.

JUst my opinion. Yours?

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I generally agree here.

I'd say Mercs and Bots could be tied though. I don't think citizens would have much trouble with a group of retired soldiers (for example) deciding that they can still be of use fighting crime; and robots as you say, aren't really stigmatized. Heck, you might get some fantastic publicity.

"HOLY CRAP! ROBOTS!" - Paragon City Exclaims!

Ninja are a pretty neutral bunch to begin with honestly. But they are sneaky, and people tend not to trust sneaky even if it's on their side.

Thugs to me strike me as a "Neighborhood Gang" type group. That is - they started as a typical street gang, but found themselves constantly fighting bigger gangs, like the Hellions and Skulls. Eventually they start to think of that as their real job, and begin leaving petty crime behind; keeping their former gang swagger, but acting almost like a neighborhood militia. (Of course Thugs at the very top are just *very* experienced.)

Fun thing: I think Hero MMs have far more reason to give their pets individualistic names than Villain MMs. Villain MMs, to me, strike me as the sort to toss hordes at their opponents until they drop. Any losses are just expected casualties.

A Heroic MM probably goes out of their way to safeguard their pets (if they're living humans, or even sentient AI bots); making it more likely (in a story sense) that everyone makes it home.

The one power I'm questioning (and I admit, I have not used this power; I'm going off the description) is Traps/Detonator.

I think they'll need to replace that one or something if a MM goes Hero; because I cannot see blowing up your pets (other than Bots/Zombies of course) for a hero. (The description says sentient creatures attempt to drop the bomb and run, but 'the fuse is short...' which is decidedly unheroic, letting your people blow up)

Maybe that line is just an aside though, and the pets don't blow themselves up - I'm not high enough to use it yet; it just doesn't sound good.

I think what Munkilord is saying is particularly apt.

Particularly that last sentence:

" To them the ends justify the means."

Keep in mind that, though we may be classified as heroes; what heroism means to each of us can be drastically different.

Let's also remember that not all powers are wholly controlled.

A zombie MM I had at CoV's launch wasn't in control of her power at all - where ever she walked, the dead rose; always protecting her for reasons beyond her understanding.

Someone else might deliberately summon the corpses of the villains they kill - what better form of poetic justice than turning a great evil against another great evil?

Ultimately - Zombie summoning is of course distasteful - but that doesn't preclude heroic acts with such a power. I mean hell, we can be "heroes" despite setting people on fire, draining parts of their soul, shattering their minds, electrocuting them cutting them to ribbons... etc...

I think if we can horrifically mangle someone's mind, body or soul, we're allowed to resurrect their corpse and send it against more minions of evil >.>

I think they may have resolved the cognitive dissonance of an "Empathic" villain given some of the ways we (players) use the Empathy set.

I mean really, I've seen very few "Psyhic Healers" - mostly it's robot doctors or regular doctors, even a couple 'cleric' type characters. Well and of course the usual horde of "I have no idea what theme this character is supposed to have; they shoot Dark Blasts, have Empathy, are dressed in a bikini and have a big red Cross on their chest(s)".

That is to say - I think the name "Empathy" tripped the devs up; when in reality the set can be used to represent any kind of healing powers. Pain Domination will likewise seem a bit wonky from a naming convention perspective (particularly Enforced Morale) when it comes Hero side - however if you don't let the fluff text trip you up, there's plenty of other ways to represent it.

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Tuesday June 30th 2009.

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That would be an awesome and only slightly belated birthday present, but I hope I don't have to wait that long.

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Well, my reason for guessing that (and of course, it is just a guess <@_@&gt is that -

A) Today they cleared the characters on Training Room II and copied the Freedom database over there for some kind of internal test that's supposed to be a pre-beta type thing. That obviously leads me to thinking that we'll see beta start before too far into June (possibly even next week).

B) The issue itself is light enough that they're skipping closed beta. I suspect this means that we're anticipating very few problems; though obviously things could always be set back.

So I'm figuring roughly a month to Beta it, and beta starting either next week or the week after.

>.> It's a guess though, so it could come way sooner, or way later, depending.

Oh and the 30th is a Tuesday, which means it's not a Friday nor a Monday >.> both of which if I recall are 'no we don't launch then' dates due to past experience - though it's been long enough I've forgotten for sure.
















So yeah really I'm just guessing <,<

Tuesday June 30th 2009.

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Anecdotally, there has also seemed to be an uptick of "Hi, I'm new, please help me" posts on these forums as well.

Yeah, since I usually play a good bit of the lowbie game (just now getting multiple alts to the low 30s, only have 1 lvl 50 & 3 in the low 40s) - there does seem to be a lot of new players around.

I have been giving random bits of salvage & recipes out as "welcome wagon" gifts - and then usually giving an impromptu lesson on what to do with it.

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A nice thing you can do for a new player: help them get their wings. Many of them seem to come into the game with a winged character in mind, don't know what to do with a recipe, and don't have the resources to buy the materials in the first place. Helping them make exactly the character they envisioned is a nice welcome.

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Definitely a nice thing to do <^_^>

*edit*

@Jwbullfrog - ROFL >_< that was good hah

...

HOLY CRAP <O.O>;

Seriously, that's... just...

Color me highly impressed and I'll leave it at that <^_^>b bravo!

Excellent >_< thank you!

Hrm... so I realized something while mucking around on my Mercs/Traps MM - namely that Acid Mortar can take both Defense Debuff and Targetted AoE sets.

Now normally, this would be nothing particularly special - but Acid Mortar is pretty much a debuff pet with remarkably low damage. I've also never found much reason to enhance it for anything but Recharge.

However now I'm thinking:

If I slot say... Touch of Lady Grey (Chance for Negative Energy Damage) in Acid Mortar... will the proc actually fire off of the Acid Mortar's attacks?

I'm doubting this will be super-useful or anything, but I'm curious.

My doubt primarily comes from the fact that it's a pet power - and normally goes off when you activate a power. But when you activate Acid Mortar, there's no target.

Anyone tried this?

Oh btw >,< a fix that works for some arcs that won't start -

Ie: not all of them that won't start are actually invalidated - though some certainly are -

Start an arc that does work, then drop it, then start the one you wanted. If it's invalidated it still won't go; but there seems to be a bug I run across now and then that won't start arcs that I know are working.

<. .> With the exception of 2 hours a few days ago doing RWZ stuff, I haven't left MA since it got implemented.

I for one have been having far more fun than should be legally allowed <,<;;;

But I'm weird <'x'>m

Hrmm... Question all >.< (I just now found out about this thread - because I'm slow <x.x>; but I was wondering:

What tag would we use for Fantasy arcs? (Ie: Swords and Sorcery and the like?)

I think the existant Magic tag might be too broad to cover that.

Do we have one and I'm just missing it? (I Ctrl+F'd the thread for Fantasy, but didn't see anything) or do we need one?

Mwuahahahaa...

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!!


Errr... wait... ohhhhhhhhhhhh newbies >.> right <.<; uhmm... *hides chainaxe*

As to the actual topic...

I've not noticed much honestly; but to be fair, I play AE almost entirely these days, and I solo, so I'm kind of away from most folks most of the time.

I've been playing them since EQ1, I'm not a newbie at this either. I *have* had people try to delete my characters - once while I was right there in the chair. (A so-called friend thought I was playing too much, and to break me of the habit tried to delete my main while I was sitting right there talking to him. Obviously I stopped it, but still. And no, he wasn't very bright, but it's not like I can read minds as to someone's intent either.)

You can't honestly believe that it's practical for everyone to keep the rest of their family/friends/significant others away from their PC.

You also can't honestly assume setting up an alternate user account and switching to it when you go AFK is less hassle than re-logging when you switch characters.

Oh and there's also the possibility among minors of playing on a family PC; where the use of alternate accounts and password is probably forbidden anyway. Un-Tech savvy parents not wanting their kids causin a computer problem they can't fix, and tech-savvy parents not wanting to be locked out or having their parental controls circumvented.

I mean really, keep in mind what you're talking about here - the entire hassle you go through is entering a password and clicking the mouse twice. That's it.

Meanwhile you're suggesting password protection for the computer, alternate user accounts, and somehow keeping everyone away from your PC, which if you are a minor is especially difficult, but even as an adult with roommates can be tricky.

Lets see - a minor inconvenience, or several minor inconveniences (some of which are again, not possible for everyone to perform anyway) so those who don't have the same potential issues can avoid a couple mouse clicks and a little typing... yeah, right.

I mean really - you know it's not going to stop the logout timer part right? You're still going to have to wait 30 seconds to get logged out either way, you'll save what... 2 seconds? Maybe 3 if you chickenpeck and your password is long?

Because I want you to keep perspective as to exactly what you're talking about here - a couple seconds for something that can actually prove useful to a customer; no matter how 'stupid' you think it happens to be.

As noted earlier, sometimes it's family members in your own home.

Unless you consider "In my room" to be "public" somehow.

I think the bigger problem BeanPie, is when your mid mission, need to take a bio-break and have to get up. Logging out resets the mission.

Here's why that's important:

If someone around does happen to be mischievous, currently they can only muck around on that character - they can't even get far enough to delete that one, let alone any of the others.

If they altered it to allow a log-to-character screen, said person could get to your characters.

So ultimately, someone is going to get inconvenienced somewhere - either in having to reset a mission, or in having to log back in to get to character select.

Not that I personally think it's a big deal either way; but that's the logic I'm going off of for why it is as it is.

My guess? He always had the disorder but it manifested as he became an adult. That happens a fair bit actually.

My bipolar for instance didn't really show up heavily until I was 17. It was always there mind you - but other factors mitigated it and (this is going to *sound* strange, but bear with me here) I think the fact that there was so much OTHER stress going on in my life that there was no chance before then to really discern what was stress and what was innate disorder.

We don't know anything about his history really, beyond what his mom says; and as sad as it is, parents are the source I trust the least when it comes to the mental state of their child, as they tend to have strong biases. (And given the stigma of mental disorder; it's FAR easier to blame a game than to admit something is 'wrong' with your kid)

Of course that's a pet theory; there could have been other factors too - but I substantially doubt EQ was the cause.

*edit*

Should add - I doubt EQ is the cause, but rather a symptom of the problem.

*sigh*

Except as I pointed out there's an enormous difference between the two. Space Ship, Star Trek IP Ship to ship combat, etc... A vaguely similar situation and a title do not a violation make.

If you could legally consider that a copyright violation, then you could also consider most fantasy novels a copyright violation of Tolkien. But you can't now can you? Otherwise fantasy novels would have stopped being made long, long ago.

I will however stop; because I've said my piece - but it's not because my opinions are somehow invalidated by lack of a degree. If I were arguing particularly high end copyright law? Yeah, that would be a problem; but as I said, all of this stuff is on the official website. It's the kind of bottom basic stuff you can learn in the same way you can learn that icing an injury can be useful, even though you aren't a doctor.