Pattern Ghost

Re: What Have You Watched Recently?

Just finished Season 2 of The 4400. Getting interesting. Too bad they canceled it.

Just watched In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale with Jason Statham and a cast of well-known but not overly talented actors, directed by Uwe Boll. Overall, not terrible on props, costumes, sets. HORRIBLE dialog. Really bad acting except for Statham, who did the best he could with his bad lines. I don't know if I'd put this one all on the direction or on the script, but any director with half a brain wouldn't have shot that script, so it's a toss up. I can't say it's the worst fantasy movie I've seen, though.

Also watched 27 Dresses. I likes Katherine Heigl. Not terrible, not great.

You can kind of tell we get two at a time, one pick for me, one for my wife.

Re: EC's cannot have non-END powers!!!!

The "Firewoman" on the Spidey cartoon was Firestar, and her power was microwave generation.

I can only guess she used an aluminum costume to generate the flames. =P

Re: Decoupling Movement from Speed or Segement moviement

I think this has come up in the past, but I'd be at a loss to figure out what key words to search for since the forum search doesn't like three letter words. =(

The biggest problem to me in divorcing the two concepts is that Hero is very much a turn-based game (not "Turn," I'm talking about taking turns to go, not game terms breaking down units of time), and in any turn-based game, each player typically has a list of things they can do on their turn. In some games, they can do things on the other player's turn as well.

If you wanted to divorce movement and SPD, you'd basically be saying that movement is something it doesn't have to be your turn (phase) to do. In the case of Hero, you would also have to consider if it's something you want done on nobody's turn (segments between phases), which is probably the only way to do it with the variable SPD of characters. (That's assuming you want to keep SPD, and simply disconnect it from Movement.)

So, the first step would be to calculate the character's maximum movement per Segment.

Next, you would simply allow charcters to use their movement at any time during combat time, including off segments. But that sounds horribly broken to me. I think if the combatants are mainly melee, it would create some crazily long combats as people reposition (act) on phases that nobody can attack or use powers (every other act). That's a pretty huge change in the combat rules.

Now, it's less of a problem if you toss out the SPD chart altogether for combat and read the SPD chart as "Attacks/Actions per turn" like other, more abstract, games. Of course, that also has a pretty large impact on a lot of game rules too.

Re: Questions concerning Massacre (HD)

Who is Massacre?

Re: A Classic/Full Metal Alchemist Combine

Ok here is what I have so far for the Alchemy VPP. Anything in red means I am a bit unsure about whether or not I need it or am doing it correctly:

 

Active Points subject to change

 

100 Alchemetic Reactions Arsenal (VPP)

Can be changed as a 1/2 phase action (+1/2)

Charges (50 though I may drop it down to 30) (+1/2)

Charges can only be recovered in an Alchemy Laboratory (-1/4)

OAF (Surrounding Objects) (-1)

Only for Alchemy Spells (-1/2)

 

Total Control Cost: 36

 

How does it look?

 

 

 

Oh ok hehe

I think OAF (Surrounding Objects) looks a lot like what's been written up as OIF (Objects of Opportunity) in the past. I think the idea is that you can't really take away something that's going to be picked up on the fly and used up.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now?

Duffy, Rockferry.

New Welsh lass with a nice voice and sound. (Kind of jazz/soul thing. I'm not a music critic, so I just identify things by "like", "not like", "Mariah sCarey", "rap". It's usually a pretty accurate scale, though not good at identifying anything but rap, really.)

Re: There is some new art

http://www.champions-online.com/gallery/concept_art

Re: Ask Cryptic 5/2/2008

I'll be happy when they stop trying to cater to "specific endgames" and "encounter levels". When game designers stop looking at MMO's as 'Games' but instead looking at them as 'Worlds' and develop accordingly.

 

That would be nice.

Technically, I don't think they quite qualify for the status of "game" anyway. More like "toy," same as something like SimCity or the Sims.

Re: Ask Cryptic 5/2/2008

I would actually argue that in many cases it doesn't work. The need to get a specifically-aligned group of 5 characters together to run instances (or whatever) certainly does more to ruin my fun playing WoW than just about anything in the game. IMO it's poor game design, though I agree it's kind of ingrained in the designers' minds at this point.

Well, it does work for boss encounters, from the design standpoint if not the social standpoint. It's just the easiest model to follow for doing them. That doesn't mean the end encounter of a scenario always has to be one big boss that can one shot everyone except the high mitigation guy with a healer on him, either. Why not track down a super group and take on a five vs five (or however many the group size is) fight instead? Having every group encounter use a boss mob is the bigger issue. Having a boss mob require a tank and healer to take down is the easiest design route.

If there were alternate means of taking down a boss type target, then people would simply find the most efficient group composition for that fight and demand only certain player types for missions. You'd have the same problem, it just may be a debuffer you're waiting on instead of a tank or healer, for example. If you make boss encounters that any group composition can handle, then you run the risk of watering things down. It's not easy to offer true flexibility in a large boss fight and keep the difficulty level high enough to present a challenge.

One of the things that most intrigues me about COMMO is Jack's statement (I'm paraphrasing here) that "anyone will be able to tank." If Cryptic can pull that off, hopefully other MMO designers will follow suit. It will be groundbreaking, and every other MMO will need to follow suit. Sitting in the Looking For Group channel for hours listening to an endless litany of "looking for tank" and "looking for healer" will, thank the gods of gaming, become a thing of the past.

Creating more tanks doesn't solve the tank problem. The job requires concentration, situational awareness, and the willingness to take a load of crap off of your group (at least in a pick up group) for any failure. It's a high stress job for many people. Even if everyone's a tank, you won't find many people willing to step up and fill the role in the group. You also still have the problem that some archetype or build is going to be recognized as the most optimal for the tanking role, and a lot of people will demand that character type over others.

Now, if he's talking about eliminating the need for tanks through some creative encounter design, then that's a different matter. I'm not sure what his statement will look like implemented, though. Too early to tell at this point.

Even better would be scaleable instances/encounters that can be run with any number of people so I don't have to be so damn dependent on other people in my quest to get X item of loot to drop from Y boss. But sadly that's just a pipe dream of mine; AFAIK no one's even thinking about trying to program a game like that.

EQ2 actually has scalable instances that can be done solo or with smaller groups. Tabula Rasa, I think, has scalable instances (saw mention of it in a beta tester's notes, but no idea of the live game).

If WoW took some of the grind out of alternate gear advancement, they'd have a good thing going. They need to lower the honor requirements on the PVP gear and the badge requirements on the badge gear a bit, IMO. They did a good job reducing the rep grind, now if they just reduced the other grinds by a bit, they'd be a lot more casual friendly.

Jack has said the game will be solo friendly in a couple of interviews now, so I'm holding out some hope for good solo or small group content.

Re: Ask Cryptic 5/2/2008

I like so much that Cryptic is using the traditional super-hero terms for archetypes like "bricks," "energy projector," "martial artists," etc. rather than the MMO terms of Tanks, DPS, healers, etc.

 

I find "traditional super-hero terms" to be an interesting expression. I'm not picking on this post particularly, sbarron, so sorry if it seems like I'm singling you out, but the terminology subject has popped up here and there since the Champs Online board went live.

As far as I know, the terms we Hero gamers use for describing superhero archetypes originated with Champions material, and have only been used to describe character types in regards to an RPG. I've never seen any literature about comics or from comics companies use this terminology, and don't recall any non-RPG playing comics fans using these terms.

I could be wrong, and would love to see examples of the terms outside of a Hero/Champions context, b/c I'm just curious about it.

But, given that it's just our terminology for breaking down archetypes -- and a good one in my opinion -- does that make it the default "correct" way to speak of characters?

I'd love to see a MMO successfully break away from the EQ trinity of tank/healer/dps, but that model has been copied so often precisely because it works. It makes it possible to design encounters that require a group to take down a single, impressive target.

Perhaps CO could move the emphasis of end game grouping away from that dragon slaying model and to more many on many encounters versus villain groups instead of a single archvillain, (while still having some AV or big monster content), or have more problem-solving or investigative missions, perhaps requiring a team to pool their non-combat resources.

If CO doesn't break the holy trinity of tank/heals/dps (and if they follow CoH's model, add in /debuffer), then yeah, you're going to be seeing people looking for a tank, heals, dps not a specific archetype.

It may not sound in-genre, but a group role does not necessarily have to be tied to one archetype. Sure, most Bricks will probably be tanks and most tanks will probably be Bricks, but there may be offensive brick builds who don't hold aggro so well, and defensive Energy Projector or Martial Artist builds that can hold aggro and take enough damage to tank certain content. You might build an Energy Projector with good healing capability, and be able to fill either a DPS role or a Healing role.

But, I wouldn't expect people to adopt archetypes over group roles in trying to fill groups. Archetypes define how you do stuff, group role labels define what you do.

Re: Alternate Universe: No Industry, No Guns

All bets are off' date=' then. I still think the whales would've been toast without the discovery of a cheaper alternative to whale oil. [/quote']

 

Two words: Whale Ranches!

 

Aleutian whale ranchers become one of the wealthiest cartels on the planet, until other oceanic cultures learn their techniques and follow suit. Eventually, there is an abundance of cheap whale oil, meat and other whale byproduct available the world over.*

 

Supply and demand.

 

Note: This also helps alleviate the oxygen shortage caused by deforestation: Massive kelp farms are required to raise the whales properly, thus bringing up the level of plant mass in the oceans.

 

*Relatively cheap: Transportation costs are likely to be high, as noted above, due to limitations on ship building.

Re: Storn Art from idea to Full Picture Year 5

Oh, I'd just like to add that I've enjoyed reading the entries posted since my last check on the thread. Some interesting background bits in a lot of them.

Re: Storn Art from idea to Full Picture Year 5

Any word on the Shard and Greyhound commissions? I'm guessing they're in queue still. Looking forward to seeing them, as well as whatever Storn picks from DT.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine

If you thought Parallax was bad... meet Big John.

After sucking all the juice out of the Central Power Battery, Big John is bursting with energy and ready to go on a rampage!

Ok... but this thing IS addictive. =P

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine

I think the guy on the right is the Green Yellow and Red Lantern.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine

I couldn't find any reference pics w/scales, so figured maybe that was a figment of my imagination =D

Use the Scales for his pants.. otherwise perfect.

 

Cheers

 

QM

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine

OK, I've come up with a totally NEW concept!

This is Underwater Breathing Man!

Yeah, baby! He can breath water, and swim real fast. And, hmm, maybe talk to fish... yeah, he can talk to fish.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine

Hmm, I think you may be right Hermit. Maybe another color scheme would work? Like black and silver? Or maybe I could make him into an energy being, like mono-blue or mono-red color scheme? That'd take care of the gloves problem nicely.

About the underwear on the outside... See, I had this crazy idea that he crash landed here on Earth after his home planet exploded. Obviously, the crash was so forceful that it shoved his underwear to the outside. He keeps wearing them on the outside to warn criminals about how tough he is, to survive such panty-bending forces!

You did catch me out on the cheesy spit curl and "S" logo... I was trying to go for some visual symmetry with the two shapes, but they don't really mean anything. I'd made up some hogwash back story that the "S" was really the house symbol of his family on...some planet. I couldn't really think of a name for the planet, or a real alien language, so I copped out with an "S" that "coincidentally" also stood for "Stupendous Man."

Ah, well, guess it's back to the drawing board!

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine

Here's an entirely original character I created, called Stupendous Man.

Re: So, what don't you like about HERO 5th?

Not much.

 

I disliked the changes to Regeneration, Damage Shield and Instant Change, so I run earlier editions versions. There are a few little things, but to be honest, nothing in the core gameplay.

Add to those the changes to Life Support, making it overly detailed. At the same time, not adding more Skills, refusing to add a little detail where needed.

Still nothing major, and a lot of positive changes were made too.

Re: Query's Art & Stuff Thread

I haven't popped in here in a while, very nice stuff you've posted! I especially like the flying ships in number 43 and the stained glass in the newer one. You've got a nice eye for background details.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine

Here's another of Marvin's characters, Maniple.

He's your basic mutie scumbag.... er... he's a misunderstood mutant with a heart of gold... yeah, that's the ticket...

He was one of the random rolled characters, with Blending (Chameleon type ability) and Probability Manipulation, along with decent strength and agility. He fought with two collapsible batons that could join into a full length staff. He was a lot more light hearted than Restorer and often joined in with pranks initiated by Harland against the team sponsor and the base staff.

Marvin had one other really cool character (my favorite of his), but the generator can't do it due to the non human shape. That was Robotron, a scientist (and a bit of a gruff jerk) who became melded with his robot lab assistant. Robotron had a dome shaped "head" that came down to two flaring shoulders. He had a cylon (old school) type red light that sort of zoomed around a sensor array track in the dome in a creepy way, two guns that popped out of his shoulders on swivel turrets, providing 360 degree coverage, as well as a HUGE plasma beam generator in his chest (what the heck was this guy doing in the lab that his assistant had such armament? He ain't telling.), and a vast array of sensory powers. Of course, he was pretty heavily armored and strong as well. Comic book robots HAVE to have super strength. It's in the Comic Book Robot Union rules. Needless, to say, Robotron utterly fascinated Bill. Here we have a human trapped in a robot, and a robot trying to be human. Great RP material. Great irritation to Robotron who was mentally scarred over his condition to say the least. Having Bill point out the up sides to robotic life didn't help much, either. =P

The Lone Star Avengers were rounded out by a non adventuring blind telekinetic scientist, Michael, a seriously stupid electric blaster, Bolt (his player never provided any description to work with... the stupid aspect wasn't exactly RP), and an unmemorable teleporting mutant played by an equally dull player. The main GM had a PC he whipped out for when someone else was GMing, but I can't remember the character's name because he seldom played it. He was an American Indian with eagle wings and claws. I think he was a mutant, but took his powers as a spiritual gift rather than an excuse for excess angst. I don't think the generator can do that one quite yet, so Maniple here rounds out the team basically.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine

Here's the Restorer. While he did work on old cars, his name had something to do with restoring his family's honor, IIRC. He was played by my buddy Marvin.

His costume was inspired by Booster Gold with Spider-Man eye lenses. He was a typical power armor type, with flight, force fields, life support, sensors, and a NND OAF pistol that was his main attack besides super strength brawling.

He was the team's leader and often played straight man to Harland's and Bill's antics. Fun times.

EDIT: Re-did this one, didn't quite like the old one.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine

Here I did Bob Tiger using both systems. This new one won't let me put a tail on him.

 

[ATTACH]27437[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]27438[/ATTACH]

Well, as it's still under development, I have good news for you! If you're patient. If you're not... oh well. =P

There's a non-functioning option at the bottom left, "Cauda," which translates to "tail." So, looks like the creator plans to put some in at some point.

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine

Another of the Lonestar Avengers, this is Ice Maiden, Harland's love interest in the campaign. She's got, you guessed it, ice powers! Harland didn't mind that she was a dirty mutie, either.

Her personality was the polar opposite of Sunbeam's fiery temper (both played by the co-GM/GM's wife). She was always a bit of a fish out of water if stuff came to blows in combat, due to her very sweet personality. She was played as an innocent, kind of like some appearances of DC's Ice.