Techwright

I may understand a bit better now. Playing a character for which you literally only use 2 buttons, one control, one attack, might be exciting briefly, but monotony would kick in pretty quickly.

SEASON FINALE: Episode 9 NOTE: If you've not seen it yet, there is a tag scene in this one, the only one in the season. Just watched this, and found it a heap o' fun. I should have made popcorn. I'm sure I could get nitpicky on some details, but I would only point out two. First, if you've been reading the background of the series, you'll know there was to have been a 10th episode, but it is delayed until season 2. I wish this sequence of events had not happened, because a lot from that episode affects the season finale. The finale is still quite watchable, however, and there's nothing one cannot come up to speed on quickly. To see details of what I understand that missing episode to be see here below. Note that there are significant spoilers for the season finale in the description: The second detail I wish to point out is:

Anything in particular that you've seen that glaringly needs updating?

Hmm, I suppose I could see that, but that affected all tanks. I gathered from what he was saying it was specific to fire tanks. I had a fire tank back then, but he was a third-stringer, and I'd not have noticed anything major specific to the breed. I did notice the "dumpster-herding" nerf on my other tanks.

I'll not be using it, but I'd very much like to one day see this one running around Paragon City in a duo with an owl-theme character called Hootie. 😉

I was introduced yesterday to a gentleman with whom I will possibly work going forward and was delighted to learn he's an old school City of Heroes player. He played until "they nerfed the fire tanks". We didn't have time to talk of it more, but I'm curious what major nerfing of fire tanks occurred. I'm assuming major, as it drove him from the game. And if the community can pin down what it was, has it been altered since, possibly in Homecoming?

At least its not the original years when there could be a room full of Sorcs. I still shutter remembering the big room a PUG I was on stumbled into with Sorcs everywhere. Took us less-experienced players hours to clear that mess. Quants were pretty nasty back then, too. Now, its more like "who just turned a tanning lamp on me?"

Yes, some of us are unfortunately effected by the eternal night, even a virtual kind. Kind of like anti-vampires I guess.

I don't like them or hate them. The ones that figure out they should be porting behind the hero lines harrying any who are trying to heal: those have a modicum of my grudging respect.

When did you started playing CoX? Was it before or after the game shut down? Tell me a little about how you met the game. I started playing either right before or during the first Winter Event. January 2005, I think it was. I was introduced to the game by my best friend who had played console and coin-op games with me since we were at least 10 years old. (That would have been around 25 years by then.) Have you played the game before the shut down in 2012? If the answer is yes, tell me about how you feel about the game’s “Death”. What was that experience like? Yes, as mentioned I started around January 2005. I'd left the game twice during the original run, each time to transfer monthly payments to other MMO games. I last left in 2011, I think it was, and was playing the long-standing beta of Firefall. That game had been bought and the new owners were deliberately spiraling it into the ground. I was thinking of returning to the City of Heroes when I learned it had just shut down. I was shocked, and remorseful that I'd left. At the time, I was observing that games that managed to survive their first two years seemed to be running for a very long time and I'd assumed CoX would have as well. Naturally, with that conclusion, I'd always assumed I could rejoin the game. And when the game returned in 2019? What did you felt? Was it like a “Homecoming”? A coworker who played other games heard the news and shared it with my in May 2019. I remember shouting at him "NO WAY!" in raw excitement, startling my other coworkers. I wasn't really focused on my work the rest of the day, and raced home afterwards to find Homecoming and figure out how to install it. Hearing those dulcet notes of first the login screen and then the Atlas Park theme just about had me in tears. Seeing so many running around Atlas Park, knowing I wouldn't have trouble finding teams just added to the excitement. It was indeed like a Homecoming. What was the first thing you did after playing the game for the first time in years? The first thing I did was create reserve characters with all my favorite old characters' names. I then went back and replaced each placeholder character with the final character recreating name, powers, and costume. What are your thoughts on the return of the servers? Did you brought something with you from the original server? (Avatars, builds, things like that) As I mentioned, I brought back my favorite characters, of which there were several. As to the "return of the servers", one of the things that surprised me was how smooth everything was. The advancements in server technology, network technology, and personal computers resulted in a much better performance rate, far closer to what I think the original development team had intended. I knew immediately that the best test for that would be a Rikti invasion, which in the old days reduced the video to more of a slide show than a smooth game. I went through my first Rikti invasion without any noticeable slowdown and was greatly impressed. Do you like to play with a specific character? (can be more than one) If yes, what makes it so special to you? I have 5 or 6 favorite characters that I play more than others. I think what makes them special is that they feel more powerful than the others, and I feel more connected to their functions: using their powers becomes second nature to me. Additionally, I feel more connected to them if their concept, both costume and story feels fully developed, like something that might end up in a published comic book. Usually, these also receive several compliments from other players, which tends to make me work harder to enrich those characters in even better design.

I'm hoping for the change promised last year to be back this year:

Solo for the stories, in my case. If it was just to run up XP, I'd be doing radio missions. Though I prefer to PUG everything (the only game I prefer pugging), the team format generally just does not leave times to read the story.

thanks

Had issues this Saturday morning with the Brickstown Prison Break event. The opening sequence would count up to 12 prisoners apprehended, then freeze and no more prisoners would be present. With a deficit of 8 on the counter, the event didn't advance to the next stage. @GM Impervium kindly assisted, resetting the event, and even shutting down Brickstown 1 in favor of Brickstown 2, but the scenario played out again each time. I should have counted, and didn't, but I got the impression that there were enough prisoners initially, but that perhaps the counter was not counting each one that was apprehended.

Message: Pre-built Windows 11 computers will be mandated to have a security feature, VBS, active. This has been tested and shown to reduce gaming performance by 25%, some up to 28%. Source (and greater description): https://www.pcgamer.com/windows-11-pcs-can-hobble-gaming-performance/ I'm curious to see how this will affect, if at all, Homecoming. "Curious" being the equivalent, of course, to "can't tear my gaze from the train wreck as it happens."

So the Praetorian counterpart of the P2W vendor has different text? If so, curious. Because the P2W covers mutual exclusivity, calling it a "shared cooldown". EDIT: Oh, and since I brought it up, some of the other P2W stuff could use a brief description. One example would be the vanity travel powers like Void Skiff and Rocket Board. It just gives their name. It doesn't say their maximum speed, and more importantly, it says nothing about being unable to combat while riding them.

Robotech_Master in 2019's P2W guide wrote: "Renewal of Light includes a flashy animation effect and a PBAoE blast that knocks back and disorients enemies around you. Return to Battle just lets you get back up, but applies five max-size Inspirations to you, the same as leveling up does." (emphasis mine) I'm probably not the only one who has stood in front of the P2W vendor trying to figure out which of these is the best fit for my character and failing because P2W doesn't include a function description for each. Would it be possible to add a very brief function description on each please?

Oh, my...it's Rabbit-foot Ralphie the Pink Pooka!

comic book lore-wise there might be reasons for the snug fit, besides showing off your gym results. Skin-smooth fabric means less loose folds of cloth for a melee opponent to grab (of course, wearing it while wearing a pony tail kind of defeats the effect). It also probably reduces friction/drag for flyers and superjumpers, and leaves no open neck lines or pockets of fabric for acid and corrosives to get into. Any onesies I'm given better not come with those pajama footies. Hated those when I was a little scrapper. They were hot!

And the turf is coastal in a state that hurricanes do hit. There's just no winning with that insurance.

Do you recall if either discussed the history of Talos and the island, something that might clarify the dates?

Wait, wait, wait.... let me finish making popcorn first. This ought to be good.

Always thought anti-grav grapples would have made an excellent travel power. Think Spider-Man web shooters, but instead of webbing, a thin, high tensile wire shoots out with a cylindrical anti-grav piece on the end that shoots out to a point then holds position mid-air (no need for walls), allowing swinging below, and turns off the anti-grav and retracts the wire when the other wrist-borne wire is extended. Perfect for "web slinging" over Talos Harbor, or anywhere else there are no buildings to web to. Also a flying segway, drawing inspiration from the travel device used by DC comics Orion: