Red Tomax Presents: The Dev Digest http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/ en Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:00:01 GMT dave@nofuture.org.uk (David Parker) Charity D&D Game, Friday 10.17 http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12194567
Bid on a seat at a charity D&D game run by Positron.

That's right, Friday night before Hero-Con I will be running D&D for the charity Scare for a cure.

There are 6 seats available to play, and you really should bring your own dice (people are weird sometimes when it comes to loaning dice). The game is being held at the same hotel as Hero Con. It will use the 4th Edition D&D rules, and characters are being provided.

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Positron
Lead Designer, City of Heroes

Original Forum Post

]]> positron@ncsoft.com (Positron) http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12194567 Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:20:00 GMT Re: Shield Screenshots (and costume pieces) http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12193033 Quote:

Heh, I don't think anyone would have known it was off if you hadn't said something. Personally, I love the size



It's just a bit off. Check out the Female's version of it to see how it's supposed to fit into the projector.

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Senior Animator/Visual Effects Artist
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Call us lazy or stupid...welcome to ignore. Don't blow your opportunity to be heard.
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*****

Original Forum Post

]]> backalleybrawler@ncsoft.com (BackAlleyBrawler) http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12193033 Sat, 11 Oct 2008 02:10:00 GMT Re: Madness? THIS. IS. PARAGOOON http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12192981 RED SAUCE ON PASTA!

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Senior Animator/Visual Effects Artist
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Call us lazy or stupid...welcome to ignore. Don't blow your opportunity to be heard.
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*****

Original Forum Post

]]> backalleybrawler@ncsoft.com (BackAlleyBrawler) http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12192981 Sat, 11 Oct 2008 01:56:00 GMT Re: Who loves shields? http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12192325 Quote:

IIRC, you just need to be anything that doesn't 'occupy' both hands with a seperate costume bit (ie: No Dual Blades, or Katana). They did mention specifically tweaking a few sets (including Stone Melee) to work with Shields. Not sure if they carried through on that, though.. >>

I'd like to know, personally.



Yes. The only sets that cannot be used with Shields are those with a 'weapon' in or on the left hand. For practical purposes this would be Dual Blades, Katana, Claws, & Spines.

Sets like Super Strength, Martial Arts, Energy Melee, Dark melee, etc have alternative animations that range from being as simple as adjusting the left arm to completely re-animating the power. Stone Melee's Stone Mallet powers use some of the one handed animations of Battle Axe and War Mace.

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Senior Animator/Visual Effects Artist
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Call us lazy or stupid...welcome to ignore. Don't blow your opportunity to be heard.
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*****

Original Forum Post

]]> backalleybrawler@ncsoft.com (BackAlleyBrawler) http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12192325 Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:13:00 GMT Re: For issue 15 I'm BEGGING YOU! http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12192053 Quote:

Items of Power... you know what... at this point I dont even care about the buff, I just want to run that Cathedral of Pain trial with my SG/VG. CoV came out two years ago, how long does this thing take to finish. By the time they get it "done" the next Duke Nukem game will be released!



Cathedral of Pain is intrinsicly tied to Items of Power. Items of Power are intrinsicly tied to Base Raids. Base Raids are intrinsicly tied to PvP.

Any thoughts on why PvP is getting attention in this issue?

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Senior Animator/Visual Effects Artist
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Call us lazy or stupid...welcome to ignore. Don't blow your opportunity to be heard.
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*****

Original Forum Post

]]> backalleybrawler@ncsoft.com (BackAlleyBrawler) http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12192053 Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:38:00 GMT Re: Shield Screenshots (and costume pieces) http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12191739 Quote:

Someone from the EU boards contacted be and asked me to upload a video of the combat activation for the Talsorian Shield, since they can't even log into the character creator for Test. So... here it is. Not the greatest quality, but you get the idea.

Talsorian Activation



Ugh...kill it with fire and remake it once it has the right sized energy dome on there.

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Senior Animator/Visual Effects Artist
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Call us lazy or stupid...welcome to ignore. Don't blow your opportunity to be heard.
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*****

Original Forum Post

]]> backalleybrawler@ncsoft.com (BackAlleyBrawler) http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12191739 Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:00:00 GMT Re: So, PVP-only effects on powers... http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12191219 Quote:

2. I don't assume I necessarily know why a change was made. Castle is The Powers Guy not The Powers God. He answers to people, and the development team at NC-whatever is still small enough that everyone seems to get some input into lots of things. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Jay gets a vote on whether total focus should be nerfed (although, when he votes, since no one can tell what the heck he's trying to say, his vote often counts less than Castle's does). In particular, Castle answers to Positron, and the Producer, and his girlfriend, in ascending order. I fall slightly lower than BaB's paper boy, and you all fall slightly below that. With all of those competing voices, its usually a waste of energy to find out *ultimate* reasons for things. Proximate reasons are fine. Ultimate reasons might be beyond your pay scale.



I don't have a paperboy, but if I did you would definitely rank higher on the scale. You certainly rank higher than I do. I've got lots of opinions about things (as pretty much anyone in the studio will attest), but I trust people to do their own job and make their own decisions. I like to be heard...not obeyed. Very rarely grumble about a decision contrary to my own personal opinion (or so I think anyway)

We get a lot of PMs on a daily basis, and for some reasons people seem to think that because I post a lot I'm more likely to answer every PM about any topic sent to me. Sometimes I just don't have the time to respond and then forget about it, sometimes I'm not comfortable giving the answer you're looking for, and sometimes it's about something that's outside of my department (I generally try to direct you guys to the right person, but don't always have time.

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Senior Animator/Visual Effects Artist
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Call us lazy or stupid...welcome to ignore. Don't blow your opportunity to be heard.
------------------------------------------------
*****

Original Forum Post

]]> backalleybrawler@ncsoft.com (BackAlleyBrawler) http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12191219 Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:41:00 GMT Re: So, PVP-only effects on powers... http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12190049 Looks like my PVP Changes post won't be 'til next week. I've written it, but there are a few points that need to be cleaned up or expanded upon. So, I'm waiting for the others involved to give me their feedback so I incorporate it.

Unless I get lucky and it all shows up in my in box in the next 10 minutes!

EDIT: Grammar fix!

Edited by Castle (10/10/08 07:29 PM)

Original Forum Post

]]> castle@ncsoft.com (Castle) http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12190049 Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:27:00 GMT Re: So, PVP-only effects on powers... http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12186035 Quote:

Quote:

Quote:

The only advice I can give to any PvPers that end up in the closed beta is this: don't spend time telling the devs how wrong they got it: they already *know* there are many aspects of it they probably didn't get right. Focus on telling them why its wrong and what might fix it. You probably have a greater opportunity to affect the mechanics of PvP play than at any other time before, and possibly will ever have at any other time in the future. Use it as efficiently as possible.



good advice. Let me ask you something:

In your experience, when you test/make suggestions to the devlopers, are they short and sweet, for example: Look at X because Y happened. Or do you make detailed reports (Similar to Lab reports in the science field)?



It depends on the situation. There's no point in PMing Castle a ten page report on the fact that Flight now detoggles Unyielding. But there is a benefit to explaining why you think no one will ever use flares in PvP ever again.

Off the top of my head, here are ten helpful handy rules for PMing the devs. Castle in this case, because its powers related, so its by default going to be all his fault. No one is going to be PMing Positron to complain about the recharge of reconstruction, I'll bet.


1. Articulating an opinion of the competency of the devs is a bad way to start

I.e. Castle you yutz you broke the damage of blaze? Are you stupid, or just drunk?

If you can't follow rule one, its a waste of time to read any of the other rules.


2. I don't assume I necessarily know why a change was made. Castle is The Powers Guy not The Powers God. He answers to people, and the development team at NC-whatever is still small enough that everyone seems to get some input into lots of things. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Jay gets a vote on whether total focus should be nerfed (although, when he votes, since no one can tell what the heck he's trying to say, his vote often counts less than Castle's does). In particular, Castle answers to Positron, and the Producer, and his girlfriend, in ascending order. I fall slightly lower than BaB's paper boy, and you all fall slightly below that. With all of those competing voices, its usually a waste of energy to find out *ultimate* reasons for things. Proximate reasons are fine. Ultimate reasons might be beyond your pay scale.

Acceptable: Castle, was there a specific result you intended to achieve by increasing blaster damage by 9000%? Was it to be able to one-shot a tanker through unstoppable, or is there another reason why that level of damage was specifically needed?

No way: Castle why do you insist on making blasters the only viable archetype in PvP? Explain yourself.


3. Testing is good. Numbers are good. Testing with numbers is better.

I.e. Castle, I just tested Blind, and I two-shotted a Defender with it. That doesn't seem right, so I did some calculations and based on the current numbers in the game, it seems Blind when buffed by assault and boosted by containment does 9000 points of damage. I believe there is a decimal error there.


4. Don't say what Castle did. Say what you're going to do with it (especially for PvP). Even better: say what you *did* do with it.

Bad: Castle, you broke TP foe. You made it usable on civilians. What were you thinking when you did that?

Good: Castle, now that TP Foe is usable on civilians, my friend and I just practiced a strategy where we can bury a scrapper in NPCs until they can't move, then caltrop them to death. That seems wrong.


5. Be conservative. Ask for the minimum necessary to solve the issue. Do not use one problem to ask for something totally different.

I.e. Castle, hot feet now seems to slow my movement more than before, and it appears to be slightly unbalanced in PvP. I think fire manipulation needs to be improved. I propose adding fulcrum shift to fire manipulation.


6. Never mention the words "game-breaking" unless you just did. Never say something isn't game-breaking as a positive. That's like saying you didn't destroy the Earth today, and want a medal.

I.e. Castle, if blasters can buff their damage 100% with Build Up, Defenders should be able to buff their damage 100% with assault. Defenders have lower damage anyway so its not game-breaking.


7. The more detail the better, but Castle has a detail limit in PMs. If you are going to post a ten thousand word analysis of why Boxing now does too much damage in PvP, its better to post it in a (closed beta) thread, and point him to it.

Its better for three reasons: Castle won't have time to read it all in one go as a PM but can refer to it as a posted thread (and clear his PM box), Castle won't have time to verify a billion calculations and will want more eyeballs reviewing it before he trusts it, and Castle may want to ask other players publicly to reproduce your conclusions with in-game testing, which is easier to do in a public thread.


8. The devs love spreadsheets. Personally, if I had to use Excel all day long in my actual job, I would shoot anyone that sent me one, but Castle is weird that way. And if it has pretty colors and pulldowns, that helps too. No, actually I'm not joking.


9. One major observation per PM or post. Two at most if they are related.

Exception: litany list of related problems. And those are probably best posted as a thread.


10. Don't assume if the devs don't respond, its because they are not listening. Castle only replies to about 75% of my actual suggestions (as opposed to back and forth stuff), and I follow all my own rules. And sometimes, he'll respond a week later. And occasionally, he never responds but I see a public post that is basically responsive to what I asked. The more likely it is that you just asked him a question that fifty other players likely just did, the less likely you'll get a direct response. I still haven't gotten a response back to a question I asked him about the total focus change. But I knew that one going in: Castle probably blitzed about a thousand questions on TF that week. Impressive, when you know the PM limit is 500.

And sometimes, he doesn't respond because he is in the middle of changing the actual answer to the question:

Me: Castle, I notice that Resist Energies now buffs range. Is that intentional?

Two weeks later...

Patch Notes:

All passive resistance powers now buff the range of all melee attacks. This is to allow them to be more usable in PvP against ranged attackers, and less lolMelee.

Sometimes, he doesn't answer because he can't answer. But I'm convinced he's listening even if he can't. Unless you called him a yutz.



I hate quoting huge posts for only a short comment; it seems rude and wasteful. Probably a throwback to my 2400bps modem days or something.

In any case, this is all EXCELLENT advice and a great outline of rules to follow for when PMing me (or other DEVs.) #9 is interesting, because there are certain people who PM me frequently who violate this, yet I still try to read and respond to their full list. This is because I've dealt with them many times in the past and trust their feedback and input. Sending a huge laundry list of issues is NOT a great way to introduce yourself to me, though -- posts like that I tend to glance at and store for later perusal, and frequently 'later' becomes 'never' when a problem crops up and my attention gets sucked away for days or weeks at a time. Ask Luminara about the half responses she's gotten back from me...I'm positive more than once, I've forgotten to even finish the post before sending it off to deal with something!

In any case, great rules to follow.

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Psyclone Jack
Hallucinating Hack
Thinks Donna Reed
Eats dollar bills
Goldfoot machine
Creates another fiend
So Beautiful,
They make you kill

Original Forum Post

]]> castle@ncsoft.com (Castle) http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12186035 Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:42:00 GMT Re: Discussion - Dev Diary: Designing Day Jobs Feature http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12183707 Quote:

How does the counter work? If I am logged out for 8 hours do I get a 1/3 of a day credit, or do I need to be logged out the full day. I assume it's the first



The counter is based on seconds, so every second you are logged out you are getting credit.

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Positron
Lead Designer, City of Heroes

Original Forum Post

]]> positron@ncsoft.com (Positron) http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12183707 Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:33:00 GMT Re: Discussion - Dev Diary: Designing Day Jobs Fea http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12183621 Quote:

Quote:

Quote:

i remember seeing some where that the day job badges were linked to costumes



Day job badges are NOT linked to costumes.

The day job related costumes are free, unlocked at the start, content in Issue 13.

And the 30 days is what we are initially going with. The values may change in beta.



Positron the thirty days is cumulative and not consecutive right?

Poison Pill



Not consecutive.

You can log out for 6 days, play for a couple hours, then log out for 6 more days, and you will have 12 days progress towards your badge/accolade.

As for people worried that this won't get tested during Beta... you forget we have access to Mender Silos, Ouroboros, and the Pillar of Ice and Flame... we can manipulate time. It's a perk.

(For those who do get into beta, you will notice that the "Time to Earn" is DRAMATICALLY reduced, for exactly the reason of testing the rewards and badges. Around the time of Open Beta, the times will be restored to a far less accelerated state, and we can ensure those are working before we go to Live)

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Positron
Lead Designer, City of Heroes

Original Forum Post

]]> positron@ncsoft.com (Positron) http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12183621 Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:22:00 GMT Re: Discussion - Dev Diary: Designing Day Jobs Fea http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12177819 Quote:

i remember seeing some where that the day job badges were linked to costumes



Day job badges are NOT linked to costumes.

The day job related costumes are free, unlocked at the start, content in Issue 13.

And the 30 days is what we are initially going with. The values may change in beta.

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Positron
Lead Designer, City of Heroes

Original Forum Post

]]> positron@ncsoft.com (Positron) http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12177819 Thu, 9 Oct 2008 19:44:00 GMT Re: So, PVP-only effects on powers... http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12174635 Quote:

Did someone just admit to being in beta and not get smacked hard?



Nope. She's not in beta yet.

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Psyclone Jack
Hallucinating Hack
Thinks Donna Reed
Eats dollar bills
Goldfoot machine
Creates another fiend
So Beautiful,
They make you kill

Original Forum Post

]]> castle@ncsoft.com (Castle) http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12174635 Thu, 9 Oct 2008 15:38:00 GMT Re: Sheild Graphics Q/A. http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12174393 Quote:

Quote:

Before anyone asks, this doesn't mean Talsorian maces are immenent. The hardware required for projecting a stable energized deflection field using a monomolecular matrix is pretty bulky and unweildy.


Have you tried reversing the polarity of the neutron flow?



Huh? You're just talking techno-babble!

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Senior Animator/Visual Effects Artist
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Call us lazy or stupid...welcome to ignore. Don't blow your opportunity to be heard.
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*****

Original Forum Post

]]> backalleybrawler@ncsoft.com (BackAlleyBrawler) http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12174393 Thu, 9 Oct 2008 15:20:00 GMT Re: So, PVP-only effects on powers... http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12173139 Quote:

Quote:

Oh, and you don't actually know the way buffs work in this game. Not anymore.




I'd ask you to explain, but I'm guessing you've already said too much.



Not yet, but she's getting close.

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Psyclone Jack
Hallucinating Hack
Thinks Donna Reed
Eats dollar bills
Goldfoot machine
Creates another fiend
So Beautiful,
They make you kill

Original Forum Post

]]> castle@ncsoft.com (Castle) http://coh.nofuture.org.uk/digest/index.php?developer=1&post=12173139 Thu, 9 Oct 2008 13:40:00 GMT