VileTerror

And other than the default costume slots for Widows, there's nothing else about them which really screams "Arachnos." Soldiers, particularly Crabs . . . yeah, okay. That's pretty hard-set Arachnos right now. But some costume tweaking could fix that.

As stated: Hell on Earth's animation.

In fact, I believe there's an arc Blueside which operates on the premise that Malta frames your hero for excessive force resulting in the death of a criminal. Redside, on the other hand . . . yeah, you're straight up hired to murder some people from time to time. And yellowside implies murder and death quite frequently too. Still, rarely is it even explicit. There's always a chance that medical attention was administered in time.

I only just saw the episode a couple of hours ago, actually. Yeah. That was actually kind of very gratuitous. Sorry about that. The whole series has felt more and more like a Love Letter to all kinds of other Sci-Fi and geek culture lately. Episode 4 felt like "We loved Firefly too!" Episode 5 felt like "We've played Shadowrun v4 too!" I'm not saying that's a bad thing . . . but it feels a bit sad to me that something with legs as strong as Trek is still standing on the shoulders of other fanbait.

Does someone with access to the discord have the ability to copy-and-paste those past discussions here then? That seems wise.

So . . . I did a thing: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/15702-monkey-fight-club-its-not-a-secret-anymore/

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER! Everything discussed in this thread in terms of "gambling," "wagering," or "betting" is strictly in terms of in-game roleplay combined with existing gameplay. All players receive prizes equal-to- or greater than the Inf "wagered" in the fictional setting. Prize exchanges include Salvage, Enhancements, and Inf. Absolutely no real gambling takes place. Any actual illicit activities, as restricted by the Code of Conduct, will be reported. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Monkey_Fight_Club --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Next scheduled event: ------- Nothing presently scheduled. Please Contact active account in forum or @VileTerror in-game to request a date and time. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Instructions on How to Wager: 1 - Wait until Commandant Nongratis announces that "Betting is Open" (or something to that effect). 2 - Send a Tell to Commandant Nongratis, stating the amount you wish to wager on which category (listed below). 3 - Initiate a Trade with Commandant Nongratis and send the total amount required for your wagers. Minimum bet of 1,000. Maximum per match of 10,000,000. 4 - Wait for the match to start! Have a drink. Make some friends. Taunt some enemies. Have a merry old time! 5 - Watch the Rikti Monkey Carnage! 6 - ??? 7 - PROFIT! (assuming you bet on the winning Monkey or Team) 8 - Return to Commandant Nongratis and initiate a Trade to receive your payout. NOTE! Be quick, because the Commandant wants to get betting going for the next match as soon as possible. Special: The final one to three matches in an evening will have improved payouts! Usually x2 for third-last match, x3 for second-last match, and x10 for finale! (This may change in the future, as these super payouts are draining the Commandant's bank something fierce.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Last night I ran the numbers over at the Sharkhead Rikti Monkey Fight Club (since Pocket D's was apparently not working for some reason). We had about 7 people turn up, and there was over 5,000,000 Inf in winnings given out, as well as Super Packs as Door Prizes for the folks who showed up. It was such a success for an impromptu, last-minute event, I'm thinking of running these more often! Who would be interested in participating in the future? Do I have any volunteers to be my bookies? Here are the Odds which were in play last night: Colour - team wins (Red, Blue, or Green) pays 1:3 Flawless - team suffers no losses (see above list) pays 3:1 Specific Surviving Monkey - this monkey is still alive when match ends (Red: Banana Bandito, The Banana-nator, Thing Kong) (Blue: Dawrin's Bane, Furious BoBo, Furious George) (Green: Nigel, Nigel's Friend, Captain Eeep!) pays 5:3 Sole Surviving Monkey - ONLY this monkey is still alive when match ends (see above list) pays 9:1 Draw Match - no surviving monkeys at all pays 25:1 Insanity Match - two or three teams have surviving Monkeys until the end pays 100:1 These odds may change before the next event. If we can figure out what prevented Pocket D's Monkeys from spawning and correct that, I would be happy to run the next event there instead (granted, the layout for the Sharkhead club is more conducive to placing bets).

I'd like to see Anti-Incarnate content. Down with the Well! Strip the "gods" of their power! Strike out against the Super Ego Made Manifest! And I'm serious. I would like to see post-50 content in the form of actively undermining and depowering Incarnates through various means, while the player character progresses down a path which is mutually exclusive with Incarnate Levels (but, of course, offer players the option to toggle which "side" they're on, so no player is actually left out). I've heard a lot of roleplayers express interest in something like this.

It's good of you to share that, Saiya; but yeah. A lot of us playing this MMO really want to engage in the social aspect of sharing our creations with other players. I understand the usefulness of client-side mods; I have a few which I use as well. However, only other players with the exact same mods will see what I was "going for" with my costume pieces. The decoupling of animation from Travel Powers would provide -all- players a shared visual cue to the characters' movement animations. And that's what motivates players when they make these sorts of suggestions, generally.

Except the Rularuu Overseer is also effected by Shin Breaker, so that's kind of a bad example to try and put in to play here, no? But sure; there might be something under the hood which would complicate the animations for the interplay of action and reaction. I'd be curious to see a more in-depth analysis of the underlying code for it. But, yeah, on that last point. I would like to see the whip animations in slow motion, with the flame decals shut off. Let's see just how much of a monstrosity we're dealing with there.

The early-access to Accolades is a nice one, but as said in that other thread in the Suggestions board; I'd like to see -more- incentives along those lines. Let the Villains EARN Power. That will motivate people to evil-it-up a little.

I'm happy with Trek pushing boundaries. While the motivation might be a little suspect, in the form of some board of executives saying "we need more ratings!" I think the outcome of pushing up against the walls of society can sometimes give way to progress. I mean, it's not like they're bowling over boundaries and trampling people under foot; just sort of nudging up against uncomfortable spaces to see if there's something nicer on the other side. ie: Haijinx's comment about the interracial kiss. Kudos to Trek for that! No idea if the motivations were pure (social progress, versus "let's do something to get talked about in the news!"), but motivations only provide context anyway.

There is no escape. Embrace your fuzzy, purring, razor-claw'd-toes overlords. Overladies? Overcats? Overcats. Especially when they sit up on high platforms, literally just to look down upon you.

So, again; money-put-mouth: Which Issue 6 Arc would people like to see rewritten most of all for violating the player's authority over their character's motivations and personality? I'm happy to do a sample arc rewrite, so people can see what's on offer. Do we have any obvious culprits who would benefit from a little sprucing up?

Ok, I see what you mean now, and I agree. I still wouldn't call that "Agency" though. Mortimer Kai is a great example of something which I would tweak, but for more selfish reasons. I have a character who is FIRMLY anti-magic. If given the opportunity, she would -destroy- the Flames of Prometheus . . . or at least lock them in a box and shoot them off in to space. If she could. I would have liked to see some dialogue options suggesting that path, rather than "I can haz magical power-up noaw!" Or, as a classic trope, a villain who sees themself as the hero "Positron! You're abusing this power! I must stop you!" That could be fun too.

I dunno . . . I haven't seen Paragon's internal documents on the matter, but I already see evidence of some potential interplay that could be capitalized on. For example, Hell on Earth; ever watch the animation on that one? Including your target Henchdemon's reaction? I think the tech's there already. It might just need a little outside perspective to tap in to it. And with 4 animations available, I think that's actually enough to make a set which includes Whips as part of it. Like "Whip and Pistol." Doing a few left-handed Pistol animations should be a LOT easier than trying to make 4 or 5 more Whip Animations. The REAL challenge, as far as I can see, is getting rid of all that flame particle crap on the Whip attacks so that we can have a normal leather whip. Or a bio-organic "tentacle" whip. Adding something like a chain or barbed wire whip would pose a significant animation challenge, but would be super cool!

uh, Lines . . . putting words in the player-character's mouth is the OPPOSITE of Agency.

Have you poked and prodded the players in the OOC/RP Global Channels yet, Shocker? You could probably get some interest there.

I thought it was 15 to 20. I already did it on my main badger, and they haven't started on the post-20 Blueside content yet.

Let's circle back. I can't speak for everyone, but I definitely know -my- issue with certain portions of writing, and it all comes down to Player Agency, and nothing else. It's not an issue for me, so much, that my character is killing innocents in favour of some NPC's life goals of world domination. It's that there is writing which explicitly suggests -why- my character is doing it. That's the fundamental issue I have. A hero's goals are pretty clear, so the motivation doesn't really have to be touched (it's lazy and doesn't add a lot of depth to the character, but this is roleplay: The PLAYER adds those motivations and depth. City of Heroes is more Fallout: New Vegas, rather than Fallout 4, as an example). A villain's goals are, by the nature of writing good villains; subtle, multifaceted, and compelling! There should be enough sympathy for the villain to give the reader a sense that "maybe the hero WILL lose, just because the villain is -that- relatable." And thereby my issue arises: I can't relate to all of my villains on Redside. I have a lot of villains (over 70) with a lot of varied characterization, but so much of the content is written with a narrative crux that doesn't allow for the flexibility to give space for all those archetypes. The writing doesn't have to cater to each one specifically! It just needs to offer wiggle room for them to exist. For the most part, Issue 6 didn't do a terrible job, from what I see. There are some notable issues, like your character holding the Idiot Ball WAY too long in the Willy Wheeler arc (granted, that was more a limitation of the game tech at the time. If that arc were rewritten with modern tech, you could probably blow the whistle on Willy after his first anti-Arachnos op, end the arc prematurely, skip out on the Merit rewards, and go for a short-term cash grab. And THAT would be more than "wiggle room."). To give wiggle room, all Willy has to do is offer more varied incentive than "do this for money, until Arachnos finds out, and then do this to avoid Arachnos' wrath." Willy! Please! I eat Arachnos deathsquads for breakfast. Give me more reasons to not punt you off the side of the cliff you're standing on. As I said earlier in this thread: I am 100% willing to put my pen to paper on this. If there's a chance that my work will actually be seriously considered for inclusion, I will get started later today. @holymittens, are you still around? What are my chances?

There -is- a Calendar actually built in to the forum software already. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/calendar/ They just need to fully actualize it!

See, I was thinking the gimmick was going to be a smidge different. Hack is your basic Axe attack, just like Hack from Battle Axe, but weaker Damage. Bash is your basic Mace attack, just like Bash from War Mace, but weaker Damage. Your Build Up would be replaced with Frenzy: Standard To-Hit Buff, Lower-than-Build-Up Damage Buff, but long duration "flag'd" Buff which causes Hack and Bash to gain additional mechanics. Both Hack and Bash have their animation times shortened to 0.67s (the shortest I am aware of). Each time you hit a target with Hack while Frenzied, Bash's remaining cooldown time is cut in half. Each time you hit a target with Bash while Frenzied, Hack's remaining cooldown time is cut in half. While Frenzied, you'll basically be able to commit to a nearly uninterrupted string of Hacks and Bashes, back to back, but your Endurance will take a nose dive. Have fun!

Counterproposal: Make a NEW Melee Set where you have an Axe in one hand, and a Mace in the other. Call it "Hack and Bash." Plays like Dual Blades crossed with Titan Weapons: Slow Recharge, with High Damage, lots of Cones, some combo-threading, and mixes Lethal with Smashing.

People do cross-faction AE farms in Pocket D.

The NPCs in Monkey Fight Club are just spouting lies, basically, for entertainment value. Any gambling has to be done through a player "house."