Tina McIntyre and the sped-up world
By
AzureSkyCiel,
Posted on: 2010-12-06 09:24 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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I totally agree, I had the same sad thought when I did that arc. Of course, I'm pretty sure that arc was in the original Tina arc too, and I was bummed about it then.
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
It just seems like such a missed opportunity...
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Yeah, what immediately caught my eye was real-time shadows, but they could have increased the day-night cycle even without those. Is there some technical difficulty making this impossible?
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Originally Posted by Feycat
I totally agree, I had the same sad thought when I did that arc. Of course, I'm pretty sure that arc was in the original Tina arc too, and I was bummed about it then.
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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.
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Great idea, Sam. I would enjoy sped-up time as well.
The question would be whether it is possible to "un-synch" the mission from the "Server Day/Night Cycle." I imagine it is tougher than it sounds. As recent events have shown, it might work for everyone except Kheldians. 
I suppose we have to take what we can get. I still like the Garage tileset for the Clockwork Captive, the Tattoo Parlor tileset and the like a great deal, but they seem to be few and far between.
"How do you know you are on the side of good?" a Paragon citizen asked him. "How can we even know what is 'good'?"
"The Most High has spoken, even with His own blood," Melancton replied. "Surely we know."
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The Day/Night Cycle for the Server is a powerful force. I was standing INSIDE A BANK VAULT when the time for sunset came along, and I was fascinated by the moving shadows as the sun set... with me, of course, inside of an enclosed vault with no windows inside of a building that likewise had no windows.|
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
Yeah, what immediately caught my eye was real-time shadows, but they could have increased the day-night cycle even without those. Is there some technical difficulty making this impossible?
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Could that be addressed? Far easier and more important to add knockback effects to Hover, I suppose.
"How do you know you are on the side of good?" a Paragon citizen asked him. "How can we even know what is 'good'?"
"The Most High has spoken, even with His own blood," Melancton replied. "Surely we know."
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Because you're in that dimension. Your perception of time in that dimension is the same as everyone else's perception of time in that dimension. If the mission text stated that you were encapsulated in some sort of temporal bubble, then it would make sense to expect a visible indication of increased passage of time. As it stands, though, when you step through the portal and set foot on that world, you also enter that dimension's temporal status.
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
I don't know if this has been gone over already or not, but something just struck me. I finally retried the new Tina arc, and I'm sitting the world where time has been sped up significantly, with one recurring thought in my head - why doesn't time look sped-up here?
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So then why does the entry pop-up tell me that the sun bounds across the sky in minutes to be replaced with an equally fleet-footed moon? Why does it describe me seeing incredibly fast days and nights if I'm not actually seeing incredibly fast days and nights?
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Originally Posted by Luminara
Because you're in that dimension. Your perception of time in that dimension is the same as everyone else's perception of time in that dimension. If the mission text stated that you were encapsulated in some sort of temporal bubble, then it would make sense to expect a visible indication of increased passage of time. As it stands, though, when you step through the portal and set foot on that world, you also enter that dimension's temporal status.
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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.
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During Beta for UM, the Devs specifically wanted it to be /bugged wherever we saw above ground shadows happening indoors or underground so they can fix that.|
Originally Posted by Melancton
The Day/Night Cycle for the Server is a powerful force. I was standing INSIDE A BANK VAULT when the time for sunset came along, and I was fascinated by the moving shadows as the sun set... with me, of course, inside of an enclosed vault with no windows inside of a building that likewise had no windows.
Could that be addressed? Far easier and more important to add knockback effects to Hover, I suppose. |
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
I don't know if this has been gone over already or not, but something just struck me. I finally retried the new Tina arc, and I'm sitting the world where time has been sped up significantly, with one recurring thought in my head - why doesn't time look sped-up here? The sun here isn't any faster than it is on Primal Earth, despite the game telling me it bounds across the sky in seconds, to be replaced with an equally fleet-footed moon. It's not doing that!
Is it some kind of technical limitation that's keeping this from happening just because this mission is using the stock OUTDOOR_CITY_03A map? I mean, how cool would it be to come into this world and SEE day and night flip back and forth within 90 seconds, over and over again? Then I wouldn't need a pop-up to tell me that time were sped up. I could SEE it with my own eyes? I can only assume how cool it would be to see such a world where shadows race across the city from one end to the other and the sky keeps flashing on and off. It just seems like such a missed opportunity... |
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If the sun moves across the sky fast, the enemies in the mission need to move faster too.
"You don't lose levels. You don't have equipment to wear out, repair, or lose, or that anyone can steal from you. About the only thing lighter than debt they could do is have an NPC walk by, point and laugh before you can go to the hospital or base." -Memphis_Bill
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For the same reason every portal corp map has masses of fudge to indicate what they represent: time-saving. Which bugs me too when I hear 'new stuff over revamps'.|
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
So then why does the entry pop-up tell me that the sun bounds across the sky in minutes to be replaced with an equally fleet-footed moon? Why does it describe me seeing incredibly fast days and nights if I'm not actually seeing incredibly fast days and nights?
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A lot of the Portal Corp missions lend themselves to being major variations of what we see in Paragon City. Instead to save time and resources we got carbon-copy-cutouts of existing zones or copy-pasted worlds using the same map with no variation to distinguish them from some of the others you encounter. In the old Praetorian arc; Shadowhunter's world is identical to the Hydra dimension, Paragon Protector world looks identical to Freakshow world and Ghostworld and the Pantheon world looks like a piece of Dark Astoria (and why in a world ruled entirely by ancient gods would they have War Walls?).
That's the main reason I don't bother with Portal Corp missions anymore. They're alright for brief nostalgia of my first encounter but they play like a boring monotone compared with the newer, orchestral story arcs of the RWZ, Imperious TF and now the Alpha slot arc and TFs.
I've done that arc twice but the 'Sped-up' world uses the same map for several missions including the very low-level plague-carrier two-parter villainside badge mission. Having the light shift faster, even it was just sunrise and sunset in 90 seconds, would go someway to at least making it feel different. So much more besides could be done with the rest; Freakshow could get a shanty city similar to their towns in Creys' Folly and Sharkhead, Pantheon could have a more shadowy/foggy map without War Walls instead of the graveyard map, Ghostworld could be dark and gloomy allowing the glowy spirits to contrast against the backdrop, Family world could have classic motors.
Makes me a little sad whenever I hear 'new stuff over revamps' especially as revamps (hello Praetoria) can also mean 'new' for everyone.
Tyger (50), Mutation-Controller Mind/FF - oldest Mind/FF on Union
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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.
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And to them, it's sped up. That's why they're all crazy, remember?
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Originally Posted by Luminara
Because you're in that dimension. Your perception of time in that dimension is the same as everyone else's perception of time in that dimension.
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Dr. Calvin talks about using some kind of Chronometer to isolate himself from the sped-up time. I assume our characters undergo the same shielding the prevent from going mad like the locals. I don't have a good answer for why they AREN'T going really fast, however.
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Originally Posted by GuyPerfect
And to them, it's sped up. That's why they're all crazy, remember?
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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.
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*shrug* Bad writing.
You're in a rocket ship, traveling at 99% of the speed of light. Time, for you, is moving normally, but outside of the rocket ship, time is moving at an accelerated rate.
If you tried to do the same thing to a planet, it'd shoot straight out of orbit, out of its solar system, out of its galaxy and slingshot across the universe. There wouldn't be any fancy graphics, no sun zooming across the sky, none of that malarkey. You couldn't even accomplish it by accelerating the entire solar system, then you'd have that system catapulting out of its galaxy. Nor would it work for the entire galaxy, due to the proximity of other galaxies in the local galactic cluster. The less localized the effect, the greater the magnitude of failure. You can do it with a person, or a rocket ship, or a small area (using comic book logic), but not a planet.
So, bad writing. Not the first example of bad writing in Co*, and judging by the horrendous garbage that's passed for "writing" in the last couple of issues, won't be the last. Seriously, some of the tips and new arcs look like they were written by kindergartners. I'm half expecting to wake up one day and see the UI revamped in crayon, and story arcs about eating paste and coloring between the lines.
Ouch! 
I wouldn't be so quick to call this bad writing, as it has the potential to be a pretty cool story and represent some pretty cool visuals. I'm usually prepared to ignore the man behind the curtain if the illusion presents me with something interesting, and a world with a 90-second day/night cycle is indeed something cool. Yeah, it's kind of implausible, but it's cool enough to where I'm willing to give it a free pass
Besides, the sped-up worlds are probably the most clever part of the new Tina arc, and they give it that extra bit of integrity that make it interesting to play through.
I'll be honest here - I preferred the mystery of the old arc to the ho-hum going through the motions that is the new one, but the sped-up worlds and how they're written into the story keep the arc enjoyable nevertheless.
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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.
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When I went through this mission I was thinking all these citizens who have gone mad are just standing around looking normal. I think it would be cool if the mobs were using idle animations like the Ghouls. That would really help that world appear crazy.
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You know... Making the Crazed Citizens fight like Ghouls would be a MASSIVE improvement, come to think of it. They don't have to have the cannibalistic auras, just the basic run and punch animations, and that writing on the ground when they die, say with the Invoke Panic yell.
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Originally Posted by warden_de_dios
When I went through this mission I was thinking all these citizens who have gone mad are just standing around looking normal. I think it would be cool if the mobs were using idle animations like the Ghouls. That would really help that world appear crazy.
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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.
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On the note of revamped Enemies, i'd love to see the DE Devoured and war wolves using the Ember demons' skeleton from Demon summoning.
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
You know... Making the Crazed Citizens fight like Ghouls would be a MASSIVE improvement, come to think of it. They don't have to have the cannibalistic auras, just the basic run and punch animations, and that writing on the ground when they die, say with the Invoke Panic yell.
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.
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Personally, I always thought of the temporally-accelerated missions as being in real-time. That is to say, a full day takes only 30 minutes. When not in those missions, I suspend reality and the 30-minute day cycle in the game is just artistic flair.
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They'd be sued by Cryptic.
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Originally Posted by Luminara
I'm half expecting to wake up one day and see the UI revamped in crayon, and story arcs about eating paste and coloring between the lines.
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@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
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That'd be so awesome
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Originally Posted by Luminara
*shrug* Bad writing.
You're in a rocket ship, traveling at 99% of the speed of light. Time, for you, is moving normally, but outside of the rocket ship, time is moving at an accelerated rate. If you tried to do the same thing to a planet, it'd shoot straight out of orbit, out of its solar system, out of its galaxy and slingshot across the universe. There wouldn't be any fancy graphics, no sun zooming across the sky, none of that malarkey. You couldn't even accomplish it by accelerating the entire solar system, then you'd have that system catapulting out of its galaxy. Nor would it work for the entire galaxy, due to the proximity of other galaxies in the local galactic cluster. The less localized the effect, the greater the magnitude of failure. You can do it with a person, or a rocket ship, or a small area (using comic book logic), but not a planet. So, bad writing. Not the first example of bad writing in Co*, and judging by the horrendous garbage that's passed for "writing" in the last couple of issues, won't be the last. Seriously, some of the tips and new arcs look like they were written by kindergartners. I'm half expecting to wake up one day and see the UI revamped in crayon, and story arcs about eating paste and coloring between the lines. |
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Dark/Shield Build Thread
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No emocon?
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Originally Posted by Golden Girl
They'd be sued by Cryptic.
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Virtue: @Santorican
Dark/Shield Build Thread
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What does that yell look like, anyway?
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
You know... Making the Crazed Citizens fight like Ghouls would be a MASSIVE improvement, come to think of it. They don't have to have the cannibalistic auras, just the basic run and punch animations, and that writing on the ground when they die, say with the Invoke Panic yell.
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Originally Posted by Golden Girl
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I don't know if this has been gone over already or not, but something just struck me. I finally retried the new Tina arc, and I'm sitting the world where time has been sped up significantly, with one recurring thought in my head - why doesn't time look sped-up here? The sun here isn't any faster than it is on Primal Earth, despite the game telling me it bounds across the sky in seconds, to be replaced with an equally fleet-footed moon. It's not doing that!
Is it some kind of technical limitation that's keeping this from happening just because this mission is using the stock OUTDOOR_CITY_03A map? I mean, how cool would it be to come into this world and SEE day and night flip back and forth within 90 seconds, over and over again? Then I wouldn't need a pop-up to tell me that time were sped up. I could SEE it with my own eyes? I can only assume how cool it would be to see such a world where shadows race across the city from one end to the other and the sky keeps flashing on and off.
It just seems like such a missed opportunity...