warren_grant

Well for what its worth I am having an absolute gas on my Fire/Dark Corruptor :P

Just a note: If you are dual booting into Windows at all, I believe you *must* be running either Win Vista or Win 7, XP will not work with Lion AFAIK. Double check on that by all means but I recall not wanting to upgrade until I had upgraded my XP because of something I read about it. I now have upgraded Windows but haven't done the switch to Lion yet :P

I made a Tanker named "Faceplant" once as an experiment. I wanted to see if anyone would invite a tanker with a name that implied they sucked - he was constantly being invited to groups. I specced him very badly and used no enhancements at all.
I think I leveled him up to about 12 or so before I deleted him

Finally got it up and running, switched to 1680x1050 and the game is running very well. No complaints as to speed or reactions when doing sudden turns etc. In fact its currently running better than it does when I dualboot into XP. I am very impressed.

Only thing I have noticed is some textures in the far distance are not loading properly until I get closer to them, still well out of the range of affecting my gameplay in any regard (we are talking distances like half of steel canyon).

I can't wait to get this for use with the regular servers. Playing on the Test Centre is all fine and dandy but I have characters I want to level up on Victory that I would really like to access with this client to test it out more thoroughly.

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That's right, we here at the City of Heroes/Villains community welcomes everyone who has a Mac to come try out the wonderfull game we PC Users have been playing for the past five years.

Yep. All ten of you.

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Yep been playing it since it first came out on various PCs, then when I decided to buy a Mac because I was sick of dealing with MS Windows, I got a copy of Xp and set up dual-booting. I still have to use Windows to play games, but at least its only for gaming. I use the Mac OS/x side for anything serious. That way I don't have to constantly reinstall Windows because it gets bloated with crap. I also don't really have to worry about drivers since the Mac Bootcamp software informs me when new drivers are out. Its effortless.

Given that the Mac Pro is one of the most popular selling laptops at the moment, particularly amongst college aged purchasers, I think you are going to see an increasing number of games supporting Mac OS/x down the road. In the meantime a *lot* of people dual boot to XP or Vista to play games like I do.

I get kinda sick of the anti-mac crowd out there who can't resist making smart-[censored] remarks like yours. There are millions of us Mac users out there who play games these days, and its only growing. Most of the people I meet who are buying or who have just bought Macs did so because they got sick of Microsoft, sick of viruses or sick of Vista. Its not a matter of being "fanbois" (a convenient epithet to throw at someone who sees things differently than you) its a matter of deciding to try something else and discovering its pretty good. I don't have to be a moronic fanboi to recognize something that works and works well. Maybe you should crawl out of your hole and try using a Mac sometime, you might find you like it.

I have the best of both worlds, gorgeous hardware, a great and reliable OS that looks highly polished and a computer that just doesn't crash, and when I want to play games I can switch to XP if I want to play games. So far I have only had to reinstall XP once to keep it running smoothly, as opposed to doing it regularly when I was using it on a PC.

Now with this new client I can hopefully avoid messing with Windows when I want to play City of Heroes. Hopefully more MMOs follow suit. I am very glad to see NCSoft following through with this, and I sincerely hope it works well.

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o.o soooo.... where's the mac edition? Has it been delayed a bit or...
>_> went to go get it from the NCsoft store for the new goodies but it wasn't up.

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I believe its supposed to be in Open Beta now, so we can download it and try it out for free (with an active account) and provide feedback prior to them making the official version available for download.

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Macintosh?

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Precisely. How do we download the new mac client to give it a shot. I would love to not have to boot into XP just to play COH. The less time spent in Windows the better for me...

I am very very happy to see COH ported to another OS. The more MMOs (or other games) that make an appearance on Mac OS/x the better IMHO. I currently have Bootcamp set up with Win XP so that I can play games (after using OS/x Windows feels like a "toy" operating system and games are all I use it for), and it will be wonderful to be able to play COH/COV natively instead of having to reboot. Perhaps this will encourage other game companies to follow suit, I can only hope.

Now, COH is far from the first, you can already play WOW and EVE on the Mac side and have been able to for ages from what I understand, however the former sucks very badly IMHO and the later is, well, way too complex for my current gaming habits, albeit one of the best MMOs on the market reportedly.

COH/COV continues to be the best example of a near-perfect MMO in my opinion. It does what it does inside of its niche market just about perfectly and the developers continue to listen to the player in an amicable manner. Just about every other company seems to fail in this regard.

Bravo NCSoft, I am eagerly awaiting info on participating in the beta for the Mac Client.

I tried GW during beta and was sorely disappointed. The whole feel of the game made it seem like it was solely oriented towards PvPers and quite frankly, I could care less.

It was nice looking but utterly failed to attract me and the whole select only 8 of your powers thing was too strange a mechanic to adapt to.

My biggest hope is that it will draw off all the d00d players from games I do enjoy so I never see or hear from them again.

Overall, I have no interest in it.

Happy Anniversary. I hope that City of Heroes has been as successful as you hoped, or more so! Certainly from a player's perspective this game is the best on the market. I have no doubt that City of Villains will continue this high standard.

Since its release, City of Heroes has continued to push the envelope on MMO development, offering value and innovation unheard of in other games, and revolutionizing the industry. Despite high profile competition from recent releases like EQII and WOW, it has weathered the storm and continued to offer a fantastic level of quality and enjoyability. I sincerely hope it continues in this vein, and forces its competitors to play catch-up in matching it feature for feature.

I am an avid player and have been since the day the game was released, despite not being all that much of a fan of the Super Hero genre. The enjoyability of the game mechanics, the design of the game system, artwork, maps and its core concepts transcend that genre.

If you ever go to make a Fantasy-based MMO using these mechanics I am going to be sorely torn, but until then I am dedicated to fighting crime in Paragon City

Bravo to both Cryptic and NCSoft for presenting a terrific game!

I can see removing the debt for the first 10 levels as making it easier on people who are new to the game. I don't think its necessary but then I usually don't die more than once at the most in the first 10 levels. I have played several alts to 15 or so without dying and one to 18.

As for debt in missions, I suppose that might make it more attractive to people to do missions rather than streetsweeping but I sincerely hope it doesn't remove debt as a punishment for bad gameplay. There *has* to be a sufficient penalty for dying to keep the game a challenge.

I mean how often do you actually die more than once in a mission? I have a few characters that can manage it every so often but for the most part there are few or no deaths in missions already, and death only occurs when you do something stupid, or am I playing a completely different game than the rest of you?

I think the current penalty is just fine. If you want to encourage doing missions, then up the penalty for dying outside missions

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Actually someone found a linguistics website where a Hmong speaker spoke the word "Tsoo" (Which incidentally means "To Hit or Strike"). And yes, the Tsoo are NOT Chinese or Japanese, they are Hmong. Anyway, the word "Tsoo" sounded much like someone saying "jong" or "djong". Very interesting.

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I highly doubt this is true; its more likely that the Hmong have a word /Tsoo/ that is similiar in appearance or pronunciation, but not the same word as was intended by the devs when they created the content.

As for the pronunciation, since many of the languages in the East are tone-based and use different allophones for the vowels than we use, its entirely possible for us Westerners to hear a word pronounced in a manner that we would spell completely differently.

I am convinced they were referring to "Tsu" or "Tzu" but spelled in a unique manner (possibly based on 19th century transcriptions of chinese which often employed more archaic seeming spelling). This can be seen in famous chinese names such as Lao Tsu, Kung Fu Tzu (Confucius), and Sun Tzu. I believe it merely means "Wise One" or "Scholar" or something like that.

I tried to search for some suitable Etymological source to quote - but alas all such seemed to be in Chinese which I do not speak or read (or I could speak with more authority). We must have some Asian players who are familiar with Chinese who can comment though no?

Another thing to keep in mind is that since the various Chinese languages (there are 5 basic ones I think, with over 1 million dialects) are tone based, one single syllable can have multiple meanings based on tone which is seldom transcribed or indicated in Western translations. If I recall correctly, there is a Cantonese or Mandarin poem that is a play on words, it consists entirely of the word /i/ using different tones and so to a westerner not used to hearing those tones and unfamiliar with whichever language it was it sounds like "ee ee ee ee ee" etc repeated 48 times or something.

The biggest maxim of Etymology is that if someone - particularly a speaker of the language who is not trained in linguistics - *thinks* they know the origin of a word, they are most likely wrong. There is a concept called "Folk Etymology" which refers to the speakers of a language thinking they know the origin of a word and thus ascribing that origin (incorrectly) to the word. It becomes common knowledge to many speakers by this means but is still incorrect. Folk Etymology is endemic, and extremely common.

For example, a common English 4 letter word referring to sex (which I will not include here so I don't get banned) has been ascribed a folk etymology of being a contraction of "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" and was supposedly branded on those women accused of being prostitutes. This is comletely erroneous, and is not the origin of the word. The actual word appears to come via Scots English and originate in Scandanavian/Norwegian (ie we got it from Viking invaders most likely). You can look it up yourself here:

Etymological Dictionary

Yes, I was an erstwhile Linguistics major in University before I ran out of funds and drive to be academic. I should really return some day

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I remember when "Jerkhacking" , "Kill Skuls" , and "gone to the Americans" were still inside jokes.

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That would mean they were funny in the first place - which they were not, ever.

I remember buying COH on release day, along with my DAOC guildmates, because we had decided to leave DAOC, and COH looked like a good interrim choice while we waited for WOW.

I remember getting WOW and thinking this was the end of my COH. I returned to COH like a shot when my friee month of WOW was up, such a disappointing game that. COH is far far better than WOW can ever hope to be. Most of my Supergroup has returned from WOW as well - and for the same reasons: grouping sucks in WOW, the game is far too easy, and we missed the challenging and exciting combat of City of Heroes.

I remember the first time I made a character (and managed to drag myself out of the stupendous character generator) and I was amazed at how well the game *felt* to play. It felt heroic and every detail seemed well thought out. I am still completely impressed to this day.

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For the people that think this is going to stop the powerleveling, the tells, or the low levels in PI,it's not. The basic fact remains; as long as there is Side Kicking, there will be powerleveling. Now if you want to make a case to remove that, there is also bad news; As long as teams with different levels can get xp, there will be power leveling

I couldn't give a rats butt if people want to powerlevel their characters. They are morons for decreasing the time they get to actually play their characters dramatically, for missing content (later to whine about how little content there is like complete hypocrits of course), and for the idiotic notion that having a high level character *means* anything to anyone else. I have news for the cretin crowd that PLs regularly - I could care less that you have a high level character. I am spending my time *enjoying playing the game* while you enjoy [Censored] yourself out of gameplay.

Putting timers on missions like the Wolf one that have been blatantly abused is a great move. I hope they keep making changes to encourage people to actually PLAY the game not stand around like the village idiot in some mision with their thumbs up their butts getting progressively stupider. If you want a reason that most people's pickup group experiences are so bad - here's the main culprit: people who get something for free without earning it, without learning from it, and without appreciating it. PLing only serves to breed reallly sh***y players.

WHat I *DO* care about though is the endless spam for influence (because they got PLed and can't afford their Enhancements or are just too effing lazy to actually earn it themselves because it all seems like so much effort after being PLed), and the endless spam trying to find other talentless cretins who are willing to act as a bridge in some stupidass PLing session.

Every minute you spend getting PLed represents some much longer period of time - probably hours in some cases - where you can't play your character. When you get to 50, there is basically *nothing* worth doing, so rushing to 50 by being PLed is the choice of idiots.

And before someone suggests it, its not jealousy. I have a level 40 Scrapper right now, and a level 35 Illusion/Rad controller, plus another 100 levels worth of alts (and probably 50 more levels of deleted alts). If I really wanted a level 50 by now I could *easily* have had it. I just don't see the need to rush, because I like my characters and the day the retire is going to be a sad one. I may end up deleting and rerolling some in fact, although I expect COV will be out by then.

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Ours were Harpo, Groucho, Chico, and Karl.

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Was Karl the filesharing server?

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I was wondering if you (or anyone else who tried the new costume options) could tell me if a skirt that looks like this is going to be available in Issue 4.

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Thats not a skirt, thats a towel :P

Actuallly its more like an extension of the blouse than anything else. Why don't you ever seen women who dress like that in real life?

My Illusion/Radiation Controller just made 32 and got the Phantasm. I have a few notes I would add:

First of all, I have had no problem soloing with this character from level 1 up. Sure it got easier at 18 when I got PA, and even easier when I got SOs at 22 and PA was fully slotted, but I was always able to solo more or less. Now, I have grouped a bit with my SG, but most of my 32 levels have been done primarily solo (this was an alt until recently, now I consider it my main, although I have a Claws/Invuln scrapper at 40 atm).

I went with Fly. The Phantasms can fly, although PA can't. PA fades after a minute though, so Fly seemed the safest route for movement powers.

I have Spectral Terror and it is periodically useful, but I agree in its current form its utility is somewhat weak for the most part. When I am grouping and we get charged by large numbers of mobs, I fall back and cast ST to provide a safe spot for the squishies. It doesn't chase everyone away, but I can usually flash and get those who come through it.

I have both GI and SI. GI is great but since its timed it has a tendancy to fade when I am busy in a fight. SI is useful when I want to sneak across a zone or through a mission to the end. In retrospect I would probably spec out of it if I had something else I thought was more important. It has been useful to me. Oh another trick I have tried is casting a few Phantasms, turning on SI and then running througha group of mobs to drag the Phants onto it. Then I can turn off SI and cast PA on the mobs from the other side to keep them sandwiched between my pets. Not sure if its a viable tactic yet or not as I am still working on figuring out how best to use the pets.

Get AM and Hasten as early as you can so they are both 6 slotted by the time you get PA. Then as you slot out PA go for 1 damage and 5 recharges. You can get more or less Permanent PAs that way with a 9s gap between recasts. I used flash to save myself from the aggro in that gap. Post 32 I am still using the same setup because the PA acts as a nice Tank to keep the aggro off me, and even with just one Damage SO the Phants do decent enough damage.

I have at 32, successfully taken on 2 purple 35 Bosses (Crey and 5Th Col^H^H^HCouncil) with some effort multiple times. I can easily take 4 or 5 red con mobs, and bunches of oranges or yellows are just a short fight. The chaos is immense when you have 2 Phants plus their decoys plus 2-4 PA present, I feel like a small army

I have to agree that its fantastic that the devs actively pariticipate in these forums. Its yet another thing that sets this game apart from the competition.

As for the Invulnerability changes that are threatening to derail the thread.

I play an Invuln/Claws scrapper (currently level 40). I applaud the changes, they made my scrapper much better and more enjoyable to play. I tried using perma-unstoppable and decided against it for the simple reason that it made things too easy, and I dislike the concept of focusing my whole character build around one power - I think thats bad game design in the long run. I applaud the changes they made there, I think they were an improvement to the game, even if they forced a few people to leave easy mode and play a more challenging game. They were good changes.

My SG has a 44 Tanker in it, Invuln/SS, he thinks the changes were improvements as well. He seems happier with his character post I3 because now it is more challenging. Previous to I3, I think he thought things were far too easy. I can't speak for him, only report my impressions of what he has said of course (Hopefully Mr Maso will show up in the thread to speak for himself).

I think some people see any change to their playstyle as a nerf automatically. A power that is overpowered, over used, or one that you can build an entire character around is probably due for a change. I expect the devs will change Moment of Glory soon so that it can't be made perma.

I sincerely hope they change Hasten as well. Both Hasten and Stamina are too powerful, and have become pretty much mandatory in all builds. What I would like to see is the elimination of both Hasten and Stamina - combined with a reduction in the endurance costs of all powers or a level based increase in endurance regen, and the inclusion of Hasten and End Regen Inspirations.

The only thing threatening COH for me is that it will continue to be as easy as it is at the moment. Even with the difficulty slider my SG is seldom all that challenged by any mission we have done lately. My Illusion/Rad Controller is doing just fine (ie, its extremely easy) on Unyielding at the moment - I plan on trying the top setting soon. Making the game more challenging by eliminating the easy mode options would be a good thing to my mind, provided its done very carefully and slowly.

City of Victims of course - you play the victims of the various crimes that take place in game, the third leg of the triangle of Villain, Victim and Hero.

You can't level, there are no drops or enhancements, no travel powers other than driving cars and the trams (and of course the high-stepping Panic Mode Sprint with arms akimbo but it can only be used when you come into range of an NPC Mob).

Prospective ATs include:

Street Bum
Police Officer
Generic Woman
Generic Guy
etc.

The most boring AT so far would be the Generic Woman Getting Her Purse Snatched, since she is locked in a permanent tugofwar with the NPC mob until a hero shows up. Good for those who like to go afk while gaming though I suppose.

Nah, you probably just have to go find the lightswitches and turn them off

Just wait, City of Villains will have an AT called "Ravagers" - with a whole new set of scrapper like skills - Whips, Daggers, Streetfighting etc - and the French translation will read "Scrapeur" or something.

Ravager does sound like a neat name for an AT, and I could easily see it being one of the Villain ones. It has a more destructive air about it...

"im canadian ans sleepy, board, and not getting any, i have no reason for a spellchecker "

[Censored] has being Canadian got to do with your moronic inability to spell English? Thats an insult to all us Canadians who are intelligent enough to spell correctly.

You might be "board" (sic, I presume you mean "bored"), and you may not be getting any, but using that as an excuse for being too lazy to learn to write your own language correctly is just plain laughable.

Please stop mentioning you are Canadian, you are making the rest of us look bad. If you can't be bothered to spell correctly, don't try to communicate, you just come across as an ignorant putz.

Just had this discussion on another board.

I don't know how to put this in a manner that won't make most Americans take offense at it, so believe me when I say I don't mean to be offensive in any way.

I am a Canadian, and proud to be so, just as I am sure many US citizens are proud of their country. I don't associate the US flag with any concept of "Freedom" particularly. I don't feel any emotion at all when I see a US flag. So for me associating "Freedom" as a concept and standing beside the US flag is meaningless. I am on the edge of taking offense at the fact that I am supposed to stand beside a meaningless (to me) flag as a symbol of my character's concept of "Freedom". Its kinda like taking your natural pride and emotional associations with your national flag and shoving them down my throat so to speak.

I don't hate the US, and I have (literally) never met an American I didn't like or find friendly. I have visited the US, and its ok, although I have no desire to live there. While I respect the US and its citizens, I don't see it as any greater a symbol of freedom or democracy than I do my own country or dozen's of other countries in the world. I know many Americans like to think of themselves that way, but much of the rest of the world doesn't share that view particularly.

I would be happier if they dropped the concept of a Patriot/Freedom badge entirely. Its not a big thing for me, and I understand what the devs are probably trying to express - but it rubs the wrong way on all non-US players (and there are a fair number of us I expect) to be forced to support an American-centric view of what symbolizes Freedom.

How would you feel if you had to stand beside the Canadian Flag?

oh and while we are at it, how come there is no Maple Leaf symbol in the chest details choices. There's a fleur-de-lys...