rian_frostdrake
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Joined
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congrats..but man does this open new questions up. Glad war witch is in charge though, always liked her work, she is an old hand here, so that speaks of continuity at least. but again, the conspiracy theories just got injected with superdyne.
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since they haven't answered the questions we have asked, is there a point to compiling a list of questions that they wont answer at a future date?
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heh, now if vets are quiet they are in super secret hidden bata? Well, I will be quieter, for increased time efficiency and sanity, so dont take my silence for anything.(ill still be in game, just not on the forums. working on getting sleep, for a change).
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most of my hero mains are teachers, clergy or graduate students at paragon university, it is where our supergroup is connected to. my villains tend to know each other through their villain group, but differences in styles tends to make them less close than my heroes. my villains also know my heroes, as they tend to work together at times to take out real threats ,most of my villains are more like anti-villains, so they tend to pass information on the worst of the worst redside so that the heroes can stop them.
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Quote:well, we are on the same page with the fliers. as for the hvas, actually that would be a lot of fun as well, generate a map full of enemies, replace your powers with specific ones for your mech(maybe even have a longbow cataphract or arachnos ...whatever those big things from recluse's victory are called), and make it a more over-the-top bug hunt with tons of enemies rushing you. You could even keep the large version since it would be a specific map to avoid any collision issues, and being a giant mech would add to the feeling of power your character would have as they gunned down hordes of rikti, banished panthon, zombies or whatever. sounds like a huge amount of fun.Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
'Vehicle' toggle powers.
I say vehicles...I mean something like a wearable version of this;
"You've gone mad!(er)"
Not really. Shapeshifting, wether a simple costume change or something as advanced as Kheldians, is already in game. Making usable 'armour' vehicles doesn't sound unfeasible (he says)
I posted in a thread a while back that had an idea for another Vanguard item. While most people no-no'd the idea, myself included, I did post a suggestion for a 'LVAS', a cut down version of the HVAS, which worked like Granite armour or Kheldian Dwarf forms, in that it morphed the player into that armour and switched their power trays while it was toggled.
Yes, you wouldn't be able to slot it, or the attacks. It'd probably have to be earnable. Balanceable? I should think so.
Just my 2 inf. -
Quote:well cold, if you like a community, you may wish to try the librty server then, and get on the global channel "LB" they are a fun group with a bizzarre sense of humor and a good sense of organization, so that is a community to check out, even if population wise we are mid level.(though i can generally find a group when i want one)Originally Posted by ColdSun
Thank you everyone. Its ok that the first responder in the thread posted that way. I understand how he feels. It isn't just about finding groups for me, but having a community to talk to and have fun with. I wouldn't care if the game was 1 week old or 5 years old, I know it sounds crazy but I prefer higher population servers.
To the first responder - we went to Freedom. At least you have three new players paying for the game who want to be part of things. We are excited by some of the new features that weren't here years ago. Maybe we will make characters on less populated servers after we get back into the swing of things.
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Quote:This is my wild and completely baseless speculation as well. Maybe we can pester some other animator, he seems like a rising star lately.Originally Posted by NarfMann
Maybe he's just anticipating being very very busy fixing things on some huge new update that shall remain nameless, and is expecting his inbox to be full to the point of bursting with bugs for him to fix from a sudden influx of testers...
*starts checking email frequently*
*crosses fingers*
/wild (and exceptionally enthusiastic) speculation -
Quote:here is the thing, you said yourself that you dont have an issue with most of the faultline changes, just that you really like dams, and they ruined the dan, so you think they ruined the zone. so unless you' like to change your argument, Your original premise was not that change was bad, but that you disliked a specific change, so now you consider the zone ruined. the rwz was also changed in a way that someone who was equally as specific could have had a similar fit of pique about, so its a matter of you wanting the developers to read your mind when they make their changes.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
"That's just you" is a weak argument, Rian, and you ought to know that by now. Unless you want to quote a statistical research you've done proving I'm in the minority and you're in the majority, kindly stop trying to speak for a silent majority that disagrees with me and agrees with you. If you have an actual argument for why the graphical side of Hazard zones is what's keeping people out, then I will gladly hear it, but until someone actually makes a point at explaining that THAT is a problem, I'm simply going to maintain that it doesn't need to be fixed.
Secondly, how can you still maintain that what happened to the War Zone and what happened to Faultline are in any way, shape or form alike? Faultline was remodelled completely, to the point where there is more new stuff than old stuff. The Rikti War zone WAS NOT. The only things that changed about it were closing the old door and putting helicopters on all of the old forts. They didn't do anything to the actual zone. It is now exactly as it was before with only a few VERY minor alterations. All they really changed was shifting spawns around and adding an additional underground component for the Vanguard base. That's it. And this is remarkably like what happened to the Hollows - enemies got shifted around, a vendor and a trainer were added and the entrance zones on both sides were changed up a bit.
So here's my argument which you just keep ignoring - what I want is EXACTLY what happened to the Rikti War Zone, and you CANNOT argue that that has not been a success and received overwhelming praise by the community. I see no reason why the same cannot happen to other Hazard zones, nor do I see a need for anything more than that to happen.
Also, i'm sorry but since we are going on about our subjective tastes, the old hazard zones are really old, and look it. to me its a waste to invest resources into changing a zone around if you are going to leave it unaffected by the current improvements in the art. so i guess we have to remin in disagreement, because I view its as an improvement if they use the additional benefits that time and increased resources brought to improve older zones that previously looked really unappealing. -
Quote:i could understand if you had said that after telling him about freedom and virtue, but he asked a question, and you deliberately lied for your own selfish reasons, that was a jerk move. I play on liberty, i like liberty more than any other server, but if a person asks a question about population sizes, then he wasn't asking which server is fun, he is asking a question about numbers.Originally Posted by Westley
Freedom and Virtue as being the "most populated" servers is technically true, and it REMAINS so because of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
People want to "be where the people are" so they go where the people are, which adds even MORE people to those servers. It's an endless cycle.
The only way to reverse it is to support "lower population" servers and show people how they can still have fun on those servers and still get a team easily no matter where they are.
Every time someone points another player to Freedom and Virtue, it perpetuates the cycle and increases the disparity. -
ok fine, that is you, want to hear how many would be disappointed with that? how many people scream re-hash now, there is a perception with content with no new assets that it is dull and worthless. how many people rave about the additional cimoria and hollows stuff? now does that compare to the rwz or faultline's reactions? I cant claim to be authoritative, but i suspect the response would be resounding meh's just because of human nature.Quote:dan brown sucks.Originally Posted by Westley
[Insert Standard Code Rant Here]
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as a travel power reskin, id say mechanics would be problematic. as a side game that you occasionally play that is specially made to use the different control scheme, that i could get behind. I have suggested missions where longbow recruits you to help take down a large flying unit of some enemy group, and you are basically in a longbow flier, and all your powers are replaced by temps, and the whole zone is a long corridor type mission where you have to shoot down the enmey units, and eventually fight the large flying uunit. that sounded kind of fun.
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I re-ask, how much of this do you "know" from doing, and how much do you assume from being entirely outside the industry? the ma toolset will likely help out a lot once gr hits live, but I still think you are underselling what needs done for official canon content.
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semantics, what counts as a ruining is subjective, you have said as much. that is the point we are making. the devs arent psychic, and cant forsee the specific things players love about zones to know what they can and cant move. Now the fog and rubble are more iconic, but they could be altered if they decide to revamp those zones, and the alteration may or may not sit well with you, thats all i'm saying, that you really cant expect them to read your mind, nor alter their design significantly based on eventual feedback of things that a few players really liked. I'm not saying that you shouldnt like specific elements, nor that you can't be upset when they get altered by a zone revamp, (not that saying that would have any meaning anyhow) just that what you consider ruining really was something that went entirely under the radar of a lot of the players, particularly wehn coupled with the zonewide improvements. Heck, if they change dark astoria, they may change moth graveyard in a manner that i disagree with, but unless it bothers a lot more peopel than me, i just have to accept progress for the whole isnt always progress for me.
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Quote:well man, i have to say, i am not a programmer, but from what i have heard the developers say about implementing things that would be similar to your suggestions, they tend to involve a lot more assets than you are considering, and there still is a QA approval system that babs mentioned when asked about breaking up issues to smaller, faster issues, that ads lag too, plus dont forget testing, bugs can pop up during live testing, so give them time for different iterations of each zone "revamp" so add on a few weeks for player beta testing, and there would be testers fatigue if every week had a new test. So i dunno, I'm not calling you out here, but do you have more programming experience than me and can correct these layman's perceptions? or are you making guesses, because they dont seem realistic, but i could easily be wrong.Originally Posted by konshu
I think you're making it out to be tougher than it is, or than it has to be. One developer can do a LOT to revamp content, so long as by "content" we mean "mission arcs." Sure, one person wouldn't be creating new powers, art, animations, or any of that in addition to missions ... but those things aren't 100% required. There are a ton of assets already available, and if something is really needed, then you could ask a fellow dev to produce the art piece or whatever it is you need.
As for the immediate changes we'd like to see in the old content - like making the contact's cellphone available immediately, and making errands to PvP liaisons and Hero Corps Analysts optional - I'm pretty sure that's just a matter of making adjustments to values in a set of spreadsheets and/or text files. I feel pretty confident it could be done by one person within two days, to all arcs on red side and blue. I don't see how it could possibly be so complicated that it would be otherwise.
On the other hand, if you wanted to include a new Green Line terminal in the southern portion of IP ... I could see where that *might* be a little more complicated because it deals with zone art and animations.
If I was a dev, and I had free rein to do what I wanted to revamp content, I'd begin with the cellphone and errand business outlined above. I might try to do a few other things too, like maybe fix the door errors in the Seer Marino arc, and possibly make changes in the tutorial missions. But the main thing I'd do is start additional, optional lines of content coming from the existing contacts. So you'd visit Azuria, for example, and she'd say something to the effect of "hey, go beat up 10 Hellions as usual - OR - do something new and head to this mission door."
If it is feasible, other methods of acquiring arcs could be employed, such as having contacts appear in instanced zones instead of outside; having an arc be unlocked by defeating a particular street mob; or having an arc unlocked by locating a glowie clue that randomly appears somewhere in a zone.
I'd use the MA interface to generate the basis for the arcs, because it would be much faster than doing it all in text files or spreadsheets. Though of course if I had a special purpose, I could edit the output of the MA to insert features that are not presently in the MA, like a trip trigger, or if I needed to add a sixth mission, or whatever.
If you wanted to revamp a zone - like Boomtown, Perez, or Hollows - that's normally about 5 arcs. You might want to have a new map or set of art assets to give the zone arcs a unique look, so you'd have to request that. I don't think you'd get it done in a month, but unless you got hung up on art, animations, or whatever, it shouldn't take forever.
If I was going to do up a new TF, like an alternate Posi TF, it would probably be aimed at being about 10 missions long, so basically 2 arcs in MA manually pasted together. Style-wise, it would be all door missions; no hunts, patrols, or errands, because I don't really think those are appreciated in TFs. Again, it shouldn't take all that long to work it up; nothing like the six months we often spend waiting for new content.
And, as I've said, the "revamp" or "new content" dev team could be small, even as small as one person.
That's my impression. -
well sam, i have to say that i completely disagree with you. if they have good ideas for revamps of dead zones, then its their prerogative and frankly their responsibility to do so. We all have subjective things that may or may not go our way, but as with any suggestion, they ultimately bear the consequences of what suggestions they implement, and holding back a zone improvement because of the pique of a single forum member..well, i think you are realistic enough to understand how it goes.
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Quote:your hostility is more constructive?Originally Posted by Antigonus
Are in the super secret double-closed beta? Because unless you are, you don't know jack ****.
I honestly can't tell if your optimism is real or put on, but either way it's annoying. -
Quote:hopefully http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAFjmoZyz08Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
So, basically, Going Rogue info has become the new "I want it now!!!" has it? Hmm...
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Quote:thats all nice to say, but i think you really underestimate the manpower commitment needed to do what youa re claiming. as per the recent massively dev interview, we know that mission generation tools were a significant bottleneck and that was one of the reasons that ma came about, coupling that with the until recent stupidly low staffing levels, and do you really think this is feaseable? One developer cant just redo content, it involves a lot of different developers specialties, and would have impacted a number of great things we did get. Now after gr hits, i am hoping for the exact thing you are, that a pass is made on old content, because a lot of fluff could be cut to streamline old taskforces, underused zones, and especially the security chief nonsense, but I am reasonable that if they do that, its going to take more than hiring one new developer. hopefully the accelerated creation tools, plus the increased staffing will allow for a rejuvenated game.Originally Posted by konshu
I hear you, but what I'm asking for is slightly different.
For years now, I've been asking for someone to do continual monthly releases of new content. I've also been asking for changes to old content, like the elimination of the odious errands and hunts.
If the devs had started this policy back in 2005, the current content situation would be fantastic. If they would start it now, eventually the content situation would improve.
The problem is that we ALWAYS have to wait SEVERAL MONTHS for new content, and even then it is usually like only five or six arcs. And everyone plays those few arcs over and over, because it is so preferable to playing the older arcs, and then in about a month or two they get sick of the new stuff too.
I'd like to see the devs hire someone, or a few someones, to create new official content for monthly release. They could revamp old content, including the Cavern Trial, and they could create alternate TFs, like one or two new Posi TFs.
It would be great. And it is years late in getting started.
This would be in addition to the new development the devs are always working on, so not only would there be new content each month, but there would be big, new features released approximately twice yearly.
The monthly content would help keep players entertained while they wait for the next game update. And there's a lot of things you could do. You could have situations where a story begins in one month, and concludes in content released the next month. You could introduce new bosses and new foe groups. You could reveal some of the game's hidden backstory. That sort of thing.
Compare that to the present (and eternal) situation where players know that nothing much is going to happen for the next several months. They have nothing to look forward to doing in the intervening time, and people lose interest in stories like the "Coming Storm" because they take FOREVER to tell.
It seems to me that if you were releasing new content each month, you might retain a lot of these people and hear less grumbling. -
Quote:pain, i have a somewhat related question for you, do you read the gaming magazine "game informer"? The reviews are hit or miss, but they had an interesting opinion piece written by a game developer this month (halo:reach cover)r that related to this somewhat, about communication and why it often is flawed on both ends of the spectrum, might be a worthwhile read for you. even if you dont subscribe to it, you should be able to find unwrapped copies at a gamestop.Originally Posted by Perfect_Pain
Doughboy is making a public statement, where as all my friends for the most part quit and didnt tell anyone. But they told me on Facebook and Twitter.
For the same GD reason Doughboy did. Because this company doesnt release information enough to have people chomping at the bit...
Thats why... -
Quote:that is a reasonable and rational perspective, you are in the wrong thread, now lets all hold our breath till we turn blue...i have a slight head start on the blue thing.Originally Posted by Golden Girl
I'm not sure screaming your hate of marketing will make marketing give us anymore info any sooner
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Quote:you know man, maybe yes, maybe no. I'd be amazed and pretty darn ticked if there isnt more than 18 arcs in a boxed expansion, but i am not sure, its nice to say that a developer should be revamping old stuff, and i don't disagree with revamping things, particularly the shadow shard, but lets be realistic about how fast new content gets chewed up. we need mroe, no question, but big ideas expand the breadth of the game, gives you more things to do with every character. new content gets run through far faster than it can be created, and then what? saying you are bored indicates a break is the exact right thing for you, because new content would only hold you for a time, and then you'd likely be bored again. Issue 10 is often rightly praised as an amazing content release, with several arcs, but you know what? if memory serves me, threads appeared the night after open release that people were done with it, and were bored again, so fighting a battle of attrition with content is similar to emptying a lake with a kids bucket.Originally Posted by konshu
I'm probably one of the few not looking forward to GR.
I'm thinking that if I buy it I will get maybe 18 new arcs ...?
I don't see the side switching as being all that valuable for me, since I've played the content on both sides so much and am pretty darn bored with it all.
The ability to continue adding enhancements to level 50 toons doesn't interest me. I mean it is nice, but I'm not really going to use that feature.
So my current plan is to fill up all the extra arc slots I bought, and then I guess I will take an extended break.
I wish the devs would re-evaluate their strategy of focusing the entire development team on "new, big" projects. I think there is considerable value in having a smaller team - even just one person - dedicated to revamping old content and adding new content. -
Quote:eh, its healthier in the long run to take a rest so that you can come back, rather than bang your head against a wall till you come to hate the game entirely. in the long run, it should make you happy, people who take a break are implying that they are coming back. i have a feeling that in 2 weeks i'll be playing less coh, between mass effect 2, no more heroes 2, sands of destruction, , and tatsunoko versus capcom, i'm really not hurting for things to do, and that is if i get through my pile of shame, did i mention that i haven't finished oblivion and fallout 3 yet? breathing room is healthy for long term things like this. im paid till may'11 but resting is good.Originally Posted by Zyphoid
This thread makes me sad.
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any fire set. I have no issue with fire, its just that my friends tended to play fire a lot, and i like contrasting characters, so i trend towards ice sets as a result. and i have to say, the mitigation of slows that ice sets tend to carry has kind of spoiled me, i know fire sets tend to outdamage ice ones, but the mitigation keeps my suicidal playing style alive longer.
i also really havent played masterminds. I understand they are very fun, but i just dont feel the pull. bots look like 5 pounds of awesome in a 2 pound bag, but i just have to feel that i am doing the fighting, not sitting back and directing it. demon summoning might break me though.
prior to the buff, stalkers tended to get a pass, but now i am running a few.
finally, prior to weapon customization, i avoided any weapon based powersets, i know its iconic, but i always liked feeling that i was the source of my powers, not something i was carrying. post customization i have few. -
the publih a mmo print magazine. not a bad one really for a broad snapshot of the genre. covers big name games, smaller games, kmmo's,and even gives some interesting history for some standard mmo tropes. of course it ends to cover you know who a bit much, but the market realities are what they are, and it tends to have good write ups about coh issues.
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It is a good idea. Really it is so much common sense that it seems strange that it has to be reiterated so often, but if you aren't having fun, don't pay 15 dollars a month to not do so, it just makes a person bitter and hostile, give it a wait and see if things get better, rather than becoming a bitter twerp that just annoys everyone else.