Dacy

Made a chandelier...it's much prettier in person, as it sparkles! All stuff from Arcane Defense, with a few fx from arcane as well. -Dacy

Okay, I gotta ask: why does everything need to be so expensive? This is not a company trying to get us to spend real money in a store on bonus items. This is a game kept alive and brought back because we LOVE it, not because it was so challenging to get outfitted! Other games say, "If we make it too easy, people will lose interest." I think we've passed that bar! WE LOVE THE GAME. WE WOULDN'T LEAVE IF THINGS WERE EASIER. But it's possible that, especially new people, they might get frustrated with the prices and how slowly the average player is able to get enough influence to get anything near a decent enhancing for ONE character, never mind the altaholic. I've heard it time and time again from all sorts, how frustrating it is that everything is so expensive. The "general consensus" seems to be most people don't slot ANYTHING until they are in their 20s or more. I have heard the private server gave their players a influence bonus they could claim to get started. Also, they would routinely give codes for prizes like the winterpacks and such. That sounds fun! And like the devs cared about making people happy! Even a little of that would go a long way around here. Quit making it such an effort just to get your character outfitted, and let us just do what we like to do, kick butt, make bases, have costume contests, run task forces and trials, RP, or farm (would farming still be around as much if things were easier to buy?) -Dacy

Wha...why would you avoid adverbs? What did they do to you? Perhaps if you hate adverbs, well, do you have anything against adjectives? Make glare a noun, and describe it. (Use English complexity to your advantage! lol) Or describe his eyes. Or both. Cold eyes narrowed, and he fixed a menacing glare on...not Annabel, but Marilyn! And no, I do not think glowered is a stronger verb. Glowered does connotate attitude, certainly, but not quite enough, imo. Scowl works better than glowered, but conveys more anger or irritation than menace, whereas glare could be many things; it doesn't give away as much as a scowl, and yet, can convey layers of meaning. -Dacy

Nice! Couple small things. When Marilyn interrupts Annabel's train of thought, we've been seeing things from Annabel's pov, therefore, it's illogical to say "interrupting her friend's train of thought". It's like you switched primary pov's right there, but yet, the sentence after reaffirms we're still in Annabel's pov. You could say that Marilyn interrupted HER train of thought, her being Annabel. You might make this more clear by putting it first, like, "Annabel's train of thought was interrupted suddenly by her friend. 'What are we doing here?' Marilyn inquired, suspiciously. '" (adding detail to how she asked is almost always good!) 😉 And this is personal, but I am wanting a different word than "creepy" for Annabel to describe Marilyn's thought. First of all, it doesn't seem creepy to me, and I'd think Annabel would have an even higher standard for what's creepy...I think it's either perceptive, interesting, or inexplicable. Just my opinion. Last, when the vampire "glared and glared", can we find a descriptor for how he glared, instead of just repeating the word, perhaps? Really good! So intriguing! 😄 -Dacy

Nice!!

Yes, it's a good something, QB! Hey, if you're having problems writing the very next stuff, a trick I've heard of and used is writing some other scene. I know you have some in your head! Write what is clamoring at you now. Maybe you use it, and once it's there you can see how you get from here to there, or maybe you just use it as an exercise for writing, but it does help. An example from my writing, (in a spoiler if you haven't read The Fight Begins...and if you haven't, you should!!) Just keep writing..🎶...just keep writing...🎶 -Dacy

Okay! Created two different type recipes in Uni, got immediate credit for both (not heals, needed some salvage that the market didn't want to sell me at the price point I was willing to offer). So, went into base and got salvage, made ONE heal recipe, got instant badge. The bar had said I needed two more. Made another, different recipe in the base, got credit for one. Sigh. Who knows...another ineffable bug. Maybe like the disappearing salvage bug, it's random. -Dacy

Okay, weird: I logged back in today, and now have credit for TWO of the four recipes I crafted yesterday. Way to make the bug easy to figure, huh? Yes, unfortunately, there are bugs associated with bases. Sad, because I love bases...and I love the convenience, but it's not very convenient if it doesn't work as expected, is it? I'm going to craft both in and out of the base and see what happens. -Dacy

I had credit for 5 out of 9 Heal IOs for levels 15-20, and decided I'd craft the other four and get that taken care of. Well, I crafted the four (in my base), 2 of each level, and none of them were credited to me. The progress bar did not change at all, and of course the badge was not awarded. Anyone else having any difficulty with getting credit for crafting? I'm hesitant to spend the resources to do any more crafting, because it might be for nothing. -Dacy

And that's what I get for responding from email. I didn't see the whole topic and the other responses! Thanks, @Li_Sensei and @oxmox, that lines up with what I've heard, too. -Dacy

No, I’m sure of what they were talking about, but, I think they were misinformed. I just saw a video someone did on the winter event, reminding people about what’s going on, and the only mention of the IOs was mentioning that winter super packs would now be 10 million instead of 25 million. So, that answers that. Thanks! -Dacy

I know you can get them those two ways, but there was a conversation on one of the public channels about how they were about to become more common, and I remember them first appearing during one of the holiday events on Live; I just don't remember the details, nor do I know if this dev team would even do things the same way. Just hoping someone knows something. 🙂 -Dacy

Does anyone know what rules are in place regarding Winter IO drops? I know they are associated with the winter event...do you only get them running the Winter Lord's realm event? Are they random? Are they only for 50s? Is there anything that increases odds of a drop? -Dacy

Thanks! -Dacy

Yes, CR, I asked because you mentioned it. 🙂 Another author that is just amazing is Carol Berg; I haven't read anything of hers yet that I was able to put down, and she's the master of the plot twist. Fantasy. -Dacy

Thanks, QB, and, that snicker she heard, might even be that unexplained voice... I thought it gave additional reason why Ms. Pal might decide they were both trouble. If she thought that Annabel had been thinking of her when she dragged her out of the orientation, that might soothe her feelings of being made fun of, or perhaps make her realize that maybe Annabel hadn't made fun of her. So, if you showed something like that, it doesn't seem too quick, although put together, you might get the sense that Marilyn does like to leap to conclusions and might be prone to false logic chains. Or she's really oversensitive in her relationships. (I find those two things often go hand in hand). Maybe they actually balance each other. -Dacy

Yes, the flow is much better! We saw much more of Marilyn here, and more of Annabel, too. I loved the section where Annabel is thwacking students with the parasol. I misread it the first time, thought she was doing that to sit next to Marilyn, and that confused me because you specifically said Marilyn was seated away from the others, but I got it the second time through. 🙂 I like descriptions like "yanked", "rolled her eyes" and " 'vampire' ", they give more of a picture of how something was done. I'd even like to see even a touch more of that...for instance, I can think of several ways Marilyn might have said, "Right." Did she carefully resist showing a reaction and keep her tone neutral, not that Annabel was paying attention to that stuff anyway? Did she roll her eyes and say it sarcastically? Did she say it in a long suffering sort of way, with a sigh, like, here we go, I guess my dream of a normal roommate is dust in the sunlight? Did she say it expectantly, waiting for the rest of the joke? You get the idea. I want to know what you're seeing them do, like facial expressions, how something was said. 🙂 The more you can give the reader, in small things, like "yanked", etc, words that are both descriptive and move the plot forward, short add ons to the overall story. "Right!" Marilyn barked with a laugh. Doesn't add much in words, but does in terms of description. But yes, I love how much you added, it really perked it up, too! My reaction to Marilyn feeling all put upon from just the fact that Annabel says she didn't say anything was, whoa, this chick's got some issues. That's not a normal reaction... And again, when suddenly, oh look, we actually can be friends, maybe....quick switch up. Is Marilyn that given to extremes and quick emotional swings? Or if not, is there maybe more you could show there that shows how she got to that thought? I "punched up" the short bit when Marilyn hears the voice (great touch, btw, interested to see where that goes!). I'm putting it in spoilers, read it or don't, but it's just adding in some of the descriptive touches I spoke of earlier, plus adding something to make Marilyn's reaction make more sense to me, if she is supposed to make sense (and for purpose of demonstration, that's the direction I'm going). My additions/changes are in red. Take it with a grain of salt, it's only my opinion, and your work is good the way it is, too. 🙂 Great job on the rewrite! 🙂 -Dacy

Iynx, you have a talent for building intrigue. 🙂 Well done! -Dacy

Cool on the art in the campaign! If you like to read...and I suspect you do!...you would want to check out McMaster Bujold's books. She has written both fantasy and sci-fi, and the book I referred to is sci-fi. Her books are extremely well written (she can put more layers of meaning into one concise sentence than anyone I've seen), her characters are intriguing, complex, and also very well written, and overall, I just love her books. The portrait of Hour Thief reminded me of Miles Vorkosigan not so much in the uniform, altho Miles would also be wearing a uniform, but in attitude. Miles is one of my all time favorite characters. He's the only son of a high ranking noble family, but he was born with very brittle bones that have caused stunted growth and deformities on a planet where physical perfection is the only acceptable option, for reasons she covers but I won't go into here. This puts him in the position of having a lot to prove..to himself, perhaps, but definitely to the world he lives in. Fortunately, he's also brilliant, which is how he manages the situations he finds himself in. The book with the cover (now has a different cover, but that's good, because overall, the artist apparently hadn't read the book...) is the first book I read of the series, and it's where I recommend you start, if you wish to read: The Warrior's Apprentice. She is very adept at drama, but often adds in subtle humor that has frequently made me laugh out loud. Ah, man, now I want to go on a tangent of books I've loved... 🙂 but I won't. Do you have a link to your book? Is it COH related, or not really related? -Dacy

You cannot access the AH from either inside of a mission or from inside of a base,, since a base map is treated by the program like a mission map Unless they make the AH available inside of a mission (unlikely), I don't think it will ever be available inside of a base. Never was, due to the programming. It'd be convenient, but I don't it's considered "broken", and so it won't be "fixed". 🙂 -Dacy

I love the atmosphere you get into your art! Sort of hazy in places, really nice. 🙂 Your Hour Thief reminds me a bit of the first cover art of one of Lois McMaster Bujold's books on Miles Vorkosigan...only better. I love the drawing of the ..slug? underwater...the water is just perfect. -Dacy

Try the bases topic; many guides already written. -Dacy

Emmy is right, the limit is 18 total for all storage type containers. You can delete your base by moving the storage containers to the entry room (the delete won't work if there is a storage container with anything in it in the room), and deleting all other rooms. You can also edit the base plot any time you wish; you can even make it the same one, just re-positioned. But the "delete room" is the closest thing there is to a base wipe. Emmy is also right in that you can get everything you need for a functional base into a very compact area. Here are pictures of a base I'm working on. While I'm working in the big room, I've set up the entry plus a small connected room which houses everything a base can have in way of services. NPCs, looking back towards entrance Teleporters (you can size them much smaller) Medical, with entry in back for distance comparison: A look towards the workshop, with mission computer and Ouros to the right side: Work area: Nothing too fancy, but also nothing too dull. I simply used the base coloring to help add interest, and then added a very few visual extras, and made the storage area neater with my put-it-behind-the-wall approach. I did dress up the medical area a bit, but all in all, it did not take me long to do this. Now they have a functional base while I work on the big showy part of it. -Dacy

It came to my attention that there were a couple of details that were relevant to building above or below that I covered in separate videos. So, for those who aren't necessarily viewing all, here's a bit more complete guide to building above or below the base. This video includes everything from consideration of lighting, and choosing the plot and room, to opening the ceiling, moving the base portal, laying down things like grass or water so they don't flicker, the commands you'll need if you're moving the portal so that you can edit from anywhere, and further demonstration of what to do once you've got that first floor tile laid where you want to build. I hope this helps! -Dacy

Newest addition, a more complete guide to building above and below the base, including a look at issues like things to consider when deciding where to build, opening the ceiling, moving the portal, laying down grass or water without flicker, and more demonstration on what to do after you've laid that first floor plate where you want to build. I hope this helps! -Dacy