News from PAX
Shards gathered in non-endgame content are an absolutely atrocious way to progress Incarnate abilities. I consider it slow for Alpha abilities, and I consider it not even worth doing for post-Alpha abilities.
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Furthermore, Shards aren't "content" any more so than experience counts as "content." Content is the things you do, or at most the actual practical rewards at the end of the rainbow. The currency with which you buy things is not content, least of all long before you can buy anything with it. When people ask for "solo Incarnate content," what they are asking for is something to do by themselves that is specific to the Incarnate storyline and power/difficulty bracket.
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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Not high heels - they're a dragging danger - when you're riding, the heels should be low.
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Thought that they were simply gonna lower the cost of crafting incarnate stuff but instead they are gonna make whole new content to achieve the same ends? Go Devs!
As to why there should be another path for incarnate powers, I'm so bad at doing the trials that I need all the extra help I can get if I'm ever going to complete one! Plus, there are other things you can do at level 50 besides the itrials, remember?
If the argument were that any zone the development team ever touch will have to be remade to be current and not blocky, then we have to figure out what Mercy Island means for that notion.
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![Stick Out Tongue](images/smilies/tongue.gif)
Please try my custom mission arcs!
Legacy of a Rogue (ID 459586, Entry for Dr. Aeon's Third Challenge)
Death for Dollars! (ID 1050)
Dr. Duplicate's Dastardly Dare (ID 1218)
Win the Past, Own the Future (ID 1429)
- FInishing a character. These were presented (among other things) as a way of getting "more levels without increasing the level cap." I don't know of too many people that are "finished" at 20, 30, or 40.
... And there's those who just want to push their character to the peak of what they can be. |
![Smile](images/smilies/smile.gif)
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
I was hoping that they were simply gonna lower the cost of crafting incarnate stuff but instead they are gonna make whole new content to achieve the same ends? Go Devs!
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![Wink](images/smilies/wink.gif)
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
Also, apparently a woman, Queen Catherine de' Medici of France, seems to have come up with the design of the fashionable version or at least commissioned it.
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![Wink](images/smilies/wink.gif)
Whatever the history, I'm going to stand by my stance that your average Hyborian woman would prefer something more practical to fight in.
On the subject of high-heel boots: I think we need to draw a distinction between a boot with an elevated heel and a stiletto. A higher than flat heel is not uncommon, and in even most male boots have one. Females have about five times the heel height, but even then, the ordinary Smooth boot still looks like a practical boot because it gives the foot at least some degree of surface area with which to provide grip, stability and support.
A stiletto, by contrast, has a very narrow heel that has almost no surface area. The problem with his is - and I've seen this countless times - that such heels sink in soft soil. All of my school years AND my university years were spent on a lovely locale just outside of town where paved surfaces weren't always available, and the soil around those paved surfaces was always covered in a sea of stiletto heel holes in the ground. If that's not enough, there wasn't a gap between two sidewalk tiles around the university building that didn't have at least one stiletto heel hole in its filler soil.
I don't want to question the aesthetics of "needle stilettos," but the simple fact of the matter is that these are only really useful on paved ground or inside vehicles. Taking these kinds of shoes off the beaten track just makes them sink in the ground. If we're talking about a wedding pack, we're talking about outfits that are mostly useful inside buildings or on city streets where the floors are hard. If we're talking Steampunk, we can conceivable speak about people who mostly ride vehicles or fly on impossible contraptions. But if we're talking Barbarians, these are people who would spend a great deal of time on foot in the wilderness, walking on grass, soil and mud.
Realism notwithstanding, giving them shoes that at least look like they could walk through these terrains without sinking in should be a priority. Even sandals or bare frikkin' feet would be more believable. Remember that one mission from Harvey Maylor about his missing reporter? In her notes from the clue where you find out she went to a cave, she has a note to herself: "Wear comfortable shoes."
*edit*
It occurs to me that perhaps when we as a community say we want something but neglect to mention we want it FOR WOMEN, the art team immediately assumes we want it just for men and then give women something else that's vaguely in the same general theme. That's a very scary thought for me, since most of my costume requests from the last... Five years? All of them have been FOR FEMALE CHARACTERS.
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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As Sam points out, we're really talking stillettos. I hadn't felt it necessary to make the distinction between "high heels" and "stiletto heels" since they mean the same thing to me, even though I know that boots have raised heels as do assorted other sorts of shoes. (And now I know more about the history of shoes than I ever imagined I'd want to know *laugh*)
I jumped back to the first post in the thread just to verify. The "barbarian" in question is definitely wearing stilletto heels, albeit a bit thicker than typical pump heels because she's wearing boots.
They'd be impractical for the reasons that Sam states and they're fashionable today for the reasons I stated earlier. People wearing elevator shoes to avoid getting their togs dirty while sacrificing a bull doesn't really alter that basic fact. heh. I WAS surprised by the magazine article that (tongue-in-cheek) credited stilettos to Da Vinci. The man WAS a genius!
Heh, if you want a fleeting laugh, check out these hiking heels
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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Heh, if you want a fleeting laugh, check out these hiking heels
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Almost all my toons wear heels. Some in the form of platform heels, I'll grant you, but they are heels nonetheless. I consider the wearing of such as bona fide proof of Super Hero-ness. "LOOK! Stilettos! And I'm RUNNING! And... NO BLISTERS!" Spandex? Pfft! Anyone can wear spandex. Stilettos and Super Speed? Now THAT is a Super Human!
There is a shoe museum in Europe I saw on TV, with shoes of the ages. Royal courts were wearing them in the 18th century, with buckles and bows and gee gaws. Naturally, I loved them. But these were a type of a stacked heel, more like a cowboy boot, than what we now consider high heels. The stillettos are a relatively new invention, because they are a complex engineering marvel. In order to have a very slim, very tall heel, which could remain structurally sound while 120+ lbs. of female (usually) was rocking on it (think of the heel-to-toe step we take) repeatedly, they had to have a reinforced steel alloy heel-through-sole, which was molded in one piece, since no glue/nail/rivet/weld would ever survive such a beating. They calculated the number of pounds of pressure per minute, but I can't recall it - in the thousands, though.
And what does this mean, other than I remember too much irrelevant trivia, but do not probably know where I put my car keys? It means we are playing a pretend game, in which we dress our pretend people in pretend clothes, that's what! If I want realism, I'll go clean the toilet. I do not want a "realistic" barbarian. I would prefer to play a character who has all their teeth, thank you.
Thus, I rather think the issue is not one of heels, or historical minutia. It's the circa-1950's stereotyping that is offensive. It reminds me of a guy I met a few years ago who told me all his tanks and scrappers were men, but all his support toons were female. He did not add the obvious next line "because it's the female's job to support the man who is doing the real work." I felt sort of sorry for him, that he was that "programmed" into out-dated gender roles. Not enough to talk with him again, mind you. But yeah, pity was involved.
There is nothing wrong with a cute, frivolous female costume. Neither male or female barbarian costume is remotely offensive to me. What is dreary is that there are no alternatives, not for either gender. There is nothing light-hearted for the male, and nothing that says "I will kick your ***" for the female. I don't know anyone who is interested in unisex looks (I'm not, certainly), or knee-jerk political correctness, but this costume set, like some of the others, feels to me (subjective feedback) just the way I felt talking with that man. Men are the heroes. Women support the men being heroes (and look darn cute doing it).
I have not found this attitude anywhere else in the game, unless it's making fun of that mindset (like Skulls and Skull girlfriends). Not in the dialogue, not in the story lines, not in any comments from any dev. Ever. In fact, I got a girlfriend into the game, and one of the draws for her was my telling her it really IS girl-friendly here! And once she started, she agreed. It is not the testosterone-fueled game she figured it would be. It's JUST in the costumes.
Why?
Heh, if you want a fleeting laugh, check out these hiking heels
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There is nothing wrong with a cute, frivolous female costume. Neither male or female barbarian costume is remotely offensive to me. What is dreary is that there are no alternatives, not for either gender. There is nothing light-hearted for the male, and nothing that says "I will kick your ***" for the female. I don't know anyone who is interested in unisex looks (I'm not, certainly), or knee-jerk political correctness, but this costume set, like some of the others, feels to me (subjective feedback) just the way I felt talking with that man. Men are the heroes. Women support the men being heroes (and look darn cute doing it).
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I have not found this attitude anywhere else in the game, unless it's making fun of that mindset (like Skulls and Skull girlfriends). |
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
I am saddened that my many PMs to rednames with the suggestion to name the VIP-only server "Uncle Touchy's Naked Puzzle Basement" went unheeded.
Current Badge Hunter: Plot Device (Rad/Thermal/Dark) - 1,268 Xbox Live: Friggin Taser
King of Electricity, Lead Inmate running the Carl and Sons asylum, the "Man" behind the Establishment, Given Honor in Hat Form By Paragon City (Favorite Forum Poster 2006!), Master of Ceremonies of the Fair Use Law podcast
What I think is funny is that people are interpreting one out of focus screenshot from a teaser slide show as representing the ENTIRE range of options available for a costume set.
I'd wait for the official preview before spending all my energy writing long rants about it.
What I think is funny is that people are interpreting one out of focus screenshot from a teaser slide show as representing the ENTIRE range of options available for a costume set.
I'd wait for the official preview before spending all my energy writing long rants about it. |
The quality of the image is irrelevant. It's good enough that we can get the gist of it. Whether this represents the entire range of options is irrelevant as well, unless marketing is a bunch of idiots who felt that cute furry mini-dress better represents a female barbarian to the majority of the gamer population than the chainmail bikini they'll be revealing later. And if this furry mini-dress is actually not representative of the majority of the female options in the set, there is still cause for complaint as this preview is pushing an image of the game's "ideal" for female characters that is at odds with what many of the players want for their female characters. I will complain about marketing using T&A to promote the game just as much as I complain about the art and costume departments offering only sexified costume pieces for female characters, since it's indicative of the same mindset, and the first will inevitably lead to the second.
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
It reminds me of a guy I met a few years ago who told me all his tanks and scrappers were men, but all his support toons were female.
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You wanna' grab my attention, MMOs? Do something different. Oh, who am I kidding...
That's kind of my point, though - it's all fun and games, and I do actually have my fair share of women in stilettos (all of them perpetual fliers or shapeshifters), so it's not what's included that bothers me. Sexy santa, whatever. I'm sure I'll find a use for it. I'm disappointed I didn't get what I was hoping to get, though, because apparently being awesome is restricted to men only in this pack, at least judging from the pics we saw. Women only get to be cute and play with small versions of the men's weapons and walk around in ankle-breaking high heels. "Do something different," indeed.
*edit*
I ask this as a foreign speaker of English, but what does "T&A" stand for?
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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What I think is funny is that people are interpreting one out of focus screenshot from a teaser slide show as representing the ENTIRE range of options available for a costume set.
I'd wait for the official preview before spending all my energy writing long rants about it. |
If that's what some marketing person considered the best foot, then I'd say they either need to get back to the drawing board (so that said marketing person has better options) or they need to consider someone else for the position (so that the game doesn't look ridiculous).
I'm perfectly content to wait and see if there are more options when the boots hit the market. Given the ala carte nature of the market, I'm also perfectly content to buy just the bits I like and save myself the trouble of spending a couple of quarters on silly boots, if that turns out to really be the one and only version of the boots. I always say to vote with your wallet.
![Smile](images/smilies/smile.gif)
They said "style" on the same page as a picture of someone wearing socks with sandals. Ugly sandals too.
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![Stick Out Tongue](images/smilies/tongue.gif)
Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound
They said "style" on the same page as a picture of someone wearing socks with sandals. Ugly sandals too.
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We even take pride in it.
![Stick Out Tongue](images/smilies/tongue.gif)
LOL...Slick is 100% correct. (I am a fellow Washingtonian.) I've even seen thiis, from time to time:
![](http://i.imgur.com/MNOG0.jpg)
If that's what some marketing person considered the best foot, then I'd say they either need to get back to the drawing board (so that said marketing person has better options) or they need to consider someone else for the position (so that the game doesn't look ridiculous).
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Idle side note: I don't know when this started, but mine are almost entirely the reverse. Almost all of my strongest, heaviest fighters are women and most of my lighter characters are men. If I had to put a reason to this, it's because I find the "big strong man" concept more than a little boring, bland and done to death, and I'm sure the other thousands of players in the game will be making many thousands of these. I also find the "petite, fragile woman who only serves as kidnap material or moral support" to be equally as trite and more than a little irritating. Every ******* MMO trailer I see these days has the big strong warrior guy and the skinny little mage/archer girl who looks like she's snap in half like a dry cookie in a strong breeze.
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Women generally like manly guys that do the good guy stuff (like being a protector of their family, a provider, doing things that need to get done even if one must get dirty...probably hate when they do the bad guy stuff, like being smelly, scratching their junk, etc) and guys generally like womanly women (carer of offspring...um, sex...I'm sure there's some more in there). That generally translates into what role people make their characters (or what they might wear).
Me? Yeah, a lot of my melee guys often tend to be guys and my support usually tends to be girls. But in the general gist of concept and backstory, it's always the women who are the leaders that run the show and give orders, or are the strongest 'Big Bad' of my roster who are not only powerful, but obsenely intelligent/adept and yet still have 'others' fulfilling orders or running out doing her dirty work.
Hmm, I wonder what that says about me...
![](http://www.fightersgeneration.com/characters/jontalbain-win3.gif)
What I think is funny is that people are interpreting one out of focus screenshot from a teaser slide show as representing the ENTIRE range of options available for a costume set.
I'd wait for the official preview before spending all my energy writing long rants about it. |
There isn't enough eyeroll for this post.
If the argument were that any zone the development team ever touch will have to be remade to be current and not blocky, then we have to figure out what Mercy Island means for that notion.
Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
Flameboxer Aura LVL 50 SS/Fire Brute
Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
Darq Widow Fortune LVL 50 Fortunata (200% rech/Night Widow 192.5% rech)--thanks issue 19!