Would Anyone Play a Longbow/PPD AT?

I'm not sure I'm reading this right. If the notion is that most people play both factions (and I'm inclined to agree), then wouldn't it logically follow that adding content to one faction but not the other would add more content to those players anyway? I mean, speaking as a two-factions player myself, more villain content makes me happy because that's more content for my villains, more hero content makes me happy because it means more content for my heroes, but more co-op content makes me only half as happy because I know it'll be half-hearted and that I'll end up doing it on ALL of my characters, growing bored with it that much faster.

"Efficiency" aside, one-faction-only content is much easier to write for, because you can at least assume a morality and write for that. As an amateur writer, myself, I know that even if theme doesn't set the actual plot, it can often set the tone, and the appropriate tone of a story does a LOT to make it better. Co-op content comes off as just... Bland. It's not heroic enough to make me smile and it's not self-gratifying enough to make me smirk. It's just... There.

The Rikti War Zone arcs are a good example. Yeah, we're fighting to save the world, yes, they're well written... But I still care not in the slightest. There's nothing to care about. There aren't any puppies to pet to warm my heart, there aren't any puppies to kick to make me cackle like an idiot. It's just plot exposition with no emotion in it. About the most emotional moment in all four (rather, five) arcs is that one particular death at Nemesis' hands, and that's mostly a HERO moment, to boot. The only reason that'd make you made is out of empathy for the dead guy, and that's just not a villainous motivation.

I say stick to one-faction-only content. It still reaches a lot of people and it has the benefit of being written for a more focused group of participants, leading to better overall quality.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

To be honest, at this point it might as well. Posts I read constantly get re-flagged as unread, to the point where I'll read a thread, check out another forum, be back in five minutes and it will light up as unread with no new posts in it. I've basically stopped looking at what's being marked as read and what isn't. I'm just looking at post times and dates, and I work off the latest post I can remember off the thread.

Eh, but I try not to complain about it TOO much

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Yes, that was the point I was trying to make.
While faction-specific content won't reach all *characters*, what really matters is what *players* it reaches, and the only ones that won't be reached by faction-specific content are those who exclusively play the other faction.

I use Firefox with NoScript and AdBlockPlus and basically never have issues unless I leave my browser pointed at the forums for too long (like several hours) without changing pages (like when I go to work). Never have the "remember me" issue, never have the "go to new posts, except the post is from three days ago and I read it already" issue...

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

It's not just a question of being hard (take a lot of time), but also if that effort (time) could be better spent elsewhere.

Sometimes it's a choice of adding "slow, high 'return'" content less frequently, or adding "faster, slightly lower 'return'" a bit more often (where each approach has its benefits), but sometimes you're just looking at two (or more) options with similar "return", but where one (or some) of them simply take more time/effort. In those cases, it's often a good thing to go for one of the options taking less time/effort.


I'd like to think that adding BBotS would be a good choice, but since I don't know what the other options are, or the relative time/effort cost of all the options, I can't say that for sure.

I would assume its your no-script. I use FireFox with Ad-Block and see new posts fine.

I always suspected, but didn't want to make unsubstantiated accusations.

I sent Manticore a PM with some lore questions about W.I.S.D.O.M. a while back, never got a response. I'm pretty sure he's up to his neck in work with GR.

Or he never uses his forum account. Or both.

Hro'Dtohz.

And I certainly hope you mean the Borg pre-Voyager, because after that show, the Borg can never be taken seriously again.

Well Castle, I hate to be the bearer of bad news on this and threadjack some more...but I think there is more of an issue than FF/NS/ABP. I run this at work and at home (when not using chrome).

When I run FF/NS/ABP I have no issues what so ever, new posts I am directed to and not getting new post updates you have stated. I am not going to threadjack this anymore though...just might need to double check with the IT team .

Highly unusual. Not at all the exact setup that I use, or the one I recommend to anyone that asks. ...

Would Replicators be a better fit?

Indeed they would be. The Replicators from StarGate never got used to a point where they became silly. In fact the exact opposite happened: They got progressively more and more frightening.

Indeed, to the point that I made a quite detailed suggestion of the PPD EAT many, many months ago (way before we got VEATs). I keep reminding Castle, but he keeps using his Jedi mind tricks on me.

Er... not sure how NoScript could be at fault unless you failed to whitelist the forums. Which I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have done, or would have noticed (since it would horribly break a lot of really basic stuff).

try using Google Chrome instead of Fire Fox. I used to be an avid Fire Fox user/fan but after trying Google Chrome I found allot of issues I had previously werent an issue any more.

I have a similar issue, posted about it here: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=221453

Logging out after I was done fixed the problem. As I mentioned in the thread there, the annoyance of typing a username and passwords is MUCH less than the annoyance of filtering what is actually read or unread.

Anyways, I'm just going to voice my support here for body mounted blasting devices, Black Blood of the Earth as an addition in some way.

Also, Praetorian ATs would be cool. Not sure how they'd fit conceptually, but there it is.

I would also have to say that I can make a PPD/LB character just fine with existing sets and costumes. Sure, it might be nice to have my character be an "official" member of the PPD, but I would argue that making an arc that awards a "PPD Member" badge (maybe make it a hero aligned arc, something that only people who don't go rogue can do) and adding other, more unique EATs would be better.

IMO...


I wouldn't mind seeing a PPD or LB HEAT. One of my big problems with blueside is that it's an freeworld mess. Not that I'm against freeworld but there's a serious lack of storyline continuity from 1-50 until you get into the Kheld arcs.

Likewise; redside is too linear where it shouldn't be... it alludes to two separate paths in Mercy then converges into a thick mess of a linear contact line.


Both sides could borrow from one another in structure and expand.


I'm disappointed that there isn't a 1-50 continuity for each of the Origin contacts on blueside. Or hero-patron storylines that lend themselves to 1-50 continuity. Even redside patron storylines could be expanded back down to level one.


Some people are vehemently against locked storylines/content; some feeling that their one (1) character should be able to do and earn every little individual tidbit of CoX particulars without boundary. I vehemently support locked storylines/content because it mandates re-playability; supporting CoX's massive alt, character slot and multi-server system/setup.


I like the idea of multi-linear play embedded into a freeworld environment.


What's the use of having EATs if all they do is run the same hoops your other 15 alts have already run? Want more story in some of the Hazard zones... a PPD EAT storyline sounds like it could fill that role. And with progression into Hardsuit, Psi Cop or Awakened (with possible Drone support); a PPD EAT looks as if it could be a very versatile and full powerset.

Longbow lends itself to many full arc possibilities within PvP zones (which sorely needs to separate itself from its Arena cousin).


Blah, blah, blah...

So, in short, I would support and play either because it could add 2 more persistent storylines as well as 2 very unique (in terms of gameplay) ATs to blueside.

But before we do that, we need them to make the Carnie and Rikti VEATs.

Interestingly, I use that exact combination and have zero problem with these forums from work or home.
HOWEVER, on an SG forum I visit, I get the exact problem you describe, but only on my home computer despite the fact that both computers have the same version of Firefox with the same plug-ins.

Do you leave yourself logged in via "Remember Me" or do you sign out (not simply leave and let the cookie timeout) via the button when done?

I use that exact same highly unusual browser setup. Small world!

I get this probably 80-90% of the time at home, but never at work. In both cases I'm using Firefox. At home I currently have AdBlockPlus (but not NoScript) but I was getting this issue before I started using AdBlockPlus. It's annoying, but I'm just going by the thread title and time of the last post and guessing.