Random Thoughts

[Caligula]

Oh yes.... hulu is a site I visit quite frequently...great site.
There is also another one that I use to watch movies (I've seen all the new movies in the theaters without going, for free), but I am only 90% sure it is legal, and it probably isn't. Since my history with this sort of thing isn't that spectacular, I'll not post the link so Necrite doesn't need to save the day again. :P haha

[nijineko]

i usually hit the dollar theater myself. ^^ or rent the movie, if i can't wait that long.

on the other hand, i've been catching up on all the old movies that are now in the public domain, which is not only free, but unquestioningly legal. =D the democracy player has quite a few, and there are other sites out there. just do a search for "public domain movies". watching all the old shadow flicks, for one. =D

[Necrite]

I need to apologize to all of you. I've been distracted, and paying little attention to this site - or much of anything else - lately, and have let a lot of things slide over the last week. So now, I've got some work to do to catch up on all the messages that I've had left for me here.

Shameless plug time: Last weekend, I spent pretty much every waking second playing City of Heroes, because it was double XP weekend. I don't really have any excuse for not being here during my work week though, since I have internet access while I'm at work. Ignoring that - If any of you are interested in trying City of Heroes, send me a PM, and I'll hook you up with a trial account.

[nijineko]

heheheh. need mac version and internet access from home. ^^ someday, i'm sure. unless champions online lives up to its claims and blows coh away. ;D

but even then i'd still need a mac version and access.

[Necrite]

Champions Online is being made by the guy who ran City of Heroes into the ground, moved on to a different project, and then sold it when it didn't die.

Even if it didn't use hideous cell shading, I wouldn't touch it.

[nijineko]

perhaps you should let the folks over in the supers sub-forum know that. ^^ it might have some bearing on their enthusiasm. =D i'm indifferent, especially considering my current situation. i'm perfectly happy roleplaying online with the folks here.

[Necrite]

I'm sure anyone who's interested in Champions Online knows who Jack Emmert is, and his association with City of Heroes. If they don't, 2 minutes of the CO forums will bring up SOMETHING CoH related.

[nijineko]

interesting. is it true what i've heard about coh "nerfing all the really cool powers"? and just how many powers do they allow, anyway? i never managed to get that korean version char-gen working, at least not yet. ^^

[Necrite]

The big nerfs were ED and GDN.

ED - Enhancement Diversification
An enhancement is a non-tangible boost in the effectiveness of a power, be it damage, range, etc. Each power can have up to 6 enhancement slots. Prior to ED, any enhancement put in these slots had full effect. Afterwards, enhancement beyond a certain point triggered very severe diminishing returns.

GDN - Global Defense Nerf
Certain builds found themselves to get their Defense and Resistance so high that they were literally untouchable - people were soloing Archvillains that were +10 levels to themselves, and so on. (AVs are meant for teams, not solo) With GDN, almost all Defense powers were cut in half in effectiveness.

Also, around the same time, a few changes were made to prevent "Herding"
1- All AoE powers were given a target cap. It is impossible to hit more targets than the cap with a single power.
2- Players were given aggro caps. Even with taunt powers, you could not hold the attention of more than a certain number of enemies at once, unless there is nothing else for them to aggro on.
3- NPCs and Critters were given collision detection, preventing them from overlapping.

Prior to this, the tank would taunt EVERYTHING on the mission map, herd it into a corner, ignore the damage, and then the blaster would nuke, killing the entire map with one hit, and giving the entire team scads of XP.

Don't get me wrong. These nerfs were needed. But Jack just walked in, slashed everything, and refused to give any explanation beyond "I said so".

Jack also was hesitant to buff any powers. Balance is made by nerfs, not buffs.

He publicly claimed that bringing objectives and missions in the Hollows (a large zone that is entirely experienced before you get a travel power) closer together would reduce he amount of content in the game (ie spending 30 minutes running from one mission to another, and probably being jumped and killed by huge spawns of difficult enemies, while getting neither reward nor character advancement is content).

He also adamantly refused to do a variety of things the playerbase asked for, stating that it was impossible. Many of these things have been done since he left. Many others make up the list of promises he makes about CO. Some of the things he promises for CO, he promised for CoH before its launch, didn't include and later said were impossible.

Basically, he's a politician: He makes the promises that pull people in, then once he wins, he does the bad stuff while denying he did it, instead of explaining why he did, and then when things have gone too far, he jumps ship and lets someone else clean up his mess.

[nijineko]

sounds like an american ceo.

[nijineko]

moving day is tomorrow! so i'll be offline for a week at least, unless the stops along the way have free wifi. i don't know how long it'll be before i get access again. but if i have to drop by the local library or restaurant for wifi, i will. =D