Logan D

I've not yet read any of his Star Wars novels. I'm going to have to hunt them down now. It's on my to-do list now. I'd say what Liaden did, but he said it all better than me. He was a huge influence in my gaming life. His name on a book was a guarantee it was going to be good. And that guarantee never ever failed. I just want to add... I was a huge fan of his Doc SIdhe books. And I always hoped he'd get around to writing a 3rd one. Now it'll never be. DAMNIT. Multiple fandoms have lost a friend, a guru, and a mentor. I'm feeling just gutpunched over this. I met Aaron a couple of times at Dallas cons and he was incredibly gracious. His wit was incredible. His puns were ATROCIOUS (And thus, awesome). He was the Hoopiest of Froods.

Re: Curious about your view on the current state of CO. (Anybody still play regularly Oh good. Nice to see there wasn't some out of game emergency or something that curtailed you from posting on the forums. Always did like your postings on the lore thread. Though I can guess that could get old eventually. (I posted as "Aariny" at the time - with the Gatchaman themed icon. That is - before today, when they nuked the forums, and our identities, and our character web pages... *sigh*) The questionite thing annoys me. Just as the Dilithium currency in STO annoys me. They are both currencies that allow you to buy rare things. Why not call it by the name of a CURRENCY rather than an in-game element that's supposed to be rare? In STO it could have been called Latinum. They already HAD latinum in the game, and now it's pretty much useless for anything. In Champions... I'm not sure. But they are pretty straight-forward about calling specific influence pips with Primus and Until as "tokens". Why not just go that literal? PWE's decision-making is just STRANGE. I get the sense that they keep trying to bend these games into the Asian style grind format. And I just think they STILL haven't figured out that that format doesn't work very well in the western market. Anyway, I just treat them as currencies and ignore any attempt to tie it to the game world. Except where it directly intersects. As an example - Recently in STO they introduced a dilithium mining mini-game. Now THAT I'll do, because it is an interaction that makes sense. I won't do it more than occasionally. But as a gathering activity it's no worse than mining was in WOW. And hey - it's ASTEROID mining! In a spacesuit! Which is actually kinda cool. As for Gravitar... You have a point. When she was first introduced she was kinda Paris Hilton with superpowers. I was thinking more about her later mentions such as in Mechanon, Book of the Machine Champions: News of the World, where she seemed to have grown up somewhat. As for wanting to bitchslap Gravitar... well I'll let you know how that feels when it happens. So far it's been nothing but her bitchslapping whole teams. I have yet to be on a successful run. And I got sick of it damn quick. If something is impossible, I won't play it. I don't play games to get frustrated over and over again.

So I'm wondering. Are the changes made by PWE to the Champions Online causing frustration to the point where people from here who played are leaving or curtailing their time in the game? I'm still playing, but I notice that a lot of old regulars don't seem to be around anymore. I also noticed that Lord Liaden stopped posting in the lore thread months ago. Anybody know what's up with that? Is he ok? I know that I'm not really happy with the way that PW is handling the region blocking and the "genericcing" of the forums in both STO and CO. The alert systems can be fun. But they're also very repetitive and grindy after a while and not very friendly to the lore of the IP. Speaking of Lore continuity - WHAT CONTINUITY? In fact - what lore? They have this MOUNTAIN of lore they could use to expand the game world and they do practically nothing with it. Or outright ignore it. *sigh* The region blocking doesn't affect me. And the forums will go on, but it won't look as nice and there will be less personality to them. Hopefully the build guides will still be accessible. So I'm not suggesting that I'm not still having fun. Or that the game is "dying". But... You have to wonder what's up when the vast majority of the devs are moved to Neverwinter Nights or Star Trek Online and the latest "perk" for lifetime subscribers is to be given beta access to NWN... I mean... (flat) what. I still love the game. I want it to do well. The character creator is STILL hands down the most robust of any MMO I can think of. The combat is still fun. There's still a community there and RP to be found. (though not supported by the devs, apparently, and in some cases actively stomped on - thanks for removing locations like the dojo (arms store) from the game where people actually used it for RP as well as it's original function. *shakes head sadly* Way to support your players, devs... ) But man, I don't know about all these changes. And PWE... damn... Can I just say the unthinkable, here? I can hardly believe it myself, but... I'm starting to miss Atari.

Re: Who died in the 'Who Will Die ?' story arc Actually they have now replaced Statesman and Sister Psyche where they were standing in the open world giving missions. So yes - technically there is no Statesman Task Force or Sister Psyche's Task Force anymore. (though the old Task Forces - and badges! - can still be accessed through the Ouroboros Time portal zone.) What WAS the Statesman Task Force is now given by Ms. Liberty. It's more or less the same Task Force (but called something different now, with a few minor detail points changed. I can't recall the name off the top of my head at the moment.) (Which is a touch odd since she's now standing in Atlas as a trainer but ALSO in Independence Port as a Task Force contact. But that's hardly the weirdest thing I've ever seen in an MMO. All the Task Force givers were ALSO standing in Base Trident as well. *shrug* It's basically assumed that when you're looking at an NPC in one location in the game that they just aren't at the other location. Magic time-bending MMO bendy wendy timey wimey...) Sister Psyche's Task Force has been completely replaced. Penelope Yin is now aged a couple of years and is now a legal adult and the youngest member of the Freedom Phalanx in Sister Psyche's place. (And I have to say - her costume is VERY COOL.) As a Task Force contact she now gives out the Penelope Yin Task Force, which awards a badge and counts toward the Freedom Phalanx TF Commander badge in the same manner that the old Sister Psyche Task Force did. It's actually a MUCH tighter, and more fun task force. It runs fast, has good plot elements. And it actually is a follow-up to the events of the old Sister Psyche Task Force. Just to re-iterate - the old Task Forces that were handed out by Statesman and SP can still be run from the Ouroboros system. I imagine there was a few months of lead time between the time that Statesman and SP died and the time they were removed from the game in order to give players every opportunity to tie up loose ends and run the task forces before they were officially removed. I know my supergroup ran the Statesman and Sister Psyche TFs several times in the final week before the change-over. Mostly with our newer characters in order to get the badges and all. And as a final "goodbye". Usually events in City of Heroes seem to have that kind of delay. As in - there will be some major event, but it will be the NEXT issue release of the game where the actual effects are made permanent in the game world. Time is strange in MMOs. Lunch time doubly so. There's been some speculation that Matt Miller was removing the last vestiges of Jack Emmert from the game, since Statesman and Sister Psyche were both characters that he created personally. But that logic tends to fail when you realize that the characters still exist as elements of the history of the game world and you can still see them and access their missions through Ouroboros. In other words - they were not "Stalinized" from the game the way that the 5th Column originally were back in 2005. There's been further speculation (and fan requests) to have prominent statues of Statesman and Sister Psyche as part of new Zone revamps further down the line. They're talking very seriously right now about revamping Kings Row and it's a given that Steel Canyon will be updated to the newer, shinier look. In Blyde's Square, where Positron and Valkyrie hang out, there is an ENORMOUS statue there of some unknown hero with goggles. That same character design as a statue appears in Peregrine Island and the (former) Galaxy City. Perhaps that statue could be replaced with one of Statesman or Sister Psyche? (Or both?) Anyway - nothing concrete there (rim-shot!) just speculation.

Re: List Your CO Heroes! I have been (with a few nitpicks here and there) been rather impressed with CO since about this time last year. Even more so since F2P began. So I've involved myself more in the game. I still don't play it as much as City of Heroes. But it is at least competing more seriously for my time these days. So I have some new characters to show off. In some cases I have multiple costumes for the same character I'd like to share. And a few... wacky concepts. Let's start with one of the wackier ones, eh? I Present to you - Gentleman Scientist "Now, I know what you're thinking, old boy. 'Did he fire for six seconds, or only five?' Well, to be perfectly frank, in all the kerfuffle I've quite lost track myself, what? But bearing in mind that this is a Manmelter 3600ZX, the most powerful handgun in the Empire, and would reduce your entire body mass to free carbon and hydrogen with the slightest pressure of my forefinger upon the trigger mechanism, you're behooved to ask yourself one question: 'Am I feeling fortunate?' Well? Are you, dear chap?" "Back off, you miscreant! I'm a SCIENTIST!" Gentleman Scientist is most definitely modeled on Nikola Tesla for his general look. With a few extra add-ons and such. This was made well before either the Tesla OR Steampunk packs were added to the game. But he really doesn't need either of them!

Re: Champions Online - Cue Dead Parrot Sketch! Walking is a standard Keybind. But it's not automatically included. Go to options - Keybinds, and find the Walk command and link it to a key of your choice. Then walking is easy. But it's not a toggle. You have to hold down that key while moving in order to walk.

Re: List Your CO Heroes! Oh and speaking of bios, I'm actually kinda proud of the one I came up with for Vectra. It's a shout out to Transformers, while never actually using the words "Transformers" "Cybertron", "Optimus Prime", "Autobot", or "Decepticon". Yet I think there's no QUESTION about what she is when you read it. And she's speaking to the reader directly as well. And all of that within the limited character allowances of the in-game bio screen.

Re: List Your CO Heroes! Shotgun Mary is just plain fun. From her thumbnail origin that I wrote in-game: "One of the Snake-Gulch robots that escaped the VIPER re-programming, Mary wanted to travel to Millenium City to help out. Dr. Tyrell Donaldson gave her his blessing and a synthskin face to more easily fit in." I was stuck for what travel power to give her. But then I decided to go with the silliest thing I could think of, given what she is. ROCKET JUMP! A Robot Cowgirl with twin pistols and a shotgun, and rockets in her feet, bounding over the landscape of the Southwest Desert. So, um, yeah. (And Cat 5 Ballou sounds fun. )

Re: Champions Online - Cue Dead Parrot Sketch! Well! I must say I'm impressed. It appears they are listening. I'm cautiously optimistic. But I'd like to see actions as well as words. Still - even the initial changing of VB to free content and owning up to the mistakes made already is huge. (And those screenshots are awesome!) I'm not quite ready to eat crow just yet. But I'm surveying the menu for appetizers.

Re: List Your CO Heroes! (Moved from another thread since this area is more appropriate)

Re: Champions Online - Cue Dead Parrot Sketch! Cogent points all. I like many of the things you mention here. Let's just say - I hope I'm wrong and that I get to eat some finely cooked crow. I would like for the game to succeed and do well.

Re: Champions Online - Cue Dead Parrot Sketch!

Re: Champions Online - Cue Dead Parrot Sketch! Well one would HOPE that'd be the case. But they already have their NEXT MMO in the pipe, so... *shrug*

Re: Champions Online - Cue Dead Parrot Sketch! Point taken. I suppose I COULD defend my statement on the grounds that I PERSONALLY had never played those games, therefore I would still have been correct in saying that I MYSELF had never PERSONALLY seen a FUBAR of that magnitude, but that would be stretching a technical point to cover for my hyperbole. In any event. *Ahem* I posted about this in another board, and a friend who played CO and has moved on to STO had this to say: So, yeah. Point taken. Lesson learned. The devil is in the details and as much in what is NOT said as what IS said. The devil himself would be proud of Cryptic. That's some first class leading on by omission, there.

Re: Champions Online - Cue Dead Parrot Sketch! I'd like to think they'll turn this around and make things right. But apparently, according to this poster here - http://forums.champions-online.com/showpost.php?p=1466959&postcount=18 -they are doing many of the same things with Star Trek Online. One MORE thing for you to consider: Take a close look at Atari's statement of their business strategy: http://corporate.atari.com/infogramesgb/2007/04/strategy_1.php I present it with no further comments. Just read it and interpret it. I'd be interested to see if you came to the same conclusions I did.