The News Thread

[Llava]

Don't watch Star Trek.

Vision from the Avengers, in the few comics I read, seemed to act appropriately like an android.

Hell, the Martian Manhunter acts more android-like than Citadel in this comic.

[stray]

I don't watch Star Trek either, but C'MON now...You know who Data is.

You could even call this an archetype. So many androids are portrayed this way (i.e. Pinnochio complex et al).

[Llava]

Oh I know who he is, but I've heard him speak maybe... twice.  In those situations, he seemed appropriately android-like.

I think my problem is that they don't write Citadel in a "from the outside looking in" sort of way, but rather an "inside, describing what it would be like to be on the outside looking in."  They make it sound as though he completely understands humans and believes their biological and psychological traits to be "the standard."  Thus he describes himself as different, saying stuff like "I don't eat... I can't become ill..." instead of doing what I would think an android would do- refer to himself as the standard and state that humans are the ones who are different.

Basically, from the way it speaks it sounds like he's acting like an android, he doesn't really believe it.  It's nit-picky, but when it comes to this sort of thing that's just how I am.  Don't get me started on how people write elves.  Seriously.  Even I'm not sure how long I'd rant.

[Typhon]

got to agree with Llava on this one:

1) Pinochhio has been done, and done again, and again, and again.  Zero points for creativity.
2) Why would his creators program a pinocchio complex?  Seems to me like you'd get a broken andriod if you did that.  To create pathos with the audience?  People develop attachments for cars, lawnmowers and chainsaws, often because they do what they are supposed to do very well, they don't need for the appliance to be broken to form an attachment.

[stray]

Well, I don't disagree that Pinnochio is played out. I was just pointing that Pinnochio is quite common when used to portray droids (of which Llava was unaware it seems).

As for your second question: Why would they create Pinnochio complex?

I don't think they ever do. It's just the thing that happens when an otherwise intelligent being realizes his differences.

[Alkiera]

Oh, as to the guy with his feet in the bucket, I was running around last night and saw him on a dock near the water, surrounded by members of the Family.  I attacked them and he went hopping away...  I'm guessing that's what happened before I came across him for that screenshot, someone else had helped him out.

Also last night, we had a team consisting of 5 20ish MasterMinds.  Dear god.  Each MM had at least 4 pets.(Some, like /Traps, can summon a force field like the Skyraiders have.)  There were 12 robots, 4 soldiers and 4 ninjas.  With 20+ pets, plus the ranged attacks from masterminds, none of the inidividual attacks did a whole LOT of damage, but there were just so many of them.

Defensively, we were disgusting.  2of the guys were /Force Fields, + the bubbles from the Protector Bots(Robotics Lt), + the big shield from the /Traps FF Generator... My secondary is Dark Miasma, so we had an AE heal and nice debuffs, and we had 2 /traps guys for other interesting things.

We were a spread from 19-23, and we rolled over low 20's stuff like an army.  Because we WERE an army.

Alkiera

p.s. The weakness of masterminds is their personal squishiness.  There are lots of cases, ambushes and the like, where the enemies are agro'd on you personally, and the pets can't generate enough agro to pull them off.  In PvP this happens frequently, as players know that when you drop, the pets go bye bye.  And MMs don't have astoundingly high hp, either... being one-shot by a stalker is certainly a possibility.

[Sky]

There's way too much fucking math in this thread. That's part of why mmogs suck, games should not need math (KotOR excluded).

I liked CoH and I'm kinda interested in CoV, but I don't have time for the grind in the game. Hell, I just don't have time for mmogs, I guess. When you have a social life, I guess anything you can't drop at will becomes undoable. Goddamned social life.

[Merusk]

There's way too much fucking math in this thread. That's part of why mmogs suck, games should not need math (KotOR excluded).

Best. Puzzles. Ever.

[Alkiera]

For those that are curious(Sky, just skip this post ), since I was bumped up to 23 the other night, I got to see the new SO numbers under the Enhancement Diversification System, aka Affirmative Action for SOs (AAS) program...

Using +2 SOs
1st SO gave 36.6%
2nd SO game 36.3%
3rd SO gave 23.5%
4th SO gave 5.5%*

* or would have, if I hadn't said 'forget that!' and put it somewhere else.
To respond to someone who was talking about 'the value of a slot' before... the value of a slot goes down even when the enhancements stay the same value.
Before:

Code:

Slots	Damage	Enh. %	Dmg Inc.
0	100	0	0
1	136.6	36.60%	36.600%
2	173.2	73.20%	26.794%
3	209.8	109.80%	21.132%
4	246.4	146.40%	17.445%

Now, with AAS:

Code:

Slots	Damage	Enh. %	Dmg Inc.
0	100	0	0
1	136.6	36.60%	36.600%
2	172.9	72.90%	26.574%
3	196.4	96.40%	13.592%
4	201.9	101.90%	2.800%

Now, those numbers don't look so bad, I mean we only lose 45 damage, a mere 20%.  If we assume that the 5th and 6th SOs don't get any worse than 5.5% (a possibly incorrect assumption.) we get the following:

Code:

Now, with AAS:				Before:			
Slots	Damage	Enh. %	Dmg Inc.	Slots	Damage	Enh. %	Dmg Inc.
0	100	0	0		0	100	0	0
1	136.6	36.60%	36.600%		1	136.6	36.60%	36.600%
2	172.9	72.90%	26.574%		2	173.2	73.20%	26.794%
3	196.4	96.40%	13.592%		3	209.8	109.80%	21.132%
4	201.9	101.90%	2.800%		4	246.4	146.40%	17.445%
5	207.4	107.40%	2.724%		5	283	183.00%	14.854%
6	212.9	112.90%	2.652%		6	319.6	219.60%	12.933%

Here we go from about 320 dmg to 213...  about 2/3 the damage.  And this situation is not that rare in the 41+ level range when scrappers and tankers get access to Focused Accuracy, and no longer have to slot ACC.  Heck, blasters with Devices/Targetting Drone can so the same thing.  Consider that Heals, Regens, Recharges, etc all use the same numbers. All those 'perma-whatever' powers?  Not any more.

The point, supposedly, is to 'encourage' the use of more different enhancements, rather than slotting 5 or 6 or the same type of enhancer.  Given that focusing like that was the mathematical optima, especially with powers like Focused Acc, Target Drone, Conserve Power, etc to pick up the slack, there was no reason not to. 

Now...  I dunno.  There's a lot of powers that only accept one kind of enhancement.  For those powers, this is basically a 30% nerf.  For those that DO accept more than one type of enhancement, frequently all but 2 of the types are nigh unto useless, or have effects that are perceived as negative, like enhanced knockback.  With 2 KB SOs, you can make mobs fly twice as far as they would otherwise...  That'll make the melees in your group happy.

Alkiera

[stray]

Numbers.

How....Superhero-ish.

[Signe]

Social lives lead to social diseases.  We're better off without them.

[Sky]

With 2 KB SOs, you can make mobs fly twice as far as they would otherwise...  That'll make the melees in your group happy.

Shitty lockon MMO combat for teh looze. Any game that can turn a big knockback into a negative has issues (no pun intended).

Hey, this thread saved me $50! Thanks?

[Nevermore]

The point, supposedly, is to 'encourage' the use of more different enhancements, rather than slotting 5 or 6 or the same type of enhancer.

The real point is they wanted to nerf SOs, something I don't disagree with in concept but I think was a bad idea to do in addition to all those I5 nerfs.  They should have just included ED into I5 and left out all the power nerfs.

This comment Statesman makes is very interesting.  Especially his reason 3.2.  Crafting anyone?  Or perhaps a reward for mulit-team Supergroup content, which I saw mentioned somewhere would be added in the future.

[Llava]

Another screenshot, just to show one of the new facial options:



There are something like 6 different scarred face options for men and women.

[Xanthippe]

This comment Statesman makes is very interesting.  Especially his reason 3.2.  Crafting anyone?  Or perhaps a reward for mulit-team Supergroup content, which I saw mentioned somewhere would be added in the future.

What does this mean?

3.3) We wanted to curtail the constant powers analysis more; we wanted to set a balance standard and move towards it.

[Glazius]

This comment Statesman makes is very interesting.  Especially his reason 3.2.  Crafting anyone?  Or perhaps a reward for mulit-team Supergroup content, which I saw mentioned somewhere would be added in the future.

What does this mean?

3.3) We wanted to curtail the constant powers analysis more; we wanted to set a balance standard and move towards it.

That means, roughly, "now that we've created a soft enhancement cap, we can develop more types of enhancements and new powers or powersets without staring at a giant web of interconnections looking for an exploit."

Players are still welcome to spend 6 hours putting together an Excel spreadsheet and computing optimum time-to-level.

--GF

[Signe]

Does anyone in beta have an SG?  Could I pretty please join?  I want to see a base.  The names I'm using at the moment are Frau Zerstorun and Shattenfreude.  My global SHOULD be @Signe but sometimes it reverts to @BlackEyed Susan which is the first char I made.  I think Global is still knackered.  Ta.

[Typhon]

I'm not in a SG, so I'm powerless to help.  I blame it on Mr. ED.

[Big Gulp]

What does this mean?

3.3) We wanted to curtail the constant powers analysis more; we wanted to set a balance standard and move towards it.

It means that they want to leverage their core competencies, but only if there is synergy in doing so.

Duh.   

[ClydeJr]

Does anyone in beta have an SG?  Could I pretty please join?  I want to see a base.  The names I'm using at the moment are Frau Zerstorun and Shattenfreude.  My global SHOULD be @Signe but sometimes it reverts to @BlackEyed Susan which is the first char I made.  I think Global is still knackered.  Ta.

Give me a holler if you see me. I'll invite you.

Global is @ClydeJr or I'm also on as Blue Skull, Eclipse of the Sun, Dynella, or Major Green.

[Fargull]

Brutes are what I always thought tankers were supposed to be.  They are more like scrappers that get free damage SO's as long as they are juiced.  The crazy part is when you have AOE offensive powers like those from Darkness and Fire.

Masterminds seem way over powered, but that is probably only in the PvE space.

The plant/plant Dominator is just crazy fun.

[Signe]

Does anyone in beta have an SG?  Could I pretty please join?  I want to see a base.  The names I'm using at the moment are Frau Zerstorun and Shattenfreude.  My global SHOULD be @Signe but sometimes it reverts to @BlackEyed Susan which is the first char I made.  I think Global is still knackered.  Ta.

Give me a holler if you see me. I'll invite you.

Global is @ClydeJr or I'm also on as Blue Skull, Eclipse of the Sun, Dynella, or Major Green.

You are the shnozzle or whatever that word is.  Because you are such a sweetie, I have done this for you:

Attention Villains!

We will activate the beta server tonight at the usual time (6pm Central, 4pm Pacific, 7pm Eastern). However, instead of shutting it down after three hours, we will leave it up indefinitely.

So, for those of you who have been wondering when we will move to 24/7 access, the day has arrived! Keep in mind that this is still beta, however, so there will be times when we need to bring things down temporarily to apply patches or to perform maintenance. Otherwise, our goal is to have the server available as much as possible until the end of beta.

Yours in villainy,
Alexa

Well, maybe it wasn't me... but it's news.

[Signe]

Hello!

For a while now, many of you have been asking when those who pre-ordered City of Villains would be admitted to the beta test. Well, we're happy to announce that the day has finally arrived!

We are starting to issue the invitations now and this process will likely take a few hours to complete. Anyone who registered a pre-order code prior to 6pm Central yesterday (10/16) should receive an invitation today.

Moving forward, we will continue to issue pre-order beta invitations on an ongoing basis. So, if you register a pre-order code, you can expect to receive a beta invitation within 2 business days.

If you pre-ordered City of Villains and are in the beta test already by another means (e.g. long-time subscriber, contest winner, etc.), it's possible that you will receive an additional invitation. If this happens, please feel free to pass the extra invitation along to a friend.

Alexa

[Llava]

Also, the City of Heroes novel came out.  I picked it up and have just started it.  At the beginning of Chapter 2, I'm still interested.

[Llava]

Still liking the Web Of Arachnos book, but I'm still not too far in. I'm a slow reader, and I haven't been focusing on it really, just a few minutes a day.

Good news for Martial Arts Scrappers:
On the CoV servers, Crippling Axe Kick is doing way more damage.  When asked about it, the Stalker Rep said that he believes the City of Heroes version will receive the same damage increase.  Instead of doing damage identical to Thunder Kick, it will do damage identical to Bone Smasher from the Energy Melee set.  Roughly two times as much damage.  It is now officially a worthwhile power.

[Llava]

DEAR SWEET JESUS THOSE THIEVING BASTARDS

New CoH $14.99 Monthly Fee
Thursday, October 20, 2005

Effective November 20, the monthly subscription rate for City of Heroes will increase slightly from $14.95 (USD) to $14.99 (USD) in order to more closely standardize the subscription rates of all PlayNC products. The pricing of multi-month subscription plans remains unchanged. The City of Heroes team thanks our customers for your continued support and remains dedicated to providing the best service possible for our players.

Okay, to be honest, I thought it was already 14.99.

[Signe]

Someday, someone will have the guts to round it off to $15.00!

[Nevermore]

Maybe they'll do $14.99⁹ like gas stations next.

[Jimbo]

I'm trying to figure out something...but instead of 6 slotting my attacks with my blaster...I'm trying to figure out how much I'm going to loose.  Example of the AR, I usually take burst and slug, and just 6 slot them with damage.  Now I'm stopping at 3 damage and either go with recharge or defense debuffs (hopefully those aren't screwed up).  My Broadsword/regen has this set up with Slash, 3 accuracy and 3 defense debuffs and then I follow up with the heavy hitters of hack and disembowel.

What are they going to do with those that don't have a lot of choices like health and stamina?  Just stick 3 and be done?

[Llava]

Yeah.  Statesman's response about that was "Characters with powers like that in their build will have an advantage in that they can spend those slots elsewhere."

Sure.  Huge advantage.  It's one of the dev-iest things he's said, I'm still irritated about it.

[tazelbain]

LOL.  People whos mothers have died have the advantage of not having to buy Mother's Day gifts. WOOT.

[Hoax]

Wow, that was really really funny, NSFW funny even.

[Llava]

PvP event tonight.  I won't be able to make it, as I will be busy lavishing attention on a certain human female, but it sounds like fun.  Those of you who have access ought to give this a shot.

Attention Villains!

We are having a special beta event tonight to test Siren's Call and PvP. We hope all of you will join us! Here are the details…

Tonight from 8pm-10pm Central (6-8 Pacific, 9-11 Eastern, 7-9 Mountain), we plan to shut down the normal beta server temporarily and bring up another one. We’d like for all of you to log in and create either a Hero or a Villain... we need players on both sides!

After you create your new character, you’ll notice a couple of special guests in Mercy Island and Atlas Park. If you’re a Villain, you should talk to Ghost Widow, who will be stationed near Kalinda. If you’re a Hero, you’ll seek out Statesman in the area near Ms. Liberty. Ghost Widow and Statesman will grant you enough experience for level 25, as well as some Infamy/Influence to purchase enhancements and inspirations.

After speaking with Ghost Widow or Statesman, you will need to visit the trainer to level up (Arbiter Diaz in Mercy or Ms. Liberty in Atlas Park). Once you’re finished at the trainer, speak with Ghost Widow or Statesman again and select the “Take me to the fight!” option. This will teleport you to an instance of Siren's Call.

A few things to note:

1. None of your characters/progress will be saved on the new server. The purpose is for everyone to have fun while helping us gather data about Siren's Call and PvP. The additional server was wiped and prepped especially for tonight, and it will be wiped again afterward.

2. If you encounter any bugs during this event, please report them using /bug! Do not use /petition, as the GMs will be unable to get to you before it is over (plus, everything is going to be wiped anyway).

3. The regular server will be available again at the conclusion of this event.

Thanks everyone! We look forward to seeing you tonight and hope you have a great time.

[Xanthippe]

I wish I'd read this yesterday.  How'd it go?

[Llava]

I only managed to get on for a few minutes.  The girlfriend was distracted by the NES.  It was laggy.  Very laggy.  But that's to be expected when you have a billion players all in one zone.  But aside from the lag, it was actually pretty fun.  Seems like PvP will have a pretty fun pace- slow enough that you can do stuff before your head hits the ground, but fast enough to keep it interesting.  Mastermind pets need a "close to melee" command.