the_blade

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2. Was running a friend's mayhem mission with him and ran in to a red con EB named Statesman. He almost one shot me but I survived only to get 2 shotted by him a few short seconds after I was back at full health. I couldn't hold him despite Domination being active. I've held every AV in the game, at least temporarily when the triangles allow it, only to be shown I can't hold an EB despite stacking multiple holds on him with their magnitude doubled from Domination.

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Well there's your problem!

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Yeah...about the only way a villain could have a worse day than Statesman showing up would be if you were in the DC universe having a nice lunch of grilled space dolphin, and you hear the words "Feetal's Giz" from behind you.

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I noticed that the spent brass cartridges from my pistols get kicked around when characters run past them, which is neat. However, unlike defeated enemies, the brass stays there for a long time, perhaps for the length of the mission (haven't seen any decay yet). Is that intended? Seems like it would be a major cause of lag in long battles...

(Couldn't find this when I searched the forums - sorry if this is a repeat)

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As far as I can tell, that's part of the Ageia Physx upgrade. If you see the "Physics" slider, you can set how many of those you want on-screen at once, if I'm correct.

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Then I get jumped by Posi. I was like OMG W T F needless to say he beat me. But it was sooo cool.


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I have to say it...

Do you think you were grey to him?

Self-Rez....on an EB? Holy schneike...even if that power does sort of fit the concept of a Valkyrie.

You'll be greatly missed...


On a positive note though, best of fortune with your upcoming endeavours!

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The problem is that I think side-changing will be abusable and seriously break things....

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in what way? I have a hard time thinking up ways to break the game this way....

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As was mentioned earlier, it's an issue with ATs. Why *ever* make a Dominator or Corruptor when you can just have an evil Controller or Defender? Why *ever* make a Tank when you can have a goody-goody Brute?

The ATs were balanced by "side"... when you can cross the line at will, some ATs will just get less love and play, in general.

Imagine the PvP implications! A team of 5 Brutes and 3 Empaths? A team of Controllers and Stalkers? There are a lot of things that will come out of this change, and I'm pretty sure no one has considered all of the ramifications.

I'm not even against this change, per se, but it raises a lot of issues that need to be carefully thought out by the devs.

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Why would I play a Corruptor or Dominator instead of a Controller or Defender?

Because the Dominators and Corruptors are the ATs I would rather play? Now, I don't see me playing Stalkers much, hero or villain, and definitely brutes more than tankers. But I would prefer playing a Corruptor to a Defender OR a Blaster. I would LOVE to have an Electricity/Storm Corruptor.

Yes, theoretically it is possible to have balance issues with this, but the idea of Assasinate/Hurricane or Tank/Corruptor or Dominator/Scrapper combos are way too neat to not have them.

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer "Once more with Feeling" - Going through the Motions
2. Rocky Horror Picture Show - Super Heroes
3. Rocky Horror Picture Show - Sweet Transvestite
4. Chicago Movie Soundtrack - Razzle Dazzle
5. Frank Sinatra - Witchcraft
6. Frank Sinatra - The Way You Look Tonight
7. Melissa Ferrick - Drive
8. Sammy Davis Jr - Girl from Ipanema
9. Garbage - Vow
10. Garbage - Why Do You Love Me?

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Well, in CoH, a blaster can punch the tanker's toggles off. In WoW, a mage cannot punch a warrior's armor off.

Advantage = WoW.

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Funny I read that exact same sentence and concluded the opposite.

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Toggle-dropping is a terrible kludge. I'm sorry if you like it.

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Brawl doing it? Absolutely.

I do think there should be a way to "stagger" or weaken pretty much anyone's defenses though, although it shouldn't be something you can truly count on happening. Also, I'd prefer that things of that nature not drop the toggles, just "suppress" them.

In the Dev's defense, stealth-suppression while clicking "glowies" isn't very popular, it at least makes sense.

Even if you're trying to be sneaky, it could be hard to not be notices removing books from a shelf, operating a computer, or things of that nature.

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WOW!! OMG!!! YOUARETEHBEST!!!

PvP is still awful compared to the other PvP choices out there(5 million customers=doing something right).

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Umm? I've played the "5 MILLION CUSTOMER" game, and neither the PvE or PvP can compare. Can you transform into a flying squid while your opponent jumps 100m in the air and a third person irradiates you while running 80mph?

No?

Not as good, sorry.


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Can a mage punch my warrior's armor clean off?

No?

Then CoH's PVP can't be as good, can it?

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Heh. Interesting point.

I'll admit my own bias, I'm heavily anti-Blizzard and pro-superhero, so that colors my opinion.

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WOW!! OMG!!! YOUARETEHBEST!!!

PvP is still awful compared to the other PvP choices out there(5 million customers=doing something right).

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Umm? I've played the "5 MILLION CUSTOMER" game, and neither the PvE or PvP can compare. Can you transform into a flying squid while your opponent jumps 100m in the air and a third person irradiates you while running 80mph?

No?

Not as good, sorry.


But on the AV change...my gods...the ONE thing that could have driven me away from this game, and its going away. Glorious.

My SO is an FFXI addict...I fear for sanity at times, but I get to play my game a lot!

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I'm gonna take a big risk here and guess you're not in marketing. When you have Blizzard dominating the MMO player base, and you find yourself in a situation where you're losing customers, the correct response is not "Here's a tissue". Its "how can we compansate so our majority of new customers aren't burned".

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I think the problem is that you're presenting the following argument:

1. I picked my game up on Friday
2. ...
3. Cryptic loses customers!

We're missing a really good reason as to why this is likely to happen. Are you assuming a legion of slavering fans who a) don't understand how head start works, and b) bought the game on Friday?

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So the OP is one of the Underpants Gnomes?

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Newspapers? For heroes?

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Sure!

Jewel of Hera on display - curator expects "no unusal security problems..."

Bippy to accept key to city - "Although the Zig let Dap Dap escape, we're sure that he wouldn't dare interrupt the ceremony..."

Lecture at Founder's University "The Occult and You - an immortal perspective", by Akarist

All of those seem like perfectly normal headlines for Paragon City - but I suspect you could hang a mission on them anyway

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I think those are subordinary for our fair city.

"Uh, Rob, it looks like Giant Ants are now ravishing the land"

"Urgh, they're back, they weren't due till the end of the month."

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I, for one, welcome our giant ant overlords.

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Odd...I went to my local bookstore and they said the book wasn't coming out for another 3 weeks!

Tropic
www.cohwritersguild.com

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Don't trust them.

I went to Books-A-Million, and they said they didn't have, and weren't expecting, any copies. I was looking in the fantasy/science fiction section for something else to read, and I saw it.

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I'd love to get Guildwars but my wife is comes from a relgious background and frankly its annoying that every fantasy games degenerates into involving demons and undead which she is very much against. It would be nice to have an fantasy MMO that just stuck to dragons, monsters and goblins.

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Degenerates?

Those are some of the best villians...I mean, who is a better nemesis for for a heroic Knight than a demon or an evil necromancer?

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CCG (Collectable Card Game) is a big rage after MTG (Magic the Gathering)

Its fast and furious play.. and highly competitive...

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The collectible aspect, that's what I'm afraid of...it would be like if they sold Hami-O's in an online store that you paid for with real money. I'm all for a card game, just include every card in the set. Something like Flying Buffalo's old "Nuclear War" games.

Thanks for future reference, although I'm actually glad I bought the US version, as I like the American voice actors.

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The quote under Miki should read:

"I'm looking for sailors. Have you seen any sailors?"


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Lol. Played Shenmue lately?

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Ah ha! That was bugging me so much. Why didn't I remember?

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I had to remember it, I bought an Xbox for Shenmue 2 since I had issues finding a good importer.

There are people who will also criticize the rain at the end of a drought.

Everyone has different priorities.

I don't care in the least about PvP, Trenchcoats, or Global Chat.

I care a lot about SSOCS, more patterns for our costumes, and I would LOVE to see the "Comic book cover" idea for souveneirs implemented.


But I'm not in charge, and I've liked the vast majority of what the game's done so far. That's why I've been here since before opening day, in the ONLY MMO game I've ever pre-ordered.

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Lets see....when we have people who claim they enjoy soloing because other people dont "roleplay" enough -or- all their "pickup" groups suck, then yes they are anti-social people. They are making a prejediced judgement about other people they do not know in order to justify their beliefs on why its best to not play with them.

If that isnt anti-social behavior, then what is?

As for the arguement about wanting to be Punisher and having to fight Darkseid....oh give me a break. If you really fought "The Russian" every single battle, you would get bored. Heck, if every issue of the Punisher was him vs the Russian, the story itself would be tired and you'd lose interest in the Punisher character itself; just like you will with your own character.

Do you really think your going to find the same level of enjoyment soloing your characters a year from now as you currently do? I really doubt it.

The social interactions between players is what keeps players involved with their games. Being apart of a community, even a small one, is what keeps the MMORPG player sticking with their game. This is the real reason why you left EQ; you didnt become apart of that community, and thus were left out.

But thats a choice you made, just as it is a choice your making here to not be apart of this one by making generalized claims that others arent good enough to team up with you.

Partying has been the best way to form bonds between players in these virtual worlds. You unite for a common goal; if you do well, these other players continue to invite you to join their teams. And thus begins friendships which can last years and cross-over to other games you play with those friends.

Nothing stops you from reading a mission description when partied. You start the mission only after reading it. You have a list of clues to go through after every mission. I'm not sure what your trying to get at here.

Everyone in your SG was a stranger to you once. Your deceiving yourself if you really think claiming the only people who you have fun with are going to exist in that SG and your robbing yourself from new and fun experiences you could be having with other people too.

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Ok, time to respond. The villians/heros listed, those are what we call EXAMPLES. No, you don't expect the same villians, you expect different ones. That's why Batman had The Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Scarecrow, Bane, and more. That's why the Spider-Man stories have The Vulture, the Green Goblin, the Sandman, Venom, and Carnage. That's why most heroes have what's called a "rogues gallery". You completely missed my point, and this is another example, not an end-all be-all statement, which is that Commissioner Gordon doesn't light up the Bat-Signal over Darkseid coming to earth, the UN would contact the Justice League. And you know what, the heroes fighting crime by themself has no negative effect on the ones who want to do it together. None whatsoever.

And not wanting to team with other people does not mean not wanting to interact with them. I notice you carefully ignored my mention of my PA mates in Galaxies, yeah I was a bit torn by leaving them, but if the game itself isn't fun, then why would you pay money for something you can get with any chatroom/forum? That was the same problem with EQ, I still have my old EQ guild's webpage in my bookmarks. It wasn't the people, it was THE GAME. My first priority is enjoying myself, and you can have all the community you want to, but if the game itself isn't any fun, what is the point of being there? And while we're on the subject of things I said that were ignored, I don't think someone who is really anti social would have joined a SG in the first place, let alone been promoted to leader. If I see someone asking for help, whether or not I know them, I will.

As it was said, City of Heroes has ignored many of the "fundamental" things about MMO games so far. No loot, no crafting, no "maintenance" activities, much more of a coherent storyline. This has been the game that the player who could only play an hour at a time could easily pick up, do a mission or two, and log off. You didn't have to treat the game as a second job. What this has done is attract people who didn't traditionally play MMO games. Most "traditional" MMO games were descendants of the old "pen and paper" RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons, where the concept of the "adventuring party" was core. This is one of the things I like about what I've heard about EQ2 so far, that the "raid encounters" are lessened. This game is somewhat descended from the old "pen and paper" superhero RPGs like Villians and Vigilantes, Champions, Marvel Super Heroes, and DC Heroes, 3 of those I've owned and played. But it's based on comics at its heart. In comics, you have room for the X-Men and Batman, for Archer & Armstrong and Spawn, for the Defenders and for Superman. We have plenty of fun here (missions scaling, trials, task forces, trial/hazard zones) for the fans of say, the Avengers and the Justice League. What about people who would prefer to be like Spawn, Lobo, and Shadow Hawk? Why not appeal to them too?

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This is seven years of experience with MMORPGs I am speaking from.

And the one thing CoH lacks the most is a strong community, which I'm hoping CoV will implement changes to encourage more interaction between players beyond trading items, missions and sending pms. I know they have plans for SGs, but right now interaction between various SGs and their ability to cause change in their virtual world is low. CoV should offer plenty of new opportunities to remedy this situation however.

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And there's a reason that the people here left those other MMO games. I started playing EQ in 1999, and played it off and on until late 2002, when I took a break from MMO in general due to frustration. When this game started, back in Beta, we heard "you can solo and actually have fun doing it", "good storyline", "fast-paced, the combat itself is fun".

CoH appears to be falling into the same trap that Galaxies did. I'm a huge Star Wars fan, as well as a major comic fan. I started playing Galaxies because I had friends who were, and because I wanted to "live in the Star Wars universe. At first, I had a blast. I worked my way to Master Bounty Hunter and Imperial Colonel, I was an officer in my PA, I had fun. Then came the holocrons, and the Star Wars feel went away totally.

Here, we have a similar thing. We have players who want to play the Punisher or Batman, and want to fight The Joker or "The Russian". And what happens? They're sent up against Thanos and apparently they're the best choice for it? When you need to fight Thanos or Darkseid, you don't call Batman, you call the Justice League.

As far as "community", the solo players aren't all exactly antisocial either. Of course, the best online group of people I've ever known was back in my MUD days, and you almost never saw anyone grouping there, unless it was a PK squad. I was promoted to a "leader" rank of my SG, and why? Because if someone needs a hand, I'll always help them out. Heck, that's how I joined in the first place, an empathy defender in the group needed a hand with her cape mission.

Why, then, do I prefer to solo? Story reasons, I like being able to read mission descriptions, I like being able to play at my own pace, which sometimes involves finding a quiet spot in the mission and going semi-afk while I do other things, but the biggest reason is timing. The hours I play, most of my in-game friends aren't on, and while the grouping I've done with my SG-mates has been good, I HATE pickup groups. But then again, I never like the old "Marvel-Team-Up" comics either, they seemed...forced too.

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The key to a successful MMO is to allow as many people as possible to have fun, but fun can only be had in whatever way is fun to you. If soloing is fun and grouping with random strangers is not, then a game model that forces pickup groups isn't going to make me have fun... it's just going to make me quit.

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I couldn't have said it better myself. I'm of the opinion that the best way to make everyone happy is the "threefold" idea. The contact has three options instead of two, a "Defeat X", a soloable or our now standard "door" mission, and a mandatory grouping mission. Frack, if you want give extra XP for the mandatory group mission, just give us other options besides the friggin' street-sweeping. As its been said, mandating groups won't make the players who prefer to solo group, it will just make them leave.

And for the full-on groupers who think this is a good idea, imagine server populations going down, less money going into the coffers of the developers, and both fewer and smaller updates. If a player who prefers to fight crime by themself plays, what is the reasoning for not allowing them to have the equivalent fun?

Oh sweet...

The only way to make this better would be to have Sky Skiffs "grouped" with Wing Raiders patrolling the actual sky of TV...