jubakumbi

The FF MMO - probably got the number wrong. I played WoW as well back in the day, not brand loyalty for me, I just prefer table top for fantasy, TBH. I have been spoiled MMO-wise since CoH came out...it has what I want...I have played pretty much all MMOs at one point or another...

Thread merge.

I still boggle at the fact so many people have such powerful nostalgia goggles that it was actually made. IMO, FFIV blows WoW out of the water, so 'going back' to an older version holds no attraction.

I think you are right on the money (pun intended). This thing does not take much to keep alive and there are plenty with cash in hand to insure that, so these virtual worlds should be here a while. TBH, my biggest interest now resides in seeing how the population fares when some of the supers games in progress make it to retail... Will we gain or lose population? ... I can see arguments for both... Life is interesting.

The content locusts and end game players Never really liked CoH. They were around, some visited a lot, but this game was never based around progressive raiding and the like, it has always been a haven for people that like making new characters a lot. Now, with the progression where it is, we can make those characters and realize thier potential as fast or as slow as we desire. 'Young" has little to so with it IME - I see 50's and 20's play fast and slow. 'Caught up n the buzz' and 'peer pressure' have a ton to do with these issues though. People that 'just have to be where the other people are' will always flock to AAA games. CoH fills the same niche it did on Retail live, IMO. This game is a big coloring book for the kid in all of us and therefore can be used to speed though with an aitbrush or taken slowly using the dot technique. I prefer this to having code based roadblocks, even if some people cannot find it fun to slow themselves down without code blocks.

35 years of troubleshooting code (Law Enforcement and CIvilian) tells me all you have is some anacdotal evidence. IMO, you have convinced yourself there is something wrong in the code and until you personally take the time to learn code or have a close trusted person do so (not influenced by Big Money because that is Evil it seems) your outlook wiil not change. Your continued attacks on the very types statistical analysis that were likely used to create the very things you mainatained is just very odd, IMO. Obviously, someone somewhere used numbers in a fashion that has made you think statstics are inherently Evil, something about a big boss making bas choices IIRC. You are bascially saying all of the gathered evidence avialabe on how the code performs in this game is irrellevent, all the time gathering them is irrelevent, and that anyone who trie to use statstics has already failed, when, if fact, this is how code is tested. I am preaching nothing, rationalizing nothing - funny you use rationalize as an insult - I am simply presenting the data we have at hand. Based upon my 35 years of code experience (every level) the data we have suggested there is nothing in the code other than a an RNG that simulates random about as well as other. Now, if you are actually claiming that there is "math is done badly/wrong in the attack sequence code", that is a totally different issue, but is also backup up by the same arguments, because tests (of actual large meaningful datasets) have shown the results to be in the ranges intended. If, like a poster above, you simply think the way the numbers are derived is broken somewhere, OK, but the same evidence we have from testing results shows that if this is the case, the end result still provides the percentages intended by the system. You have stated you would not know how to look at the code, you won't trust anyone else, so you just enjoy your PoV I guess.

The server runners already noted the overall population has leveled off and declined, to a lesser extent than they expected at the time. For a personal note, I play less, just like I would in a retail game...I play as it suits me again, not out of some frantic need to make sure I get to play before it goes away again...that mood has passed and changed into a more normal MMO playstyle, for me. Now CoH is just another game in the list, it gets played when I feel like it...I imagine I am not alone on this.

Hard to judge those things with only our anecdotal evidence....but an intersting topic to be sure. IMO, most of the Heroes in the City are grey at best anyway. I have tried a few times to make a character that is intended to be more of a 'normal'. They don't tend to 'grab me' as much so far...

This is the crux of the whole issue with players talking about anecdotal evidence in all games all the time. Humans seek patterns and if they don't find them to thier liking, they start making them up...it's what we do, it's a built-in mechanism to make sure we don't go insane with worry about the animals the might be right over that hill hunting us. The outright denial of evidence and facts that we don't feel are correct is one of our greatest super-powers as humans. Just look at the number of technologists that work with code and statistics on a daily basis who still wear the 'right shirt' on game day so 'thier' team will win... The mind is a terrible thing. 🙂

But then what would we actually _do_? 😉

There was a lawsuit, blah blah blah....against companies that are in no way currently involved for things that rely on revenue and proof of intent. Do people really go out of their way so much in life to look for things to be afraid of that they need their entertainment to be full of fear? If anyone actually thinks that making a trademarked character in this game is going to some way 'bring down the man on us all', I have some oceanfront property in Colorado for ya'. Such FUD is just silly at this point. TBH, I am just glad this FUD is mostly contained on the forums with the exception of the Hall Monitors in game that have decide to make more work for the GMs.

The only way to prove the system works is to use it and test it and look at the statistics - that's how testing works. No matter how much you look at the code, testing it still based in confirming that statistically it is doing what is intended. The system is WAI from every test the community can find or has done. Honestly, It seems like until someone you trust as a code auditor walks you through the code line by line and tells you it's "OK", you will not be 'satisfied'...good luck with that...

So, because we disagree based on past experience, we are now somehow 'forum defenders'? Holy Moly. We presented the data we have - that Every Single Time this is brought up and someone has done _any_ research, code or otherwise, it has always seemed clean. And this makes us somehow dismissive of your PoV? Really? Ugh. This poloraized 'agree or woe-is-me' is just too much these days... All of the data, and tests, and code checks that we know of point the conclusion there is no problem. Beyond that, what is it you expect to hear from the community, really?

You like rigorous testing results, and that is fine, they make me happy as well. This is a game, not something that has to be testing as if it supports human life. 🙂 For me, it really is just that simple. This is not medical code, banking code, or guideance system code, it is just a game. I prefer the creative over the rigously tested in this case. Games are simply not made in the same way as 'control code'.

I spent a large portion of my career wrangling such code - a system that had been built and tweaked for more than 20 years (still in production now at about 28 years). It's Fun, let me tell ya'! We talked about like this - think of a big house that been worked on for 50 years by multiple onwers. You are now asked to run a new electric socket to one of the bedrooms, but it cannot touch or cross over any of the others that have been added or the house will burn down...and it needs to be using 'more modern technology', so a totally different set of inspection codes will get used...yeah...fun times!

I have been fighting this fight for about 40 years, TBH. The creatives that try to shame other people for not making original characters are some of the worst to me, right there with Rules Lawyers and Hall Monitors. If it brings someone joy to be the Hulk for a while, then let them be. Could be a kid learning, could be a special needs person who really needs that expressive outlet, could just be an old nerd like me that likes the Avengers. Let them be who they want to be in thier playtime and stop trying to shame them for not being creative enough. It's like me demaning that no one should be allowed to play that cannot write the damn game code!

And that was answered just a few posts above...it's been done. If you want to look at it, you can go get it as well. Just 'stubbornly' requesting others confirm it does not do much for me. 🙂 This is issue has gne on for years, in all MMOs I have _ever_ played. Humans are convinced there _must_ be a pattern. If you do even a cursory Google search on computer randomness at scale, you will find all the data you need, IMO.

Characters made on this server in this setting are bascially like players cosplaying. No one gets in trouble for dressing as Hulk on halloween. So sick of this FUD.

Thousands and thousands of rolls vs. the few we make in gaming seesion produces what we see in games. As an example, in IT, I see HDs fail all the time, yet everyone I have hired is always baffled because in thier consumer/normal lives, it does not happen often. Humans are pattern seeking creatures that basically detest random because there is no pattern and that pisses us off...

A game without an RNG is not a game worth playing, IMO. Random means Random, which includes all the odd stuff, like 5 natural 20's in a row. This game is already so easily exploited to make our characters powerful, clamping at 95% makes at least some impact on our immortality, I like it. The Universe is fickle, our characters play with the very nature of reality. Even the best Supers miss at times and it furthers the story. If it was all predictable, it would be so, so boring, IMO.

Don't play in fear. Play whatever you want, trademarked or not, don't let FUD stop your fun. Or, succumb to peer pressure and play like Big Borther is over your shoulder. We all have choices, some choose to stiffle others through shame and FUD. 🙂

My guess is at this stage you would be lucky to get any of them, the names of most supers are probably already being played...

"It was the same in NY too." The background given here could be written in numerous ways to have occurred anywhere in the world. I grew up in a very Scotch-Irish community myself. Good stories resonate the human condition, not the nationality of the character, IME. I love the new Star Trek movies, I love the Lord of the Rings movies, etc. New and different is refreshing and interesting to me...

Been a computer professional for years. 🙂 If you want to say, 'do not put things there, the AV programs will treat them differently', great, say that. 🙂 That was my point...fully explaining works IME to get people to have less ambiguous fear when they understand what is happening on their machines over ambiguous language that just makes people fear what is inside their machines...

See the retelling over the ages of the many gods, Camelot, Sherlock Holmes, and Fairy Tales. Elements of the stories always take on aspects of the teller and the times. Thus our creative output as humans is not stifled by some need to adhere to a rigid set of rules, thankfully. And, just to be clear, Han shot first.