Dear Rednames - I'll make you a deal...
By
Adeon Hawkwood,
Posted on: 2012-07-31 08:22 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Just FYI, Rednames - I renewed my sub yesterday. Not that I expect anyone to actually take me up on my "deal" but I'm holding up my end of the bargain anyway. 
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Currently you seem to gain respect very rapidly, and then it hits its peak around 20 and you don't get any more respect until the SSAs and solo incarnate content.
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Originally Posted by Fista
I think this has been (despite the snipeing) a spectacularly good thread which has raised a lot of questions about where the game is headed. My question for any one who would know is does DCU Online treat Superman and Batman like this. Are they a bunch of little b****es that need you to save them time and time again. Teaming up with some one from the FP should be like, "I hope I don't F up to much in front of them" Them saying something good about you should make you feel proud. Now it's just, "Yeah. Whatever. Glad I could save your ***"
To be on par with the FP should be a goal that you can get close to but never quite match. I confess that being addressed as a noob for 50 levels is insulting but taking it in the other direction is just as stupid. I should be a slow progression. Level 1 - 20 you should be treated like a noob. 20 -40 should be "Hey your competent. Come help out on this problem" 40 - 50 you should be treated with a fair amount of respect. Any one not treating you with respect should be that the don't like supers or don't like your origin type. Is any of this cohearent? I've had 0 sleep. |
Why does everyone insist on looking at this in the negative (the writers are de-powering the Phalanx to make us look better) rather than look at this in more positive manner:
The problems faced by the Phalanx are bigger than they used to be, therefore they require outside help. Why ask someone at a lower level than themselves to do what they can't, via abilities, when you can ask a hero that has proven themselves powerful enough to take on the world's baddest of the bad?
It seems some folks are stuck on things like the writers using previously weak enemies (Trolls, Skulls, etc) as an indicator that the Phalanx is weak, yet there are in-story reasons why these groups are suddenly more than a match. Are we just ignoring the story to prove our pre-determined point that the Phalanx is lame?
Loose --> not tight.
Lose --> Did not win, misplace, cannot find, subtract.
One extra 'o' makes a big difference.
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Heck, I did it just to get a badge. >_>
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Originally Posted by Nalrok_AthZim
Longbow would probably give the player villain a call and ask them to help subdue Recluse for the greater good in exchange for an Incarnate Slot.
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Main Hero: Chad Gulzow-Man (Victory) 50, 1396 Badges
Main Villain: Evil Gulzow-Man (Victory) 50, 1193 Badges
Mission Architect arcs: Doctor Brainstorm's An Experiment Gone Awry, Arc ID 2093
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Originally Posted by Nethergoat
it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!
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That isn't it at all. I'm hesitant to appear to be arguing with you when it may just be that you haven't read the entire thread.|
Originally Posted by White Hot Flash
It seems some folks are stuck on things like the writers using previously weak enemies (Trolls, Skulls, etc) as an indicator that the Phalanx is weak, yet there are in-story reasons why these groups are suddenly more than a match. Are we just ignoring the story to prove our pre-determined point that the Phalanx is lame?
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The point is not that some trolls ripped Positron a new posterior entry. The major plot point of the current SSA is that the Well is empowering anyone and everyone who might turn out to be a new Champion regardless of whether heroes would like the choice or not. I don't think it's a great plot point, but it's a reasonable one given the defeat of Emperor Cole.
The point is the way that Positron's defeat is handled. Wavelength is "disappointed" and then later she confides her opinion that the Phalanx is basically nothing without Statesman. YOU, though, are a horse of a different color.
It's possible to build up the player character without tearing down the non-player characters and writing them off as irrelevant has-beens. Likewise, it's possible to create situations where the player characters meet or exceed the level of the NPC's without constantly making them fail in order to illustrate the difference. It adds nothing to the story. It doesn't make me feel good about my heroes because the yardstick they were measuring themselves by (assuming that they were actually doing that) has suddenly been broken in half.
I'm not throwing the shot put any further than I was before. It's just that for some unknown reason my competition has been afflicted with a disease that weakens them so that they can only throw it half the distance they used to be able to achieve. How is that supposed to make me feel accomplished about outclassing them?
What the studio seems to misunderstand is that I don't give a rat's posterior about how I stack up against a NPC. The characters composed of bits, pixels, and LUA script (or whatever they use) are as strong or weak as the programmers decide to make them. How they perform in relation to my own performance is of zero consequence unless the programmer has somehow made them take over my job and ruin my fun. If I'm going to get worked up about my reputation, I'll put my energy into my player-to-player reputation, not my player-to-game-server reputation.
All that this business of fail, fail, fail, fail, and fail some more is accomplishing is to ruin my immersion in the game and, thereby, ruin my fun instead of enhancing it.
I realize that I'm no Lorax and I don't speak for the trees around here but I DO at least represent one of a measurable faction of players who appear to feel similarly. If the studio gets that message then mission accomplished. How they choose to act upon it or whether to act upon it is up to them.
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You're not alone in feeling that two wrongs don't make a right, i.e. that ruining the Phalanx is not the solution to their being over-hyped in the past. You are, however, in not as large a majority in disregarding how your characters stack up against canon NPCs. Canon is what gives us context, and how strongly people are put over is directly relevant to how I, at least, judge my own power level. Having the Freedom Phalanx put over strongly is good, in this regard, but having me put over stronger is even better. Sadly, the reverse is happening - I'm not being put over any stronger at all, it's just that the Freedom Phalanx are botching a lot.
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Originally Posted by SlickRiptide
I realize that I'm no Lorax and I don't speak for the trees around here but I DO at least represent one of a measurable faction of players who appear to feel similarly. If the studio gets that message then mission accomplished. How they choose to act upon it or whether to act upon it is up to them.
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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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I can see where the OP is coming from, but the fact that the signature characters in this game are fairly generic and mostly background is a big plus for me. I tried DCU Online when it first came out, but aside from the gameplay, the biggest thing I disliked was that I was very obviously a small fish in a big pond. Acting under the Justice League of America's shadow in Gotham City was far less ignorable than working in Paragon City under the shadow of the Freedom Phalanx.
Part of that is the generic nature of the setting, part of it is the fact that the big heroes are in fact those that the playerbase creates. The signature guys, most of them at least, have just been around longer and have the pedigree that comes with that, but they're no different from you or me.
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I'm not against players being stronger than the NPC's. The whole point of incarnation is to establish a power level that is definitively stronger than your "average" superhero. I just don't like being patronized in the process. I don't know if the concept of "yes men" is a uniquely American one or if it translates adequately across cultural lines, but the feeling I have from the current path is that I'm not being shown that I'm better, I'm being constantly told that I'm better regardless of my actual performance. The only "showing" that's happening is where the Freedom Phalanx is shown to be a bunch of screwups who not only can't fight their way out of a paper bag, but who themselves repeatedly tell me that they are not up to the task and that it's great that that they have my hero to fall back upon.|
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
You're not alone in feeling that two wrongs don't make a right, i.e. that ruining the Phalanx is not the solution to their being over-hyped in the past. You are, however, in not as large a majority in disregarding how your characters stack up against canon NPCs. Canon is what gives us context, and how strongly people are put over is directly relevant to how I, at least, judge my own power level. Having the Freedom Phalanx put over strongly is good, in this regard, but having me put over stronger is even better. Sadly, the reverse is happening - I'm not being put over any stronger at all, it's just that the Freedom Phalanx are botching a lot.
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That's what I object to. I don't give two hoots about whether the game puts players above the Phalanx. What I care about is how they go about achieving that elevation. So far, the approach they are using is harming my gameplay instead of enhancing it.
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Well, if you're a male swan you get to fan your wings out, hiss, and chase a 2 year old VK across the park into his grandmother's arms.
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Originally Posted by Schismatrix
But it's a pretty good emulation of a pigeon. Why would you want it to be a swan, anyway? i suppose they're somewhat appealing to look at, but geese or egrets are more interesting. Hell, the aforementioned pigeons are more interesting and definitely more useful.
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Originally Posted by reiella
Until I see something that states to the contrary, going to assume VK is right
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I think this has been (despite the snipeing) a spectacularly good thread which has raised a lot of questions about where the game is headed. My question for any one who would know is does DCU Online treat Superman and Batman like this. Are they a bunch of little b****es that need you to save them time and time again. Teaming up with some one from the FP should be like, "I hope I don't F up to much in front of them" Them saying something good about you should make you feel proud. Now it's just, "Yeah. Whatever. Glad I could save your ***"
To be on par with the FP should be a goal that you can get close to but never quite match.
I confess that being addressed as a noob for 50 levels is insulting but taking it in the other direction is just as stupid.
I should be a slow progression. Level 1 - 20 you should be treated like a noob. 20 -40 should be "Hey your competent. Come help out on this problem" 40 - 50 you should be treated with a fair amount of respect. Any one not treating you with respect should be that the don't like supers or don't like your origin type.
Is any of this cohearent? I've had 0 sleep.
Something witty and profound